What is Elastic Schema™?

StatelyDB's Elastic Schema™ is the technology that makes breaking data model changes impossible. It is a version-aware schema system that allows your engineering teams to evolve your application's data model at any time, without coordinating deployments or risking downtime.

With Elastic Schema, every change creates a new, compatible version of your schema, while automatically preserving backwards and forwards compatibility for all existing applications. This turns your data layer from an innovation bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

The Schema Bottleneck

For most companies, the database has become the primary rate limiter for innovation. While competitors ship new features weekly, your teams are stuck in development hell, forced to slow down and treat every data model change with extreme caution to avoid breaking production applications.

Changing a data model manually is a complex, error-prone process that consumes engineering resources. A seemingly simple change, like altering a field's data type, requires a multi-step process:


This means:

1

Add the new field alongside the old one.

1

Add the new field alongside the old one.

2

Deploy application code that reads the old field but writes to both the old and new fields to maintain compatibility.

2

Deploy application code that reads the old field but writes to both the old and new fields to maintain compatibility.

3

Write and run a custom backfill program to migrate all historical records to the new format.

3

Write and run a custom backfill program to migrate all historical records to the new format.

4

Once all old application clients are deprecated, deploy new code that stops writing the old field.

4

Once all old application clients are deprecated, deploy new code that stops writing the old field.

5

Finally, run another program to remove the old field from every record to save storage space.

5

Finally, run another program to remove the old field from every record to save storage space.

This process is slow, expensive, and creates significant operational risk. A single mistake at any step can lead to data corruption or a production outage.

The Schema Bottleneck

For most companies, the database has become the primary rate limiter for innovation. While competitors ship new features weekly, your teams are stuck in development hell, forced to slow down and treat every data model change with extreme caution to avoid breaking production applications.

Changing a data model manually is a complex, error-prone process that consumes engineering resources. A seemingly simple change, like altering a field's data type, requires a multi-step process:


This means:

Add the new field alongside the old one.

Deploy application code that reads the old field but writes to both the old and new fields to maintain compatibility.

Write and run a custom backfill program to migrate all historical records to the new format.

Once all old application clients are deprecated, deploy new code that stops writing the old field.

Finally, run another program to remove the old field from every record to save storage space.

The Schema Bottleneck

For most companies, the database has become the primary rate limiter for innovation. While competitors ship new features weekly, your teams are stuck in development hell, forced to slow down and treat every data model change with extreme caution to avoid breaking production applications.

Changing a data model manually is a complex, error-prone process that consumes engineering resources. A seemingly simple change, like altering a field's data type, requires a multi-step process:


This means:

This process is slow, expensive, and creates significant operational risk. A single mistake at any step can lead to data corruption or a production outage.

How Elastic Schema™ Works

Elastic Schema makes data model changes safe, easy, and predictable by managing schema as a versioned, data-layer concern.

Instead of a single, rigid schema, StatelyDB maintains every version of your schema simultaneously. When you publish a change, StatelyDB doesn't perform a risky, "big-bang" migration. Instead, it creates a new version of the schema and understands how to translate data between the format on disk and the format any application version expects.

This means:

1

Existing applications continue to run flawlessly against older schema versions.

1

Existing applications continue to run flawlessly against older schema versions.

2

New applications can immediately use the new schema version without waiting for a migration to complete.

2

New applications can immediately use the new schema version without waiting for a migration to complete.

3

Backwards and forwards compatibility are guaranteed automatically, eliminating the need for complex application-layer logic to handle different data shapes.

3

Backwards and forwards compatibility are guaranteed automatically, eliminating the need for complex application-layer logic to handle different data shapes.

Because the database itself is responsible for handling these transformations, your application code becomes dramatically simpler. You just change the schema, generate new typed client code, and deploy when you're ready.

How Elastic Schema™ Works

Elastic Schema makes data model changes safe, easy, and predictable by managing schema as a versioned, data-layer concern.

Instead of a single, rigid schema, StatelyDB maintains every version of your schema simultaneously. When you publish a change, StatelyDB doesn't perform a risky, "big-bang" migration. Instead, it creates a new version of the schema and understands how to translate data between the format on disk and the format any application version expects.

This means:

Existing applications continue to run flawlessly against older schema versions.

New applications can immediately use the new schema version without waiting for a migration to complete.

Backwards and forwards compatibility are guaranteed automatically, eliminating the need for complex application-layer logic to handle different data shapes.

How Elastic Schema™ Works

Elastic Schema makes data model changes safe, easy, and predictable by managing schema as a versioned, data-layer concern.

Instead of a single, rigid schema, StatelyDB maintains every version of your schema simultaneously. When you publish a change, StatelyDB doesn't perform a risky, "big-bang" migration. Instead, it creates a new version of the schema and understands how to translate data between the format on disk and the format any application version expects.

This means:

Because the database itself is responsible for handling these transformations, your application code becomes dramatically simpler. You just change the schema, generate new typed client code, and deploy when you're ready.

Why Elastic Schema Matters

By fundamentally solving the schema evolution problem, Elastic Schema provides three core benefits that allow you to accelerate your roadmap while operating flawlessly.

1
Accelerate Development Velocity

Stop letting your database be a bottleneck for feature delivery. Elastic Schema empowers your teams to iterate rapidly, experiment aggressively, and ship features faster. By making data model changes a trivial operation, your engineers can focus on building customer value, not on managing database complexity.

1
Accelerate Development Velocity

Stop letting your database be a bottleneck for feature delivery. Elastic Schema empowers your teams to iterate rapidly, experiment aggressively, and ship features faster. By making data model changes a trivial operation, your engineers can focus on building customer value, not on managing database complexity.

2
Eliminate Operational Risk

Breaking changes become literally impossible. With Elastic Schema, deploying new features carries zero operational risk to existing applications. Migrations don’t cause table locks or downtime, and you can roll back a new version of your application safely, knowing it will work perfectly with the database schema it expects. This eliminates the risks that keep technology leaders awake at night, from production outages to vendor lock-in.

2
Eliminate Operational Risk

Breaking changes become literally impossible. With Elastic Schema, deploying new features carries zero operational risk to existing applications. Migrations don’t cause table locks or downtime, and you can roll back a new version of your application safely, knowing it will work perfectly with the database schema it expects. This eliminates the risks that keep technology leaders awake at night, from production outages to vendor lock-in.

3
fiscally-sound Control Costs

Eliminate the hidden operational and engineering overhead associated with both SQL and NoSQL databases. There is no more need for engineers to spend weeks writing custom migration code or for database administrators to schedule risky maintenance windows. With built-in schema versioning and data cataloging, you gain enterprise-grade governance and auditability, reducing compliance overhead and aligning costs with business growth, not technical debt.

3
fiscally-sound Control Costs

Eliminate the hidden operational and engineering overhead associated with both SQL and NoSQL databases. There is no more need for engineers to spend weeks writing custom migration code or for database administrators to schedule risky maintenance windows. With built-in schema versioning and data cataloging, you gain enterprise-grade governance and auditability, reducing compliance overhead and aligning costs with business growth, not technical debt.

Why Elastic Schema Matters

By fundamentally solving the schema evolution problem, Elastic Schema provides three core benefits that allow you to accelerate your roadmap while operating flawlessly.

Accelerate Development Velocity

Stop letting your database be a bottleneck for feature delivery. Elastic Schema empowers your teams to iterate rapidly, experiment aggressively, and ship features faster. By making data model changes a trivial operation, your engineers can focus on building customer value, not on managing database complexity.

Eliminate Operational Risk

Breaking changes become literally impossible. With Elastic Schema, deploying new features carries zero operational risk to existing applications. Migrations don’t cause table locks or downtime, and you can roll back a new version of your application safely, knowing it will work perfectly with the database schema it expects. This eliminates the risks that keep technology leaders awake at night, from production outages to vendor lock-in.

fiscally-sound Control Costs

Eliminate the hidden operational and engineering overhead associated with both SQL and NoSQL databases. There is no more need for engineers to spend weeks writing custom migration code or for database administrators to schedule risky maintenance windows. With built-in schema versioning and data cataloging, you gain enterprise-grade governance and auditability, reducing compliance overhead and aligning costs with business growth, not technical debt.

Why Elastic Schema Matters

By fundamentally solving the schema evolution problem, Elastic Schema provides three core benefits that allow you to accelerate your roadmap while operating flawlessly.

A Fundamentally Different Approach

Elastic Schema offers a superior model compared to both traditional relational and document databases.

More Than an ALTER TABLE

In SQL databases, a schema change like ALTER TABLE is a high-risk operation. It often locks the entire table, causing an application outage while it rewrites every single row. Most importantly, the change is immediate and destructive; any deployed code that expects the old schema will instantly break. Safely coordinating the deployment of new application code with the database change is notoriously complex and fragile.

More Than an ALTER TABLE

In SQL databases, a schema change like ALTER TABLE is a high-risk operation. It often locks the entire table, causing an application outage while it rewrites every single row. Most importantly, the change is immediate and destructive; any deployed code that expects the old schema will instantly break. Safely coordinating the deployment of new application code with the database change is notoriously complex and fragile.

Schema Safety, Not Schema Chaos

Most NoSQL databases like MongoDB claim to be "schemaless," but in reality, the schema is simply moved into your application code, where it becomes implicit and unmanaged. This approach creates significant technical debt and risk. Every schema change still risks breaking existing applications, but without any tooling to manage migrations or ensure compatibility. Elastic Schema provides the flexibility of NoSQL with the safety and governance of an enterprise-grade system.

Schema Safety, Not Schema Chaos

Most NoSQL databases like MongoDB claim to be "schemaless," but in reality, the schema is simply moved into your application code, where it becomes implicit and unmanaged. This approach creates significant technical debt and risk. Every schema change still risks breaking existing applications, but without any tooling to manage migrations or ensure compatibility. Elastic Schema provides the flexibility of NoSQL with the safety and governance of an enterprise-grade system.

A Fundamentally Different Approach

Elastic Schema offers a superior model compared to both traditional relational and document databases.

More Than an ALTER TABLE

In SQL databases, a schema change like ALTER TABLE is a high-risk operation. It often locks the entire table, causing an application outage while it rewrites every single row. Most importantly, the change is immediate and destructive; any deployed code that expects the old schema will instantly break. Safely coordinating the deployment of new application code with the database change is notoriously complex and fragile.

Schema Safety, Not Schema Chaos

Most NoSQL databases like MongoDB claim to be "schemaless," but in reality, the schema is simply moved into your application code, where it becomes implicit and unmanaged. This approach creates significant technical debt and risk. Every schema change still risks breaking existing applications, but without any tooling to manage migrations or ensure compatibility. Elastic Schema provides the flexibility of NoSQL with the safety and governance of an enterprise-grade system.

A Fundamentally Different Approach

Elastic Schema offers a superior model compared to both traditional relational and document databases.

No items found.

No items found.

No items found.

Stately Hosted

Ship Your Next Feature This Week

Experience the power of fearless development. Start building with Elastic Schema for free and see how simple schema evolution can be.

BYOC

Turn Your Data Into Your Competitive Edge

Ready to move fast without breaking things? Our experts can show you how Elastic Schema can de-risk your roadmap and accelerate your business.