Aurora DSQL is a PostgreSQL-compatible distributed database that pays cross-region coordination cost exactly once — at commit — not per statement. This talk walks through the three architectural bets that make that work: per-transaction Firecracker isolation, optimistic concurrency control, and Amazon Time Sync. Then it traces a real multi-statement transaction end-to-end, showing what each millisecond of commit latency buys you and what drives P99 under contention.
Raluca Constantin is a Database Engineer at AWS, working on Amazon Aurora DSQL's distributed SQL solutions for cloud-native environments. With nearly two decades of database experience, including as an Oracle Certified Master, she specializes in solving complex scalability and multi-tenancy challenges. At AWS, she combines deep technical expertise with customer focus to implement cloud-native database solutions, while actively contributing to the technical community.
