As a newcomer to the drupal world working for a startup developing a new database platform, I took on the task of building a database driver for the new database we are developing. In this session, I will share my experience with the database abstraction layer in Drupal 7 and what I learned while developing this database driver. I will also share some insights into what our new database platform, the Akiban Server, is capable of and show the results of benchmarks demonstrating performance of our database versus traditional databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

In particular, this session will cover:

* overall experience with the database abstraction layer in Drupal 7

* best resources for learning about the database abstraction layer

* how difficult it was to develop a new database driver for Drupal 7

* the biggest stumbling blocks encountered while developing the database driver

* overview of the new database driver developed for the Akiban Server

* benchmarks showing the benefits the Akiban Server brings to Drupal