Why DBtune

Performance and stability get harder to maintain as PostgreSQL environments grow

As PostgreSQL environments grow in size, number and complexity, maintaining performance and stability requires increasing amounts of specialist attention, manual intervention and infrastructure.

PostgreSQL optimization gets more complex over time and as environments grow

PostgreSQL continues to become more configurable. The number of server parameters has grown linearly over time, while the number of possible configurations grows exponentially.

But configuration is only one part of the challenge. Workloads change, resource demands shift, indexes need to evolve and autovacuum health requires attention as environments grow.

More moving parts create more decisions about what to optimize, when to intervene and where optimization can have the greatest impact.

• There is no one-size-fits-all

  The right optimization depends on the workload, use case, machine and current state of the database. What works well in one PostgreSQL environment may not have the same impact in another.

• Optimization is not a one-time task

  Applications, data volumes, query mix, concurrency and infrastructure change over time. As PostgreSQL environments evolve, the areas that need attention - and the optimizations that have the greatest impact - change with them.

As environments grow, the operational burden grows with them

• Too much specialist effort

  Database performance management requires significant investigation, maintenance and optimization, consuming valuable team capacity.

• Infrastructure becomes the fallback

  Adding compute and storage often become the quickest way to protect performance and application SLAs, increasing infrastructure costs.

• Performance becomes harder to maintain

  As applications and data demands grow, maintaining the speed and responsiveness end-users expect becomes increasingly difficult.

Scaling a database fleet multiplies the work

As the number of PostgreSQL databases grows, performance management has to scale across more environments, workloads and infrastructure.

Repeating investigation and optimization across a growing fleet increases the demand on specialist teams.

Optimization also has to work in production

Improving PostgreSQL performance cannot come at the expense of ongoing operations.

Production environments introduce additional requirements around security, integration and operational continuity. Performance and stability improvements need coordination across database, DevOps and security teams, while changes need to avoid disruption to the applications relying on them.

Database performance and stability affects more than the database

Poor database performance and stability affects throughput and latency, scalability and application SLAs. This translates to negative business impact: poor end-user experience, downtime, and higher infrastructure spend.

• Excellent user experience

  Applications need to stay fast and responsive as PostgreSQL environments grow, delivering the experience your end-users expect.

• Team capacity

  Repetitive database optimization takes specialist capacity away from strategic priorities.

• Infrastructure value

  Adding infrastructure can create additional performance headroom, but also increases cost. Optimizing PostgreSQL helps teams get more from existing infrastructure.