I love the point about the Oplog.<p>There are a few equivalents for common SQL DBs (see LinkedIn&#x27;s Databus for Oracle and MySQL), but in general, getting access to the write log is really hard. Even though it&#x27;s sitting there!<p>It would be wonderful if there were some kind of established API or library that would let you parse the MySQL write log without doing hideous, fragile operations that change from version to version. Sure, change the format, but at least version and document it!