Meet with Aiven at PGConf DE 2026!

• 12:15-12:20, 21 April

Benchmarking - an unexpected journey

Starting with an simple ask in my daily business just to compare the performance of PostgreSQL DBaaS offerings between different cloud vendors I've opened a door into an unexpected journey of way more effort, research and thoughts.

However, achieving optimal performance from PostgreSQL requires a nuanced understanding of its behavior under different workloads. This talk chronicles an in-depth journey into PostgreSQL benchmarking, sharing lessons learned, unexpected challenges, and key insights gained along the way.

We will explore my methodology used to design and execute meaningful benchmarks, including the selection of tools, configuration tuning, and workload modeling that aligns with real-world scenarios. Key takeaways will include strategies for interpreting benchmark results, common pitfalls to avoid, and the impact of factors such as parametrization and compute configurations.

The session also dives into the evolution of benchmarking practices, addressing questions like: What distinguishes synthetic benchmarks from real-world performance measurements? How do version upgrades and new features affect benchmarking strategies?

Whether you are a database administrator, developer, or architect, this talk aims to equip you with practical insights and actionable techniques to master the art and science of PostgreSQL benchmarking, helping you unlock its full potential for your workloads.

• TBC

I'm Afraid of the Database: How I gained confidence in PostgreSQL as an App Developer

As an app developer, my goal is to serve my users. I may love my tech stack, but secretly, I am terrified of the data layer. We have more and more app developers blindly relying on PostgreSQL, but with all this data lying around, we need to ensure that PostgreSQL as a community is approachable.