PostgreSQL Logo: Unlocking Faster Read Performance with Optimized Reads

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) has introduced a new deployment option for PostgreSQL, called Optimized Reads, which can significantly improve read performance for workloads that rely heavily on temporary work areas. By choosing this option during instance creation or modifying the DB instance class of an existing RDS instance to the Optimized Reads instance class, Amazon RDS can automatically switch from using Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) to local storage provided by NVMe SSDs on underlying instances in Multi-AZ DB clusters.

Optimized Reads is designed to provide up to twice the read performance for workloads that require frequent sorting and grouping of data. This is particularly beneficial for operations that involve scanning through large datasets, such as fetching the top 10 most expensive orders from a sorted intermediate result set.

PostgreSQL, like other database systems, attempts to perform operations in memory for optimal performance. However, there are situations where it needs to use a temporary work area on disk. The Optimized Reads deployment option addresses this by utilizing local storage on purpose-built Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. This not only improves read capacity but also reduces write transaction latency and failover times.

The introduction of Multi-AZ DB clusters in March 2022 marked an important milestone for Amazon RDS, enabling high availability, load balancing, and replication for PostgreSQL deployments. With Optimized Reads, customers can further optimize their workloads by leveraging the benefits of local storage.

In conclusion, the new Optimized Reads deployment option for Amazon RDS offers significant performance improvements for PostgreSQL workloads that rely on temporary work areas. By choosing this option, customers can unlock faster read performance and reduce latency, making it an attractive choice for businesses that require high-performance database operations.

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