A self-managed database —which can be on-premises, in other clouds, on developer laptops, or on edge locations—means that the user must provision and manage the underlying infrastructure, such as the hardware, operating system (OS), and networking.
AlloyDB Omni is a high-performance, operationally efficient database that offers the following features:
- Integrated kernel enhancements, such as the columnar engine for analytics and Google's scalable nearest neighbors (ScaNN) index for vector search.
- Autopilot features such as automatic memory management, adaptive autovacuum, and the index advisor, which simplify database management.
- Google-provided vendor support, which provides potentially faster bug fixes.
Standard PostgreSQL is a powerful and free open source solution. AlloyDB Omni provides commercial support for demanding workloads that benefit from enhanced performance, reduced operational overhead, advanced features, and direct vendor support. AlloyDB Omni additions to standard PostgreSQL can outweigh licensing costs.
Summary of AlloyDB Omni additions to PostgreSQL
AlloyDB Omni provides the following additions to PostgreSQL:
- Performance and scalability:AlloyDB Omni is engineered for significantly higher transactional performance, superior analytical speed using a built-in columnar engine, and better scalability with more CPU and memory resources compared to standard PostgreSQL.
- Advanced vector search:AlloyDB Omni uses Google's
ScaNN index for faster, memory-efficient, scalable vector searches compared to
standard
pgvectorand hierarchical navigable small world (HNSW). - Automated management (autopilot):AlloyDB Omni features like adaptive vacuum, automatic memory management, and the index advisor automate complex tuning. These features reduce operational burden and improve database stability.
- Faster bug fixes and patches:With commercial support, Google provides patches and security fixes for AlloyDB Omni directly and potentially faster than the PostgreSQL community release process.
- Integrated features:AlloyDB Omni's built in hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP), advanced vector search, and high availability (HA) reduce the need for external tools or complex configurations compared to standard PostgreSQL.
- Cost and licensing:Standard PostgreSQL is free open source software. AlloyDB Omni is commercial software that you can deploy at no cost for development and non-commercial purposes. However, you need a license to run AlloyDB Omni in a production environment . Despite the software costs, AlloyDB Omni efficiency capabilities offer potential total cost of ownership (TCO) advantages.
Database feature comparison
The following table describes the feature differences between AlloyDB Omni and PostgreSQL:
Fully compatible with PostgreSQL 15 and PostgreSQL 16.
Fully compatible with standard PostgreSQL and client tools.
Existing applications run unchanged.
Performance depends on hardware, OS tuning, PostgreSQL configuration, and workloads.
In standard configurations, scalability with CPU cores often results in diminishing returns with larger vCPUs.
Provides up to two times faster transactional performance compared to standard PostgreSQL on similar hardware.
Engineered to scale more effectively with increased resources.
AlloyDB Omni uses kernel enhancements and optimized resource utilization for higher throughput, lower latency, and better scaling on modern hardware. This improves database and price performance.
With AlloyDB Omni, you can achieve up to 50% reduction in compute requirements, specifically for vCPU and memory.
Relies on standard row-based data and doesn't have a built in columnar store.
Analytical queries often require manual optimization such as indexing and partitioning, or they require extensions.
Full table scans can be slow and can impact OLTP performance.
Includes a built-in, automatically managed columnar engine.
Provides up to 100 times faster analytical queries than standard PostgreSQL. This accelerates scans and joins, and aggregates with minimal impact on transactional workloads.
Allows configuration of additional dedicated fast storage for caching columnar data.
Requires you to install and manage the pgvector
extension, typically using an HNSW index.
Performance and memory usage depend on data size and tuning.
You can build applications using AlloyDB AI
,
which includes an optimized, pgvector
-compatible vector
search.
In addition to enhanced pgvector
,
AlloyDB Omni also supports Google's ScaNN index
technology.
Provides up to 10 times faster vector queries, with a smaller memory footprint (three to four times smaller).
Has faster index builds compared to HNSW, especially at a larger scale like a billion-vector scale.
Uses standard heap tables and write-ahead logging (WAL).
Relies on OS page cache and manually tuned PostgreSQL-shared buffers.
Uses concepts from AlloyDB for PostgreSQL's kernel enhancements, adapted locally at the compute layer.
Features intelligent, multi-layered caching, which includes a configurable ultra-fast secondary cache.
Requires significant manual effort to tune the following:
-
Postgresql.conf - Vacuum strategy, which is critical for performance
- Memory allocation
- Index management
Features autopilot capabilities to simplify operations:
- Automatic memory management, which removes out of memory (OOM) issues.
- Adaptive autovacuum, which automatically optimizes vacuum frequency and intensity.
- The index advisor, which analyzes query patterns and recommends beneficial indexes.
AlloyDB Omni adds the following features:
- Automates complex and critical tuning tasks.
- Reduces operational overhead.
- Improves stability.
- Boosts database performance with less manual intervention.
Requires you to manually configure streaming replication, both synchronous and asynchronous, and external monitoring tools such as Patroni.
Setup and management is complex.
Offers integrated HA mechanisms, especially when you use the AlloyDB Omni Kubernetes operator, which manages standbys, auto-failover, and healing.
Standbys can optionally serve reads.
Offers the standard OS package manager installation or source compilation.
Requires manual dependency management.
Delivered as a Docker container.
Bundles dependencies.
Can run standalone or using the AlloyDB Omni operator in a Kubernetes environment. For more information, see Available AlloyDB Omni download and installation options .
Requires manual setup of the following:
- Backup tools such as
pg_dumpandpgBackRest - A point-in-time recovery (PITR) strategy, such as WAL archiving.
As part of the AlloyDB Omni operator, AlloyDB Omni features built in continuous backup and recovery tooling that supports PITR.
Otherwise, you can use PostgreSQL-supported backup tools.
Relies on the PostgreSQL community release schedule for minor versions that contain bug fixes and security patches.
To apply fixes following community releases, you must use a manual upgrade process.
Provides a wide ecosystem.
You can install standard PostgreSQL manually.
Supports the most popular PostgreSQL extensions
in addition to AlloyDB Omni enhancement extensions
like google_*
and alloyDB*
.
Uses an open source PostgreSQL license.
Free to download and use for any purpose.
Commercial software.
You can download AlloyDB Omni free of charge and use it for non-commercial uses such as development and testing.
Requires that you purchase a vCPU subscription to run AlloyDB Omni in a production environment .
Standard PostgreSQL software is free.
AlloyDB Omni requires a per-vCPU license for production use.
AlloyDB Omni offers flexible enterprise discounting.
AlloyDB Omni offers portability with AlloyDB for PostgreSQL.
To automate tools, PostgreSQL requires infrastructure costs and additional human resources.
Requires no software license fees.
Has optional third-party support costs.
You can deploy and use AlloyDB Omni at no charge for non-production purposes. Requires a monthly subscription to run AlloyDB Omni in a production environment .
Offers personnel time.
Using efficiency and automated tools, AlloyDB Omni endeavors to deliver better price performance and potentially lower TCO.
Offers community support, such as forums and lists.
Offers commercial support using third-party vendors.
Issue resolution depends on community priorities and release cycles.
AlloyDB Omni provides Google Cloud Customer Care support. This includes potentially faster bug resolution compared to the PostgreSQL community process.
For non-production use without an AlloyDB Omni subscription, you can get support using the Google Cloud community forum .
