Introduction

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What is Springtail?

Springtail scales read performance for existing PostgreSQL databases without requiring a migration or changes to your application.

It replicates data from your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, Aurora PostgreSQL, or Supabase instance and routes read queries to on-demand replica nodes. This allows you to add replicas for periods of high traffic and remove them when they are no longer needed, improving read performance while reducing infrastructure costs.

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Benefits

Springtail provides significant advantages over traditional Postgres read replicas:

• Instant scale-up: Springtail separates storage from compute, allowing additional replicas to spin up in seconds without requiring a new copy of the data.
• Cost-efficiency: Only pay for what you use — reduce compute resources when they’re not needed, saving on peak provisioning costs.
• Built-in optimization: Springtail’s proxy handles load balancing and connection pooling, so you don’t need to manage these services separately.
• No downtime: Bring replicas online quickly without the downtime of snapshot creation or synchronization delays.

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Key features

Springtail enhances performance and efficiency through several key capabilities:

• Scalable compute: Increase or decrease compute capacity as your workload changes, reducing unnecessary overhead.
• Scalable storage: Independently scales storage from compute, allowing faster setup and efficient data access.
• Optimized ingest pipeline: Reduces replication lag and ensures that reads receive the most up-to-date snapshot of the data.
• Built-in proxy: Automatically manages load balancing and connection pooling, simplifying replica management.
• Custom storage format: Optimizes storage for fast primary key access patterns, reducing latency on common database operations.

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Use cases

Springtail replicas are well-suited for traditional read replica workloads:

• Nightly batch jobs: Efficiently process recurring large-scale operations without impacting your primary database.
• ETL jobs: Seamlessly handle extract, transform, and load processes with scalable compute.
• Read-heavy operations: Handle large queries, such as SaaS dashboards or table scans, without overloading your primary instance.

Any read-only transaction that might cause contention on your primary database is an ideal candidate for Springtail.

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Get started

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