Subject: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server vs other Azure offerings

From: Alexander Farber <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2025 19:58:07 +0100

Good evening,

I am trying to convince my team (a small team at a big company) to move
from Azure Redis E10 to PostgreSQL, because I am tired of seeing how we
(poorly) try to re-invent an SQL database using Redis.

My problem is that the team does not want and I am the only one liking SQL
databases and especially PostgreSQL (using it for hobby projects since
version 8, always a single instance with a pg_bouncer).

I have spent 3 weeks including my weekends and prepared a PoC currently
using 2 official PostgreSQL docker hub images in our AKS, but that setup
looks toyish vs the expensive managed Redis E10.

I would like to switch to the most official and supported Azure offering
(and the money kind of does not matter), but a bit confused by the 3
Microsoft offerings I see:

- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/postgresql "Azure Database for
PostgreSQL" - this one scares me be talking about AI that we do not need.
Also it looks more like some abstract product or is it a real setup?

- "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server" - I would take that, but it
is obsolete/deprecated?

- "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server" - Looks like I have to
take this one, but I do not want all the replication/zones features,
because I have no experience there and we already have had enough headache
with Redis Enterprise and some hashes not being saved because they are on
different shards etc.

Our setup: we need 2 databases with 3 and with 6 tables and few stored
procedures and at the beginning they do not even to be permanent (it is ok
to be empty on the pipeline deployment). Max 100 client connections. It
would be nice to be able to scale up / scale down.

So my question is: who is using what for PostgreSQL on Azure and how
happy/unhappy are you with your product?

Best regards
Alex

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From: Christoph Moench-Tegeder <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2025 20:19:50 +0100

> Also it looks more like some abstract product or is it a real setup?

That's the top level overview, and as it's 2025 all the high-level,
glossy material has to mention AI.

> - "Azure Database for PostgreSQL Single Server" - I would take that, but it

"Is being retired in March 2025" - best to be ignored now, it's basically
gone.

> with Redis Enterprise and some hashes not being saved because they are on

HA with PostgreSQL is not that much of an headache (unless you invest
extra effort and code, the "normal" replication is really just
replication).
Anyways, HA is optional with the Flexible Server, as I read the
quickstart guide:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/postgresql/flexible-server/quickstart-create-server
(See table under item 8).

> happy/unhappy are you with your product?

"Single Server" sure was a source of unhappiness :)

REegards,
Christoph

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