PostgreSQL 18 has arrived—and it’s a game-changer. This latest release of the world’s most advanced open source relational database delivers major leaps in performance, scalability, and developer productivity. At NetApp Instaclustr, we’re proud to bring PostgreSQL 18 to our fully managed platform, ensuring our customers can harness these innovations with enterprise-grade reliability, security, and support.

Performance breakthroughs that matter

  • PostgreSQL 18 introduces an asynchronous I/O subsystem capable of delivering up to 3x faster performance for read-intensive workloads. This means queries execute more efficiently, batch processing completes sooner, and applications can handle higher throughput without hardware upgrades.
  • Major version upgrades are now significantly faster thanks to planner statistics preservation, reducing downtime and enabling smoother migrations.
  • Enhanced skip scan and index optimization features further accelerate query execution, particularly for complex analytical workloads.

Security and modern authentication

  • Version 18 adds OAuth 2.0 authentication, enabling seamless integration with modern identity providers and improving compliance with enterprise security policies. We plan to support this in a future release, contact us if you have a specific interest or requirements.
  • The addition of UUIDv7 generation offers more efficient and sortable unique identifiers, ideal for distributed systems and high-volume data ingestion scenarios.
  • With the addition of OAuth 2.0, PostgreSQL has marked md5 authentication as deprecated. We recommend planning a migration to either SCRAM or OAuth2 (when available) to ensure you can use future versions.

Developer-friendly enhancements

  • PostgreSQL 18 delivers improved text processing capabilities, making it easier to work with complex datasets, multilingual content, and advanced search features.
  • Observability has also been enhanced, providing richer insights when using EXPLAIN to understand query performance.
  • For developers working with dynamic data models, virtual generated columns provide new flexibility in schema design without sacrificing performance.

Why choose NetApp Instaclustr for PostgreSQL 18?

Our team of PostgreSQL experts has rigorously tested and optimized PostgreSQL 18 within the NetApp Instaclustr Managed Platform.

Customers benefit from:

  • Advanced integration with FSx ONTAP and Azure Netapp Files
  • Seamless upgrades—Zero-hassle upgrade to PostgreSQL 18 with minimal downtime, now even faster with the planner statistics preservation
  • Enterprise-grade reliability—High availability, automated backups, and disaster recovery built in
  • Performance tuning—Expert configuration to get the most out of your PostgreSQL databases
  • Security at scale—Managed authentication, encryption, and compliance support

With NetApp Instaclustr, you get all the advantages of PostgreSQL 18 without the operational overhead—so your teams can focus on building, innovating, and delivering value faster.

Get started today

PostgreSQL 18 is available now on the NetApp Instaclustr Managed Platform. Whether you’re upgrading from a previous version or launching a new application, our experts are ready to guide you every step of the way.

Experience the future of PostgreSQL with the power of a fully managed service. Contact us today to schedule your upgrade or deployment.

For additional information, please see the official PostgreSQL 18 release blog.