Kakao Tech Discusses AI-Native Transformation with Google Cloud DB Lead Andi Gutmans

At Kakao Pangyo Azit, CTO Jung Kyu-don and Andi Gutmans, Head of Database at Google Cloud, held a tea time to discuss inflection points in IT technology and response strategies for the AI era. Gutmans is a web development pioneer who co-created PHP3 and PHP4 and currently leads Google Cloud's database business.

Past Challenges and the Open Source Spirit

Gutmans recalled his experience developing PHP3 during his university days in the 1990s, emphasizing that the open source community was the driving force behind Big Tech's growth. CTO Jung Kyu-don also shared his experience with component-based server development through Avalon, an open source project of the Apache Foundation, evaluating that a culture of knowledge sharing has advanced the developer ecosystem.

AI-Native Transformation Strategy

The two leaders diagnosed that a transition to AI native is essential, following the shift to mobile native. Gutmans emphasized that generative AI is a tool enabling all developers to build AI applications, and shared his experience of embedding AI across the organization through internal tools and a vision-setting team. He advised that it is important to show employees that AI does not replace work but reduces repetitive tasks such as writing boilerplate code, helping developers focus on more important matters like architecture.

Google Cloud Database Technology

Gutmans mentioned the need for legacy database migration and stored procedure support as the background for the launch of AlloyDB. While Spanner supports petabyte-scale transactions, it is not 100% compatible with PostgreSQL; therefore, AlloyDB was designed as a scale-up model that delivers high performance without requiring changes to existing PostgreSQL code.