{"id":49743,"date":"2026-03-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=49743"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:18:04","slug":"from-legacy-to-leadership-how-postgresql-on-azure-powers-enterprise-agility-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/from-legacy-to-leadership-how-postgresql-on-azure-powers-enterprise-agility-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"From legacy to leadership: How PostgreSQL on Azure powers enterprise agility and innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In today\u2019s digital economy, business leaders face a relentless challenge: how to deliver innovation, scale, and resilience without spiraling costs or compromising performance. At the heart of this challenge lies data infrastructure, which is often one of the most critical and most constrained layers of the enterprise stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Microsoft, we\u2019ve seen firsthand how legacy systems, particularly on-premises databases like Oracle, can become a bottleneck to progress. These systems are expensive to maintain, difficult to scale, and increasingly out of step with the agility modern organizations require. But we also understand that migration is not a trivial decision. Concerns about downtime, compatibility, security, and retraining are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s why we\u2019ve spent the last several years investing in PostgreSQL. Our mission is to make PostgreSQL the most performant, scalable, and enterprise-ready open database platform available. With Azure Database for PostgreSQL<\/a> and the newly introduced Azure HorizonDB<\/a>, we\u2019re delivering on that vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Explore Azure Database for PostgreSQL<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The cost of standing still<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Staying on legacy infrastructure might feel like a safe choice, but it\u2019s rarely the best one. The costs of maintaining aging on-premises databases are rising. Hardware refresh cycles, escalating licensing fees, and the need for niche expertise all add up. Organizations can spend most of their IT budgets and time just maintaining existing systems, leaving little room for innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Oracle customers have cited<\/a> rising licensing costs, performance bottlenecks, and scalability limits as major pain points. Others have reported<\/a> high support costs and a need for advanced AI capabilities as primary reasons for considering a move away from Oracle databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But migration comes with its own set of challenges. What if your applications aren\u2019t compatible with a new platform? What if your team lacks the skills to manage a new system? What if performance suffers or what if something breaks? These are valid concerns, and they are precisely the challenges we\u2019ve engineered PostgreSQL on Azure to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apollo Hospitals: A case study in transformation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apollo Hospitals<\/a>, one of Asia\u2019s largest healthcare providers, faced these very questions. With more than 74 hospitals and over 10,000 beds, Apollo\u2019s digital infrastructure is mission critical. Their in-house hospital information system, built on Oracle, was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Performance bottlenecks were impacting care delivery, and the cost of scaling was unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apollo Hospitals<\/a> made the bold, strategic decision to migrate their databases to Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Their IT and development teams worked closely with Microsoft and their cloud partner to ensure a seamless transition. The results were transformative. Since the migration, Apollo has seen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n