Our mission is to make PostgreSQL probably the most performant, scalable, and enterprise-ready open database platform out there. With Azure Database for PostgreSQL and the newly launched Azure HorizonDB, we’re delivering on that imaginative and prescient.
In at this time’s digital economic system, enterprise leaders face a relentless problem: easy methods to ship innovation, scale, and resilience with out spiraling prices or compromising efficiency. On the coronary heart of this problem lies information infrastructure, which is usually some of the important and most constrained layers of the enterprise stack.
At Microsoft, we’ve seen firsthand how legacy programs, significantly on-premises databases like Oracle, can change into a bottleneck to progress. These programs are costly to take care of, troublesome to scale, and more and more out of step with the agility fashionable organizations require. However we additionally perceive that migration isn’t a trivial choice. Considerations about downtime, compatibility, safety, and retraining are actual.
That’s why we’ve spent the final a number of years investing in PostgreSQL. Our mission is to make PostgreSQL probably the most performant, scalable, and enterprise-ready open database platform out there. With Azure Database for PostgreSQL and the newly launched Azure HorizonDB, we’re delivering on that imaginative and prescient.
The price of standing nonetheless
Staying on legacy infrastructure would possibly really feel like a protected selection, however it’s not often one of the best one. The prices of sustaining ageing on-premises databases are rising. {Hardware} refresh cycles, escalating licensing charges, and the necessity for area of interest experience all add up. Organizations can spend most of their IT budgets and time simply sustaining present programs, leaving little room for innovation.
Some Oracle prospects have cited rising licensing prices, efficiency bottlenecks, and scalability limits as main ache factors. Others have reported excessive help prices and a necessity for superior AI capabilities as major causes for contemplating a transfer away from Oracle databases.
However migration comes with its personal set of challenges. What in case your functions aren’t appropriate with a brand new platform? What in case your staff lacks the abilities to handle a brand new system? What if efficiency suffers or what if one thing breaks? These are legitimate issues, and they’re exactly the challenges we’ve engineered PostgreSQL on Azure to resolve.
Apollo Hospitals: A case examine in transformation
Apollo Hospitals, certainly one of Asia’s largest healthcare suppliers, confronted these very questions. With greater than 74 hospitals and over 10,000 beds, Apollo’s digital infrastructure is mission important. Their in-house hospital info system, constructed on Oracle, was changing into more and more troublesome to take care of. Efficiency bottlenecks had been impacting care supply, and the price of scaling was unsustainable.
Apollo Hospitals made the daring, strategic choice emigrate their databases to Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Their IT and improvement groups labored carefully with Microsoft and their cloud associate to make sure a seamless transition. The outcomes had been transformative. For the reason that migration, Apollo has seen:
- 90% of transactions full inside 5 seconds, a major leap in responsiveness for scientific programs.
- Uptime has improved to 99.95%, guaranteeing that important hospital operations stay uninterrupted.
- Deployment timelines have dropped by 40%, permitting the group to roll out new options and updates quicker than ever earlier than.
Maybe most significantly, Apollo has achieved a 60% discount in operational prices and a 3x enchancment in total system efficiency. Apollo’s story is a strong instance of what’s doable if you pair the suitable know-how with the suitable migration technique.
Smarter Oracle to PostgreSQL migrations with AI-assisted tooling
One of many greatest obstacles to migration is the complexity of changing Oracle schemas, saved procedures, and utility code. Enterprise functions typically depend on hundreds of saved procedures, capabilities, and application-side code (Java, .NET, and so on.) constructed round Oracle-specific syntax. Manually rewriting and validating this code is time-consuming, error-prone, and costly.
To handle this, we launched the AI-assisted Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration instrument, now out there in preview as a part of the PostgreSQL extension for Visible Studio Code. This instrument is powered by GitHub Copilot and a multi-agent AI system that automates the end-to-end conversion course of.
Oracle to PostgreSQL AI-assisted migration instrument in motion
The instrument begins by analyzing Oracle schemas and saved procedures, changing them into PostgreSQL-compatible codecs utilizing clever sample recognition and transformation logic. It doesn’t cease on the database layer. It additionally scans utility code, similar to Java or .NET, and updates database drivers, rewrites SQL queries, and modifies saved process calls to align with PostgreSQL syntax. The instrument generates automated unit exams to validate the transformed logic and runs post-conversion validation in a scratch PostgreSQL surroundings to verify for purposeful parity.
The instrument makes use of a hybrid AI structure with specialised brokers for migration, validation, and documentation. It reduces handbook effort and minimizes human error. The instrument additionally produces side-by-side comparisons and detailed experiences, giving groups the transparency and management they might must belief the method. By embedding AI-assisted conversion immediately into the PostgreSQL extension for VS Code, we’re assembly builders the place they work. With GitHub Copilot integration, schema conversion, code refactoring, and validation change into a part of the identical inside loop as code enhancing and CI/CD. The result’s a streamlined, clever workflow that reduces friction and accelerates supply.
Publish-migration enterprise-grade efficiency, scale, and safety
PostgreSQL on Azure is greater than an economical different to legacy programs. With Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and the brand new Azure HorizonDB service, a transfer to Azure gives high-performance, scale, and safety constructed and optimized on your most business-critical enterprise workloads.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL persevering with innovation
With the introduction of v6-series compute SKUs, prospects can now scale vertically as much as 192 vCores. That is splendid for high-throughput transactional workloads and sophisticated analytical queries. For workloads that require horizontal scaling, elastic clusters powered by the open-source Citus extension allow distributed PostgreSQL deployments throughout a number of nodes. This structure helps multi-tenant SaaS functions, IoT platforms, and large-scale analytics with ease.
Storage efficiency in Azure Database for PostgreSQL has additionally taken a leap ahead. SSD v2 storage delivers excessive IOPS and low latency, guaranteeing that even probably the most demanding workloads run easily. Built-in monitoring and tuning instruments like Azure Monitor present real-time insights and automatic optimization, serving to groups keep peak efficiency with out handbook intervention.
As at all times, safety stays a prime precedence. Azure Database for PostgreSQL consists of enterprise-grade protections similar to Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Entra ID integration, non-public endpoints, confidential compute SKUs, and end-to-end encryption. These options assist organizations meet compliance necessities and safeguard delicate information.
And since PostgreSQL is open supply, there are not any licensing charges. It’s some of the extensively used databases on this planet, with a vibrant group and deep Microsoft help.
Azure HorizonDB: The way forward for PostgreSQL at scale
For organizations with excessive efficiency and scale necessities, we’ve launched Azure HorizonDB, which is a brand new, cloud-native PostgreSQL service constructed for probably the most demanding workloads. At the moment in non-public preview, Azure HorizonDB helps as much as 3,072 vCores and 128 TB of auto-scaling storage. It delivers sub-millisecond multi-zone commit latencies and as much as 3x increased throughput than self-managed PostgreSQL. Azure HorizonDB additionally builds on the AI and agentic capabilities of Azure Database for PostgreSQL with built-in AI mannequin administration and DiskANN superior filtering capabilities, making it splendid for next-generation functions that require real-time analytics and clever information processing.
As a result of Azure HorizonDB is PostgreSQL-compatible, organizations can begin with Azure Database for PostgreSQL at this time and transfer to Azure HorizonDB if the necessity arises. This permits for a easy transition path with out the necessity for replatforming or rewriting functions.
Open supply, engineered for the enterprise
Microsoft is proud to be one of many prime company contributors to the PostgreSQL mission. Our engineering groups have upstreamed key improvements, and we’re dedicated to persevering with this work in order that PostgreSQL stays probably the most succesful and trusted open-source database for the cloud period.
We imagine that open-source information platforms like PostgreSQL are foundational to the subsequent technology of clever functions. Our purpose is to make PostgreSQL not solely accessible however distinctive for enterprise workloads. Meaning investing in efficiency, safety, developer expertise, and ecosystem integration.
The payoff: Innovation, agility, and confidence
Migrating to PostgreSQL on Azure isn’t nearly fixing what’s damaged. It’s additionally about unlocking what’s subsequent. Apollo Hospitals, for example, is now exploring AI-powered scientific dashboards, real-time analytics with Microsoft Cloth, and containerized workloads with Azure Kubernetes Service. Their groups are extra agile, their programs are extra resilient, and their basis is prepared for the long run. As Sridhar Yadla, Apollo’s Common Supervisor, put it:
We’re now not caught reacting to issues. Now we’re considering proactively and how we will evolve.
That’s the facility of PostgreSQL on Azure.
Able to modernize?
For those who’re contemplating a transfer from Oracle to PostgreSQL, we’ve constructed the instruments, the platform, and the associate community that will help you succeed.
Obtain our newest e-book and discover the Azure Database for PostgreSQL documentation to learn to plan, execute, and speed up your journey.
