High Performance Postgres with Andrew Atkinson

High Performance Postgres with Andrew Atkinson

Author: Software Huddle July 2, 2024 Duration: 1:13:55
Database performance is likely the biggest factor in whether your application is slow or not, and yet too many developers don't take the time to properly understand how their database works. In today's episode, we have Andrew Atkinson who just released a new book, High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails. Andrew is one of those "Accidental DBAs" that fell into learning about database optimization at his job and ended up getting pretty dang good at it. In this episode, We hit Andrew with a bunch of questions about using Postgres properly, including how tight to your schema should be, how to handle Postgres operations, and how to think about performance testing with Postgres. We also got into some aspects about the process of writing a book and what he recommends for others. If you're building an application with a relational database, this book will help you. It has real code repositories so you can walk through the steps yourself, and it teaches the concepts in addition to the practical aspects so you understand what's happening.

Every week on Software Huddle, Alex DeBrie and Sean Falconer sit down with a different expert from across the tech landscape. The conversations are less about quick tips and more about substantive discussions, digging into the real challenges and decisions behind building software, launching products, and navigating the industry's constant shifts. You'll hear from practitioners who have been in the trenches, offering perspectives that blend deep technical knowledge with hard-won business and entrepreneurial experience. Alex brings his specialized expertise as the author of The DynamoDB Book and an AWS Data Hero, while Sean contributes a unique viewpoint shaped by over two decades as an engineer, founder, and marketing executive, recognized as a Snowflake Data Superhero. Together, they create a space where complex topics in software development and technology trends become accessible and genuinely engaging. This podcast is for anyone who wants to move beyond surface-level news and understand the "why" behind the tools and strategies shaping our digital world. Tune in for a thoughtful huddle that feels more like a candid conversation between colleagues than a formal interview.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 79

Software Huddle
Podcast Episodes
No More Broken Docs with Manny Silva [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:10
Today, we have Manny Silva, Head of Docs at Skyflow, on the show to talk about two open source projects he created, Docs as Tests and Doc Detective. Docs as Tests is a framework to make sure that your docs are in sync wi…
Architecting for SaaS with Bill Tarr [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:53
This week on the show, we talk with Bill Tarr, Principal Solutions Architect at AWS SaaS Factory. He's a super thoughtful guy, expert in SaaS architecture and architectural patterns. We talk about tenancy, infrastructure…
Postgres for Search + Analytics with Philippe Noël [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:39
ParadeDB is Postgres for search and analytics. As Postgres continues to rise in popularity, the "Just Use Postgres'' movement is getting stronger and stronger. Yet there are still things that standard Postgres doesn't do…
AI Agents and Long Context Windows with Mark Huang [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:24
Today we have Mark Huang on the show. Mark has previously held roles in Data Science and ML at companies like Box and Splunk and is now the co-founder and chief architect of Gradient, an enterprise AI platform to build a…
Vector Databases with Bob van Luijt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:19
Today we have Bob van Luijt, the CEO and founder of Weaviate on the show. Bob talks about building AI native applications and what that means, the role a vector database will play in the future of AI applications, and ho…
Akamai: From CDN to Full Cloud Provider with Talia Nassi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:48
Today, we have Talia Nassi on the show. Talia’s been leading Developer Advocacy at Akamai. Akamai is in a really interesting space where they've been around for a long time, as a CDN provider, as a security provider, and…
Jamstack and Composable Web Architecture with Brian Rinaldi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:59
Today we have Brian Rinaldi from LaunchDarkly on the show. This is the final episode of our in person coverage at the SHIFT Conference in Miami. And although Brian works at LaunchDarkly, we actually didn't talk at all ab…
Practical AI for LLMs with Emanuel Lacić [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:16
Today we have Emanuel Lacić on the show. He was in academia for a while. Now he’s been working at Infobip for the last couple of years, building some of this AI stuff and putting it into production. We picked his brain a…
Why Building an API for Email is Hard with Christine Spang [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:33
Today, on the show we have Christine Spang, Co-founder and CTO of Nylas. Christine was the keynote at the recent Shift Developer Conference in Miami, and we caught up with her there. Nylas is a unified API for email, cal…