Google Cloud recently announced the general availability of AlloyDB Omni, a downloadable version of the PostgreSQL-compatible database service AlloyDB. The new version is designed to run on-premises, has built-in support for generative AI, and will be available on VMware Cloud Foundation.
Initially introduced in preview last March, AlloyDB Omni maintains compatibility with PostgreSQL, enabling customers to deploy a containerized AlloyDB database engine in their Linux-based computing environment. Although it leverages the same engine as AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, it offers a subset of functionalities, including the index advisor, the AlloyDB columnar engine, automatic memory management, and adaptive autovacuum of stale data.
AlloyDB Omni operates within a container, which is installed using a command-line program provided by Google, and it does not support features that rely on operation within Google Cloud. However, the new option supports vector embeddings and AI, taking advantage of the recently announced AlloyDB AI, a set of capabilities separately covered on InfoQ. Kevin Jernigan, senior product manager at Google, explains:
At GA, AlloyDB Omni includes support for AlloyDB AI, an integrated set of capabilities built into AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, to help developers build enterprise-grade gen AI applications using their operational data. AlloyDB AI delivers 10x faster vector queries than standard PostgreSQL, easy embeddings generation using SQL, and integrations with the Google Cloud AI ecosystem including the Vertex AI Model Garden and open-source gen AI tools.
Following the GA of AlloyDB Omni, the cloud provider announced the preview of the AlloyDB Omni Kubernetes operator, which simplifies database provisioning, backups, secure connectivity, and observability, allowing customers to run AlloyDB Omni in most CNCF-compliant Kubernetes environments.
At the recent VMware Explore in Barcelona, Google Cloud and VMware announced a partnership to bring AlloyDB Omni to VMware Cloud Foundation, starting with on-premises private clouds. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, writes:
We're expanding our partnership with VMware to deliver Google Cloud’s AlloyDB Omni database on VMware Cloud Foundation, making it even easier for customers to modernize their workloads and build gen AI applications.
Taylor Justin Stacey, senior solutions engineer at SADA, highlights the value of the developer edition:
What's extra cool about Omni is there's a quick way to answer, "Is AlloyDB worth the switch?" Set it up with the developer edition (for free) then test your queries with the google_columnar_engine.enabled flag set to on or off. See how the performance compares.
For production usage, AlloyDB Omni is available with a monthly subscription starting at $1295 USD per month for a 16-vCPU, with 100-vCPU blocks for $6995 USD per month and discounts available for 1-year and 3-year commitments. Jernigan adds:
The vCPUs in each pack can be used across multiple servers or virtual machines as needed; there is no requirement to use all of the vCPUs in a pack on a set number of servers, nor on a single server.
AlloyDB Omni offers enterprise support and software updates for security patches and new features.