Prisma, a company that develops PostgreSQL tools with a significant tool being the Prisma ORM, has announced the launch of its own cloud PostgreSQL service called Prisma Postgres. The key features include pricing based on the number of queries and the amount of data stored on disk. Additionally, the query wait time is minimal for low-usage tasks, ensuring fast performance without the need for a cold start.
The concept of providing serverless PostgreSQL services based on real-world usage has been seen before. Previous instances have involved automatic server shutdown when usage is too low, such as AWS offering this format with Aurora Serverless since 2018. However, they are planning to transition to version 2 by the end of this year, removing the scale to zero feature to eliminate the need to pay for idle time. Other services typically have a cold start time of at least 1 second, which is longer than the usual query time of just a few milliseconds.
Prisma’s approach involves utilizing virtual machines from Unikraft, a company that has developed virtual machines based on AWS’s Firecracker. These small bootable virtual machines are incredibly fast and feature memory snapshot capabilities, allowing applications to restart within milliseconds. Furthermore, Unikraft utilizes Unikernel technology to combine cores, libraries, and applications into a single, small image, with the total image size only being 61MB.
Currently, Prisma Postgres is available for use, offering a free package with 1GB of storage, 60,000 free queries per month, and no data transfer costs if queries stay under 1KiB. Any data transfer above this limit incurs a fee of $0.09 per GiB.
TLDR: Prisma introduces Prisma Postgres, a cloud-based PostgreSQL service with innovative pricing based on query frequency and data storage. They utilize virtual machines from Unikraft for fast, efficient performance, making it ideal for modern applications.
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