Asynchronous IO in Postgres 18

Postgres 18 just dropped with some cool new toys—think UUIDv7, an OVER EXPLAIN module, composite index skip scans—and the big headline: true asynchronous IO. In this episode, Hussein breaks down why async beats sync, revisits Postgres 17’s limitations, and shows how Postgres 18 tackles IO with new worker and io_uring modes (plus a sync fallback).

He also digs into the challenges of weaving async into Postgres’s backend, teases upcoming support for backend writers and direct IO, and wraps up with what’s next on the async IO roadmap.

Watch on YouTube