neondatabase/neon

⚡ Storage–compute split for Postgres

Postgres reworked to scale compute independently from storage.

Neon is an open-source serverless Postgres database platform. It separates storage and compute and substitutes the PostgreSQL storage layer by redistributing data across a cluster of nodes. This split is what allows for autoscaling, code-like database branching, and scale to zero.

✨ Highlights

• Stateless compute nodes: PostgreSQL runs as compute nodes, but they rely on the Neon storage engine instead of PostgreSQL's native storage layer.
• Pageserver: Scalable storage backend for the compute nodes.
• Safekeepers: Redundant WAL service that receives WAL from the compute node, stores it durably until it has been processed by the Pageserver and uploaded to cloud storage.
• Distributed data placement: Data is redistributed across a cluster of nodes rather than kept in a single PostgreSQL storage volume.
• Cloud or local use: Try via the Neon Free Tier and SQL Editor, or compile and run it locally for small experiments and code changes.

💡 Why it matters

By moving WAL ingestion to Safekeepers and page serving to Pageserver, the Neon storage engine decouples durability and storage from Postgres compute. That separation is what makes independent scaling and scale to zero possible while keeping Postgres at the compute layer.

#Postgres #Serverless #Rust #Database #TiniX