Indeed.
Lots of examples out there, one being Let's Encrypt[1] who run off one MySQL server (with a few read replicas but only one write).
[1] https://letsencrypt.org/2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers...
It is an example. It shows you how you can run a service that issues a few hundred million SSL certs a year off relatively few pieces of hardware, i.e. no need to go drinking the cloud Kool aid.
There will never be a "perfect" example. The overall point here is demonstrating that the first answer to everything doesn't have to include the word "cloud".
> The database alone has multiple machines.
As I said, and the blog says ... there is only one writer. The other nodes are smaller read replicas.
Which again shows you don't need to go with the cloud buzzword-filled database services.
It can't just tolerate being down or having under-load issues like HN often is.
And what happens if that writer goes down. Then the service just stops.
> buzzword-filled
I love how your buzzwords e.g. read replicas are okay but everyone else's are bad.
"100 million certs a year" is only like ~3 certs a second. Maybe twice in peak. That's not much. And you're doing same error, focusing on one core feature and ignoring everything around it