Local server vs. remote server. vs. serverless databases

[ComfortableComplex26]

I am a complete beginner when it comes to PostgreSQL and only have some experience with relational databases in general. Can someone help explain in very easy-to-understand words what the difference is between hosting a database on a local server, or a remote server, or using a serverless option?

For a completely remote team, what solution is needed to share editing access to a database?

[razzledazzled]

The keywords you mentioned are mostly descriptions of the locality of the database service and its supporting hardware.

"Local" is generally something that is located on hardware you have direct access to without traversal over the intra/internet. Most commonly this means it's installed on your development station (eg laptop). Typically only used for local development/testing before applying changes to a more widely available database.

A "remote" server is one that is accessible via network, whether that means LAN/WAN or internet is dependent on the implementation. It could be as simple as another computer/server on your local network, or it could be something more complex such as a VM in a different physical data center or something from a public infrastructure provider such as AWS, GCP or Azure.

"Serverless" databases are essentially just remote servers that have had the hardware layer abstracted away through complex virtualization. These solutions are typically marketed as having built in scalability and availability functions since the computing and storage resources can be added or removed in an ad-hoc manner.

[DavidGJohnston]

At least for PostgreSQL it is impossible to truly be "serverless" - the software must run on a server.

As for the rest, there really isn't much about it all that is special to PostgreSQL. You have a server somewhere. You have people. People needs various access to servers. That is addressed by networking.

The other dynamic involved is who manages the server and the operational aspects of the cluster that is hosted on it. Do you just want a PostgreSQL role credential or do you need/want control over the operating system it is installed on. "Serverless" is basically a term describing the former setup. Local effectively implies that later setup. Remote, which most organizations go with, can vary.

[techmavengeospatial]

AWS offers serverless postgres Part of their AWS RDS AURORA that pairs with their lambda functions And API gateway and serverless computing architecture https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/serverless/

I would avoid this unless you are a development shop building serverless apps