How We've Scaled Dropbox

Why HN readers recommended it

Recommended as a detailed, candid case study of scaling a real system from zero users to millions.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Stanford

Topic

scaling dropbox architecture

Format

talk

Level

intermediate

HN recommenders in dataset

5

HN mentions in dataset

8

Recommendation years in dataset

2014–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• I found the Dropbox lecture [1] at Stanford one of the most riveting things ever. There is just so much technology behind Dropbox, it is staggering. There is a reason why it is so much better than iCloud sync, Google Drive, Box or OneDrive. [1] …

• This is a talk about the evolution of Dropbox's architecture from 2012: [VIDEO] . It is incredibly detailed (down to the exact sql schema they use for file metadata etc).

• Applications dont really need to be well architected until they are hitting scale. Then the parts of their system that need to relieve pressure will need to be re-architected. This is almost like a case study and there are a lot of good talks on …