# FoundationDB (Enterprise)

> Source: `src/content/docs/self-hosting/foundationdb.mdx`
> Canonical URL: https://rivet.dev/docs/self-hosting/foundationdb
> Description: FoundationDB is the recommended storage backend for scalable production Rivet deployments.

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FoundationDB requires an enterprise license. Contact [enterprise support](https://rivet.dev/sales) for setup guidance and access.

## Overview

FoundationDB is the recommended storage backend for scalable, production-ready Rivet deployments. It is a distributed, ordered key-value store originally built by Apple.

FoundationDB powers some of the largest infrastructure in the world:

- **Apple**: iCloud and other Apple services
- **Snowflake**: Cloud data platform metadata layer
- **Datadog**: Observability and monitoring platform
- **Tigris Data**: Globally distributed object storage

Its strict serializability guarantees, fault tolerance, and ability to scale linearly across nodes make it the ideal backend for Rivet's actor state and orchestration layer.

## Why FoundationDB

| | RocksDB (File System) | PostgreSQL | FoundationDB |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Scalability** | Single node | Primary/replica failover | Linear horizontal scaling |
| **Fault tolerance** | None | Primary/replica failover | Automatic recovery with no data loss |
| **Production readiness** | Development and small deployments | Experimental for multi-node | Battle-tested at global scale |

## Getting Started

FoundationDB configuration and cluster setup are handled as part of enterprise onboarding. Contact [enterprise support](https://rivet.dev/sales) to get started.

_Source doc path: /docs/self-hosting/foundationdb_
