A History of EVE Database Server Hardware

eveonline.com:

With millions of market transactions and hundreds of thousands of explosions every day, keeping New Eden running smoothly – and still setting records after nearly 20 years – is a monumental task. Like our players, we're constantly on the hunt to push boundaries. In the last two years, we've made significant changes to the hardware behind Tranquility, resulting in almost daily records for EVE downtime (among other things). But to see where we are, it's important to look at where we've been.

Back in 2005, only 2 years after launch, EVE was already setting records as a standout single-shard universe. New Eden was generating some 1,250 database calls per second which added up to over 60 million per day! As more players came online, the servers struggled to keep up. Game features were taking over 20 seconds to load, making everyday tasks in New Eden such as warping across the galaxy, completing market transactions at the new major market hub Jita 4-4, and upgrading your ship far more challenging.

The solution to ending this suffering came in the form of a Texas Memory Systems magic box that stored data on RAM chips. It didn't really make sense, cost a boat load of money, and promised the world. We were sold!

Within days of putting the new database servers and storage into production, we were breaking PCU records and EVE pilots were enjoying a much smoother gaming experience. Forums lit up with much happier Capsuleers, and suddenly the server could handle massive fleet battles of... 100v100 with ease. Oh, how times have changed!

Fast forward to 2009 and New Eden was still growing. Not only were there more players, but wormholes were discovered for the first time. The ecosystem was demanding more storage and the accumulation of