managed services Archives

Tech Optimizer

May 15, 2026

From commit to cloud: Powering what’s next for PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is widely used across various industries, supported by Microsoft through significant investments, including 345 commits to the latest release and a dedicated team of contributors. It is recognized for its ability to handle complex production challenges, such as transactional integrity and concurrency management. Microsoft operates PostgreSQL globally, informing upstream contributions based on real-world deployment experiences. The database is increasingly integrated into AI applications, with Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Azure HorizonDB focusing on AI functionalities. Microsoft offers multiple deployment models to accommodate different workload needs, including Azure Database for PostgreSQL for open-source workloads and Azure HorizonDB for cloud-native systems. Recent contributions from Microsoft include enhancements in asynchronous I/O, vacuum behavior, and query planning. Azure HorizonDB is designed for high-throughput, low-latency systems requiring horizontal scaling. Microsoft also invests in developer tools, such as a Visual Studio Code extension for PostgreSQL, and sponsors PostgreSQL conferences and user groups globally.

Tech Optimizer

May 8, 2026

CrowdStrike Falcon: What US Businesses Need to Know Right Now About the Security Platform

CrowdStrike Falcon is a cloud-native endpoint protection platform (EPP) and extended detection and response (XDR) solution used by many U.S. organizations to combat modern cyber threats such as ransomware and supply chain attacks. It utilizes behavioral analysis, machine learning, and real-time telemetry instead of traditional signature-based detection methods. Falcon features a lightweight agent that operates on various endpoints, collecting telemetry data for analysis. Key modules include Falcon Prevent for blocking malware, Falcon Insight for monitoring endpoint activity, and Falcon OverWatch for managed detection and response services. The platform also offers identity protection and cloud workload security, integrating telemetry from various environments for a comprehensive threat view. Falcon is particularly beneficial for medium to large-sized organizations with dedicated security teams and complex IT infrastructures. However, it may not be suitable for smaller businesses due to its licensing model and operational complexity. Its strengths include rapid deployment, scalability, and advanced detection capabilities, while its limitations involve reliance on proper configuration and cloud connectivity. Competitors include Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and SentinelOne. Organizations considering Falcon should evaluate their security needs, existing infrastructure, and budget, as well as the total cost of ownership.

Tech Optimizer

April 8, 2026

True enterprise sovereignty is more approachable than ever, thanks to K8s-powered cloud-neutral PostgreSQL

Discussions on digital sovereignty are shifting from infrastructure to databases, driven by geopolitical pressures in Europe. Hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft are investing heavily to comply with new regulations, prompting organizations to reconsider their reliance on managed cloud services. Many enterprises are now viewing PostgreSQL as a portable, cloud-neutral foundation to ensure consistent behavior across various environments, leading to interest in Sovereign DBaaS. Gabriele Bartolini, VP and Chief Architect of Kubernetes at EDB, emphasizes that true sovereignty starts with the database and that portability enhances negotiating leverage and compliance. Bartolini warns that while managed cloud services offer convenience, they often sacrifice control. He notes that transitioning away from these services can provide long-term leverage, as evidenced by Microsoft's encouragement for customers to run self-managed PostgreSQL. The Operator Pattern in Kubernetes enables better database management and lifecycle control, with CloudNativePG exemplifying this approach. Bartolini asserts that owning hardware allows organizations to better manage costs, especially for resource-intensive AI workloads, and that moving to bare metal can significantly enhance performance. A cultural shift is necessary for success, with DBAs needing to adapt to cloud-native environments. Bartolini encourages DBAs to develop a broader understanding of Kubernetes to enhance collaboration across teams. He warns that the database team cannot drive change alone and must align with the entire infrastructure direction to avoid dependency on proprietary tools that limit independence and innovation.

Tech Optimizer

February 14, 2026

PostgreSQL on Azure supercharged for AI

Over 80% of developers now incorporate AI tools into their workflows. PostgreSQL is preferred by 78.6% of developers engaged in AI and real-time applications. Microsoft has enhanced its PostgreSQL managed services to meet contemporary developer needs, contributing over 500 commits to the open-source project. The Azure Database for PostgreSQL supports both lift-and-shift and new open-source workloads, while the newly introduced Azure HorizonDB is designed for AI-native workloads. Developers can provision PostgreSQL instances directly from Visual Studio Code, and GitHub Copilot assists in writing and optimizing SQL queries. Azure Database for PostgreSQL facilitates integration with Microsoft Foundry for AI applications and supports high-performance similarity search with DiskANN vector indexing. PostgreSQL 18 is now available on Azure, offering enhanced performance and scalability. Nasdaq has modernized its Boardvantage platform using Azure Database for PostgreSQL and Microsoft Foundry to integrate AI for governance tasks. Azure HorizonDB is a fully managed PostgreSQL-compatible service designed for AI-native workloads, currently in private preview.

Tech Optimizer

January 3, 2026

Why AI Workloads Are Fueling a Move Back to Postgres

The database landscape has seen transformative shifts with the rise and fall of various technologies, leading to a resurgence in the adoption of PostgreSQL (Postgres) as a favored database system for modern AI applications. AI workloads have disrupted traditional managed database models, which were designed for predictable workloads, by introducing demands for high parallelism and continuous ingestion of large datasets. Engineering teams face challenges when scaling managed Postgres instances due to IOPS limits, throttling, and latency spikes. Major database vendors are emphasizing PostgreSQL compatibility, recognizing the need for a stable SQL system with strong transactional support. Despite its advantages, traditional managed database models present limitations, including reliance on network storage that introduces latency and IOPS constraints. A new model called Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Postgres is emerging, allowing organizations to control their cloud environments while leveraging managed services, improving performance by colocating data with compute resources. Utilizing local NVMe storage with Postgres can enhance performance by reducing latency and IOPS limitations. Modern Postgres platforms facilitate efficient cloning processes that support parallel experiments in AI development, leading to shorter feedback loops and faster iteration cycles. The robust ecosystem of Postgres allows it to handle diverse workloads, streamlining data management and minimizing operational complexity. Developer velocity is a critical factor in the shift back to Postgres, as it enables rapid feedback and safe testing environments, empowering teams to innovate more effectively.

Tech Optimizer

December 18, 2025

Constructive Launches pgpm: Modular Postgres for Large-Scale Application Development

Constructive has launched pgpm, an open-source PostgreSQL package manager that enables a Modular Postgres approach, allowing teams to decompose complex databases into focused, composable modules with explicit dependencies and isolated testing. This modularity facilitates better management of application-layer SQL, enabling developers to define schemas, tables, functions, and business logic directly in SQL without the limitations of traditional PostgreSQL extensions. Key features of pgpm include separation of concerns, composable architecture, idempotent migrations, first-class CI/CD testing, npm distribution for easy installation across projects, and compatibility with native PostgreSQL extensions. The system has been successfully implemented in real-world applications, such as packaging the Supabase PostgreSQL backend as pgpm modules. Teams can quickly initialize workspaces, create modules, and deploy to PostgreSQL using a package-driven workflow.

Tech Optimizer

December 10, 2025

Postgres + ClickHouse: The OSS Stack To Handle Agentic AI Scale

Postgres is a popular choice for developers due to its flexibility and reliability, but it faces limitations as applications scale, especially in AI-driven environments where rapid growth increases the demand for analytical capabilities. To overcome these challenges, a trend has emerged to combine Postgres with ClickHouse, where Postgres handles transactional workloads and ClickHouse manages analytics. There are two main methods for integrating ClickHouse with Postgres: split or dual-write, where applications write data to both databases based on use cases, and change data capture (CDC), where all writes occur in Postgres, which serves as the source of truth, streaming changes to ClickHouse for analytical queries. The integration aims to leverage the strengths of both databases, with some queries remaining on Postgres and others transitioning to ClickHouse. Developers must identify which queries to migrate and can use foreign data wrappers (FDWs) to simplify the integration process. The ecosystem around Postgres and ClickHouse has developed into a robust stack with various open source and commercial tools to support production-scale operations, including PeerDB, which provides high-throughput PostgreSQL CDC and reliable replication into ClickHouse. As applications increasingly start with Postgres and later adopt ClickHouse, the transition timeline is shortening, indicating a shift towards managed services and deeper integrations for a seamless experience between transactional and analytical systems.

Tech Optimizer

November 7, 2025

PostgreSQL 13’s Sunset: Why Database Pros Must Upgrade Before the Lights Go Out

Organizations using PostgreSQL 13 must upgrade before its end-of-life on November 13, 2025, as this will result in the cessation of security patches, bug fixes, and official support. Continuing to use an unsupported version exposes systems to vulnerabilities, which can lead to data breaches and compliance challenges. The last minor release for PostgreSQL 13 was 13.21 in May 2025. Upgrading to newer versions, such as PostgreSQL 16 or 17, offers performance improvements and enhanced features. Strategies for upgrading include using tools like pg_upgrade, pg_dump/pg_restore, and logical replication to minimize downtime. Compatibility issues may arise due to deprecated functions in PostgreSQL 13, necessitating code reviews. Managed services like those from Percona can provide support beyond EOL. The costs of not upgrading can be significant, with potential downtime from security breaches often exceeding migration expenses.

Tech Optimizer

November 4, 2025

PostgreSQL as a JSON database: Advanced patterns and best practices

Modern applications require adaptable data models, particularly in e-commerce, where product catalogs frequently change. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) provides flexibility by allowing data models to evolve without rigid schemas. PostgreSQL supports JSON through two data types: JSON and JSONB. JSON stores text as-is but lacks indexing, while JSONB stores data in an optimized binary format, allowing for efficient processing and indexing. PostgreSQL is suitable for various applications, including web and mobile apps, content management systems (CMS), scientific research, geospatial applications, and those requiring advanced search features. In a CMS context, PostgreSQL's JSON capabilities can manage both structured and unstructured data, simplifying the retrieval of article information. The database structure can accommodate both structured and semi-structured data using JSONB for metadata. GIN indexing enhances performance for searching JSON fields. PostgreSQL allows for complex querying of JSON data, including full-text search and transforming JSON into tabular data using JSON_TABLE. Optimizing GIN indexes and employing strategies for efficient querying, such as using expression and partial indexes, can improve performance. PostgreSQL can integrate with Amazon OpenSearch Service for advanced search capabilities. AWS-hosted PostgreSQL services, like Amazon RDS and Aurora, provide additional benefits, such as distributed storage architecture and parallel query processing. Best practices for using PostgreSQL’s JSON capabilities include strategic data modeling, effective indexing strategies, query optimization, and considerations for schema evolution and storage management.

Winsage

October 28, 2025

Microsoft WSUS Remote Code Execution (CVE-2025-59287) Actively Exploited in the Wild

On October 14, 2025, a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, CVE-2025-59287, was discovered in Microsoft's Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). The vulnerability allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code with system privileges on affected servers. It was initially addressed on October 14, but the patch was insufficient, leading to an urgent out-of-band update on October 23. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog on October 24, indicating its immediate threat. The vulnerability affects Microsoft Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2025, specifically on servers with the WSUS role enabled. Attackers are exploiting the vulnerability by targeting publicly exposed WSUS instances on TCP ports 8530 (HTTP) and 8531 (HTTPS). Approximately 5,500 WSUS instances have been identified as exposed to the internet. Microsoft recommends disabling the WSUS Server Role or blocking inbound traffic to the high-risk ports as temporary workarounds for organizations unable to apply the emergency patches immediately.