DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
View Events Video Library
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Integrating PostgreSQL Databases with ANF: Join this workshop to learn how to create a PostgreSQL server using Instaclustr’s managed service

Mobile Database Essentials: Assess data needs, storage requirements, and more when leveraging databases for cloud and edge applications.

Monitoring and Observability for LLMs: Datadog and Google Cloud discuss how to achieve optimal AI model performance.

Automated Testing: The latest on architecture, TDD, and the benefits of AI and low-code tools.

Related

  • Understanding RDS Costs
  • Getting Started With Postgres: Three Free and Easy Ways
  • SQL Server to Postgres Database Migration
  • Kubernetes Evolution: Transitioning from etcd to Distributed SQL

Trending

  • Snowflake vs. Data Bricks: Compete To Create the Best Cloud Data Platform
  • Leveraging FastAPI for Building Secure and High-Performance Banking APIs
  • 16 K8s Worst Practices That Are Causing You Pain (Or Will Soon)
  • Vector Database: A Beginner's Guide
  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. Databases
  4. When PostgreSQL Doesn't Scale Well Enough

When PostgreSQL Doesn't Scale Well Enough

You might think you will hit your limits with standard databases pretty quickly, but you'll be surprised how far out those limits really are.

Chris Travers user avatar by
Chris Travers
·
Apr. 18, 16 · Opinion
Like (10)
Save
Tweet
Share
12.43K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free
The largest database I have ever worked on will eventually, it looks like, be moved off PostgreSQL. The reason is that PostgreSQL doesn't scale well enough. I am writing here, however, because the limitations are so extreme that it ought to give plenty of ammunition for those who think databases don't scale.

The current database size is 10TB and doubling every year. The main portions of the application have no natural partition criteria.  The largest table currently is 5TB and is the fastest growing portion of the application.

10TB is quite manageable. 20TB will still be manageable. By 40TB, we will need a bigger server. But in 5 years, we will be at 320 TB, and so the future does not look very good for staying with PostgreSQL.

I looked at Postgres-XL and that would be useful if we had good partitioning criteria but that is not the case here.

But how many cases are there like this? Not too many.


EDIT:  It seems I was misunderstood. This is not complaining that PostgreSQL doesn't scale well. It is about a case that is outside of all reasonable limits.
Part of the reason for writing this is that I hear people complain that the RDBMS model breaks down at 1TB which is hogwash. We are facing problems as we look towards 100TB. Additionally, I think that PostgreSQL would handle 100TB fine in many other cases, but not in ours. PostgreSQL at 10, 20, or 50TB is quite usable even in cases where big tables have no adequate partitioning limit (needed to avoid running out of page counters), and at 100TB in most other cases I would expect it to be a great database system. But the sorts of problems we will hit by 100TB will be compounded by the exponential growth of the data (figure within 8 years we expect to be at 1.3PB). So the only solution really is to move to a big data platform.

PostgreSQL

Published at DZone with permission of Chris Travers, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Understanding RDS Costs
  • Getting Started With Postgres: Three Free and Easy Ways
  • SQL Server to Postgres Database Migration
  • Kubernetes Evolution: Transitioning from etcd to Distributed SQL

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: