GoKawiilPlanetScale launches Neki, a sharded Postgres platform, in preview
PlanetScale unveiled Neki, a new distributed database built on real Postgres instances running across shards, now available as a platform preview. The company says it drew on eight years of experience running large sharded MySQL clusters to design a system that keeps standard Postgres semantics rather than mimicking compatibility. Neki uses a router that speaks the Postgres wire protocol to direct queries to the appropriate shard.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Many fast-growing companies hit hard limits with single-instance Postgres—vacuum and indexing slowdowns, long backups, connection caps, and schema-change downtime—forcing a choice between risky application-level sharding or distributed databases that sacrifice native Postgres features and extensions. By preserving full Postgres compatibility while adding horizontal scalability, PlanetScale is targeting a gap between vertical scaling limits and complex, latency-heavy distributed systems. This could reduce the operational burden on teams whose databases have outgrown what a single machine can handle.
- Neki is PlanetScale's new sharded Postgres database, now in platform preview.
- It aims to solve scaling problems like vacuum stalls, backup times, and connection limits without abandoning native Postgres compatibility.
- The architecture uses a Postgres-wire-protocol router to distribute queries across real Postgres instances on each shard.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications (O'Reilly, Martin Kleppmann) — If Neki's pitch about hitting the ceiling of a single Postgres machine resonates, this is the book that explains sharding, replication, and partitioning from first principles. It's the go-to reference for engineers deciding how to scale a database before the maintenance windows and vacuum pain arrive. A great desk companion for anyone evaluating distributed Postgres.
See Designing Data-Intensive Applications (O'Reilly, Martin Kleppmann) on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: planetscale.com, 2026-09-10
Published there as: “Neki”
Read the original report → The summary and analysis above are GoKawiil's own, written from reporting by the source above. Facts and quotes belong to the original publisher.