Hamid Akhtar is a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, specializing in PostgreSQL internals and large-scale data replication. Over the years, he has worked hands on across various aspects of the PostgreSQL ecosystem, including core database features, extension development, performance, security, and observability.

At Microsoft, Hamid focuses on change data capture (CDC) extension for PostgreSQL for fabric mirroring. Before joining Microsoft, Hamid served as an architect and senior developer across multiple PostgreSQL-focused organizations. His past work includes multi-active (active-active) replication with pgEdge’s Spock, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), the pg_stat_monitor observability extension, the ORC FDW, and an auto-tuning framework for PostgreSQL. He also led the development and maintenance of the official PostgreSQL installers.

Hamid’s contributions span deep systems engineering, replication internals, extensibility, optimization, and building developer-friendly tools that enrich the PostgreSQL experience.

Presentations

22x

Keeping Your PostgreSQL Replication Healthy: Resolving Conflicts for Optimal Performance

Replication conflicts can disrupt the consistency and reliability of a PostgreSQL database, especially in high-demand environments. This talk focuses on practical steps for monitoring, detecting, and resolving common replication conflicts.

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20x

PostgreSQL Replication Conflicts: Avoiding Pitfalls

Experiencing replication conflicts is not too unfamiliar a sight. Whether one experiences replication lag, slots, locks, snapshots, tablespace issues, or other conflicts, establishing a set of best practices along with using proper observability tools will help avoid potential issues. This talk focuses on what to do and what not to in order to avoid database conflicts in streaming replication setups by providing deep insight into how issues are PostgreSQL internals.

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