The largest database I have ever worked on will eventually, it looks like, be moved off PostgreSQL. The reason is that PostgreSQL doesn't scale well enough. I am writing here however because the limitations are so extreme that it ought to give plenty of ammunition for those who think databases don't scale.
The current database size is 10TB and doubling every year. The main portions of the application have no natural partition criteria. The largest table currently is 5TB and the fastest growing portion of the application.
10TB is quite manageable. 20TB will still be manageable. By 40TB we will need a bigger server. But in 5 years we will be at 320 TB and so the future does not look very good for staying with PostgreSQL.
I looked at Postgres-XL and that would be useful if we had good partitioning criteria but that is not the case here.
But how many cases are there like this? Not too many.
The current database size is 10TB and doubling every year. The main portions of the application have no natural partition criteria. The largest table currently is 5TB and the fastest growing portion of the application.
10TB is quite manageable. 20TB will still be manageable. By 40TB we will need a bigger server. But in 5 years we will be at 320 TB and so the future does not look very good for staying with PostgreSQL.
I looked at Postgres-XL and that would be useful if we had good partitioning criteria but that is not the case here.
But how many cases are there like this? Not too many.