Hussein Nasser: Asynchronous IO in Postgres 18 | The Backend Engineering Show

Postgres 18 just dropped with a smorgasbord of goodies—think UUIDv7, an Over explain module, composite index skip scans—and the pièce de résistance: asynchronous IO. In the latest Backend Engineering Show, Hussein breaks down why async IO matters, compares it to classic sync calls, and revisits Postgres 17’s IO model before tackling the PG18 async saga.

You’ll get the lowdown on the new io_methods—worker threads vs. Linux’s high-speed io_uring (with a sync fallback for safety)—and a sneak peek at what’s next: backend writer support, beefed-up worker IO, direct IO… async in Postgres is just warming up!

Watch on YouTube