Question 1

What is Lakebase

Accepted Answer

Lakebase is Databricks’ fully managed Postgres OLTP database that’s built into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. In practice, it gives you a low-latency, transactional store (think “app database”) that sits alongside your lakehouse analytics and AI workloads.

Question 2

What problem is Lakebase trying to solve vs a traditional lakehouse?

Accepted Answer

A traditional lakehouse is brilliant for analytics, but many teams still need a separate operational database for:
- application state (sessions, user prefs, workflow state)
- real-time writes/reads (transactions, events, task queues)
- agent/app backends that need millisecond responses

Question 3

Where does Lakebase sit in the Databricks stack?

Accepted Answer

It sits as an operational Postgres database capability within Databricks, designed to work alongside core lakehouse services (Delta, SQL, Workflows, AI), so operational data and analytics/AI pipelines can connect more directly.

Question 4

Is Lakebase product, pattern, or reference architecture?

Accepted Answer

Product. Lakebase is a managed Postgres OLTP offering delivered as part of the Databricks platform, intended to provide a supported transactional database option without you running and patching Postgres yourself.

Question 5

What use cases suit Lakebase best?

Accepted Answer

Best for app/agent state, workflow state, operational transactions, and real-time interactions that need fast reads/writes, while still keeping data close to Databricks analytics and AI for reporting, features, and serving use cases.

Lakebase Unpacked: Real-Time OLTP on the Databricks Lakehouse

Overview

Join Lakebase Unpacked!

Good to know

Location

Frequently asked questions

Organised by

Adelaide Databricks Users Group

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