What is HTAP?

This post defines HTAP databases, categorizes their architectures (shared-everything, shared-nothing, hybrid), and details their challenges such as mixed workload complexity, performance trade-offs, data model mismatch, scalability issues, resource contention, and maintenance complexity. It positions PlanetScale as an OLTP-optimized managed Vitess solution and recommends using specialized databases for distinct transactional and analytical workloads, along with data integration engines for ETL.