The Stack Overflow Podcast Data is the new oil, and your database is the only way to extract it
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Feb 17, 2026 Shireesh Thota, Corporate VP of Azure Databases at Microsoft, oversees SQL Server, Cosmos DB, Postgres and Fabric. He walks through cloud database evolution and architectures. Topics include Cosmos DB internals and indexing, Postgres as an extensible platform, disaggregated designs like HorizonDB, cost governance and multi-cloud data strategies, and what AI and vector/RAG features mean for future databases.
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Disaggregated SQL Improves Scale And HA
- Azure SQL in the cloud disaggregates compute and storage to let each scale independently and improves durability and availability.
- This architecture enables zonal resilience, geo-distribution, and faster commit times via specialized log staging and caching.
Avoid Putting Everything In Memory
- Tune data modeling and indexes before relying on full in-memory datasets to control cost and performance.
- Use techniques like RBPEX and continual priming to reduce memory pressure and keep secondaries ready for failover.
Cosmos DB Targets Elastic, Geo-Distributed Apps
- Cosmos DB supports key-value and document workloads with tunable consistency and multi-region active-active deployment.
- It's optimized for elasticity, high availability, and schema flexibility for internet-scale user-facing apps.