How Can I Set Up a Production-Ready MySQL Database with Docker Compose?

You're right that this is a broad topic—people have written books about running a production database! A few main points to consider are data encryption both at rest and in transit, as well as role-based access controls (RBAC) and a solid schema design. These factors are crucial for securing user data and performance.

Docker is simply a way to run your database. For production readiness, focus on best practices like isolating your database and app environments. Consider resilience and scaling—mixing them can lead to performance drawbacks. If your data is valuable, using a dedicated service like Google Cloud SQL or similar could save you a lot of trouble down the line.

Remember, Docker Compose mainly orchestrates your containers, so you should follow standard best practices. If you're handling a significant amount of data, you might want to consider using a managed cloud database instead of running it yourself in Docker. For typical web apps like WordPress, a Docker Compose setup is fine, but make sure to separate your database layer from the application runtime. This can prevent resource contention and scaling issues later on.