6 ms·

The New Timescale Cloud

62 points by neom 5y ago

brightball 5y ago
This might be where I finally sit down and experiment with Timescale Cloud. $24 / month is an entry point price that I can use to start a project with at least.
- tomc1985 5y ago
  You can experiment with a self-hosted version for free, indefinitely
  - brightball 5y ago
    Biggest issue is that, when I go to production for a small app that's just starting out, I don't want to spend time managing a self hosted version.
    - tomc1985 5y ago
      It's a postgres install with a proprietary extension. Management burden is about as low as it gets for a small app -- make sure its got HD space for storage and logs, lock it down sensibly, set up a cron job to export daily backup dumps to S3, and you're good. I one-man-armied software dev for a $20m/yr company doing exactly this a little while back and postgres caused problems pretty much never.
- errwhat 5y ago
  Are they giving free egress on the public 5432 endpoint - if you host with say DO/Linode (obviously you have DO/Linode limits too)?
gneray 5y ago
If anyone from the Timescale team is here, can you give a specific example of how this is different from the "DBaaS" services you reference? I get that you're going to give transparency into what's behind the scenes, which is how it's different from serverless options. But what would be an example of how this "transparent box" is different from something like RDS or Aurora or...?
- clarkbw 5y ago
  For the DBaaS services the problem is more of simplicity and developer experience; they are more of a transparent box which can make things more complicated than necessary. You should be able to have a clear paved path for an excellent general database experience with automatic backups, scale, and functionality to improve developer ergonomics. While at the same time, under the hood having this DBaaS like experience which allows you to take more control as needed. Of course it is not easy to offer both simplicity and flexibility, that's a fine line to draw but that is our goal.
geuis 5y ago
Can someone boil this boilerplate down into 2-4 meaningful sentences?
- errwhat 5y ago
  We're still doing hosted iaas on aws/gcp/azure and we're adding some small new features, other than its pay per word blog post by the looks of it. Dont get me wrong I like timescale but this is an unclear blog post. tl;dr how is this different than Managed Service for TimescaleDB - it seems identical in features and all the comparison is against serverless and other DBaSSs - reskimmed it and still no clearer
  - akulkarni 5y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. What the post is trying to paint is a vision that is different than current DBaaS and "black box" serverless options. Something where you can see and "feel" the database that you are working with (similar to a DBaaS), but where you can still offload the scaling burden (similar to Serverless). That is what we are calling the "transparent box." The new Timescale Cloud is designed around this new vision. It does not fully realize it today, but that is what we are working towards. Hope this helps - and if not, happy to continue the dialogue.
- LoriP 5y ago
  From the author's summary thread: - DBaaS is Familiar and Flexible - Serverless data platforms may be scalable and easy but are not so much Familiar and Flexible. This new Timescale Cloud approach offers : Easy and Scalable - Modern cloud architecture, fully decoupled compute & storage - Autoscaling for worry-free operation - Autoconfig and autotuning, including whenever resources change - Easy to get started and scale with need Familiar and Flexible - Full SQL - Built on Postgres (relational db mental model) - Works w/ all Postgres-compatible tools, connectors, & apps - Developers can be immediately productive, building on existing skills So it's addressing those gaps in the current solutions...
- aeyes 5y ago
  One sentence summary: They are now storing your data on EBS instead of local disks.
maxbaines 5y ago
I really wish / hope the timescale cloud pricing and features gets somewhere close to the cost of postgres on Digital Ocean https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/ https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- avthar 5y ago
  Timescale employee here. While we do offer plans starting at $24/month [1] on Timescale Cloud, it's worth noting that DO Postgres (and other hosted Postgres solutions) are providing an undifferentiated open-source solution, while on Timescale Cloud you get Postgres underneath (for relational workloads) and TimescaleDB (for time-series workloads), plus other features which provide an enhanced time-series experience (like the explorer dashboard [2], autoscaling, automated upgrades, auto-tuning of configs, just to name a few). So do keep that in mind when comparing prices. Many users actually find Timescale Cloud to be cheaper because it replaces both a time-series and relational db with a single database that can store (and analyze) both kinds of data. [1] https://www.timescale.com/cloud https://www.timescale.com/cloud [2] https://blog.timescale.com/blog/announcing-explorer-a-better-way-to-understand-your-cloud-database/ https://blog.timescale.com/blog/announcing-explorer-a-better...
  - akulkarni 5y ago
    Exactly. TimescaleDB is essentially "Postgres++." You get everything Postgres has to offer, plus better performance, scalability, storage consumption (via ~95% compression), etc. (Also a Timescaler)
    - whitepoplar 5y ago
      For someone who simply wants ultra-scalable Postgres (~2B rows per month ingested) that is only loosely "time series", can you share your thoughts on TimescaleDB vs Citus (w/ newly released columnar functionality)? When should someone choose one over the other? Thanks!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
epberry 5y ago
Been a timescale user for a little while and here's how this is different than their previous offering: - Scale compute or storage separately - One click spin up, pause, and recover - Configure data retention (docs page not complete) - Set a refresh policy for continuous aggregates via web console - One click VPC There's other stuff in that list but I either didn't miss it in the old Timescale or don't use it. Overall continuing the coupling of dba and analyst/backend dev via software. A nice set of changes.
zokier 5y ago
Doesn't AWS Aurora Serverless kinda cover all the main 4 points (easy, scalable, familiar, flexible)?

62 points by neom 5y ago

This might be where I finally sit down and experiment with Timescale Cloud. $24 / month is an entry point price that I can use to start a project with at least.

tomc1985 5y ago
You can experiment with a self-hosted version for free, indefinitely
- brightball 5y ago
  Biggest issue is that, when I go to production for a small app that's just starting out, I don't want to spend time managing a self hosted version.
  - tomc1985 5y ago
    It's a postgres install with a proprietary extension. Management burden is about as low as it gets for a small app -- make sure its got HD space for storage and logs, lock it down sensibly, set up a cron job to export daily backup dumps to S3, and you're good. I one-man-armied software dev for a $20m/yr company doing exactly this a little while back and postgres caused problems pretty much never.
errwhat 5y ago
Are they giving free egress on the public 5432 endpoint - if you host with say DO/Linode (obviously you have DO/Linode limits too)?

gneray 5y ago

If anyone from the Timescale team is here, can you give a specific example of how this is different from the "DBaaS" services you reference? I get that you're going to give transparency into what's behind the scenes, which is how it's different from serverless options. But what would be an example of how this "transparent box" is different from something like RDS or Aurora or...?

clarkbw 5y ago
For the DBaaS services the problem is more of simplicity and developer experience; they are more of a transparent box which can make things more complicated than necessary. You should be able to have a clear paved path for an excellent general database experience with automatic backups, scale, and functionality to improve developer ergonomics. While at the same time, under the hood having this DBaaS like experience which allows you to take more control as needed. Of course it is not easy to offer both simplicity and flexibility, that's a fine line to draw but that is our goal.

geuis 5y ago

Can someone boil this boilerplate down into 2-4 meaningful sentences?

errwhat 5y ago
We're still doing hosted iaas on aws/gcp/azure and we're adding some small new features, other than its pay per word blog post by the looks of it. Dont get me wrong I like timescale but this is an unclear blog post. tl;dr how is this different than Managed Service for TimescaleDB - it seems identical in features and all the comparison is against serverless and other DBaSSs - reskimmed it and still no clearer
- akulkarni 5y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. What the post is trying to paint is a vision that is different than current DBaaS and "black box" serverless options. Something where you can see and "feel" the database that you are working with (similar to a DBaaS), but where you can still offload the scaling burden (similar to Serverless). That is what we are calling the "transparent box." The new Timescale Cloud is designed around this new vision. It does not fully realize it today, but that is what we are working towards. Hope this helps - and if not, happy to continue the dialogue.
LoriP 5y ago
From the author's summary thread: - DBaaS is Familiar and Flexible - Serverless data platforms may be scalable and easy but are not so much Familiar and Flexible. This new Timescale Cloud approach offers : Easy and Scalable - Modern cloud architecture, fully decoupled compute & storage - Autoscaling for worry-free operation - Autoconfig and autotuning, including whenever resources change - Easy to get started and scale with need Familiar and Flexible - Full SQL - Built on Postgres (relational db mental model) - Works w/ all Postgres-compatible tools, connectors, & apps - Developers can be immediately productive, building on existing skills So it's addressing those gaps in the current solutions...
aeyes 5y ago
One sentence summary: They are now storing your data on EBS instead of local disks.

maxbaines 5y ago

I really wish / hope the timescale cloud pricing and features gets somewhere close to the cost of postgres on Digital Ocean https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/ https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
avthar 5y ago
Timescale employee here. While we do offer plans starting at $24/month [1] on Timescale Cloud, it's worth noting that DO Postgres (and other hosted Postgres solutions) are providing an undifferentiated open-source solution, while on Timescale Cloud you get Postgres underneath (for relational workloads) and TimescaleDB (for time-series workloads), plus other features which provide an enhanced time-series experience (like the explorer dashboard [2], autoscaling, automated upgrades, auto-tuning of configs, just to name a few). So do keep that in mind when comparing prices. Many users actually find Timescale Cloud to be cheaper because it replaces both a time-series and relational db with a single database that can store (and analyze) both kinds of data. [1] https://www.timescale.com/cloud https://www.timescale.com/cloud [2] https://blog.timescale.com/blog/announcing-explorer-a-better-way-to-understand-your-cloud-database/ https://blog.timescale.com/blog/announcing-explorer-a-better...
- akulkarni 5y ago
  Exactly. TimescaleDB is essentially "Postgres++." You get everything Postgres has to offer, plus better performance, scalability, storage consumption (via ~95% compression), etc. (Also a Timescaler)
  - whitepoplar 5y ago
    For someone who simply wants ultra-scalable Postgres (~2B rows per month ingested) that is only loosely "time series", can you share your thoughts on TimescaleDB vs Citus (w/ newly released columnar functionality)? When should someone choose one over the other? Thanks!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

epberry 5y ago

Been a timescale user for a little while and here's how this is different than their previous offering: - Scale compute or storage separately - One click spin up, pause, and recover - Configure data retention (docs page not complete) - Set a refresh policy for continuous aggregates via web console - One click VPC There's other stuff in that list but I either didn't miss it in the old Timescale or don't use it. Overall continuing the coupling of dba and analyst/backend dev via software. A nice set of changes.

zokier 5y ago

Doesn't AWS Aurora Serverless kinda cover all the main 4 points (easy, scalable, familiar, flexible)?