PostgreSQL upgrade readiness assessment
A fixed-price assessment for teams on older PostgreSQL major versions — plan a safe upgrade path before extended-support charges and blocked features force a rushed one.
From £4,250
Last updated:A PostgreSQL upgrade readiness assessment maps the safe route from an older major version to a current one: compatibility, breaking changes, the viable upgrade paths with their downtime and rollback trade-offs, and — on AWS RDS — extended-support cost exposure. Revenant Systems delivers it as a written upgrade plan with sequenced steps and a risk register, at a fixed price agreed up front.
Who is the assessment for?
The assessment fits teams on older PostgreSQL versions with an upgrade decision ahead: support nearing its end or already expired, provider extended-support charges, or application compatibility blocking a move. Community and managed-provider support calendars differ; the assessment checks both against the version you actually run.
Who is it not for?
Teams already on a current major version, whose question is performance rather than support status — that is the PostgreSQL performance audit's ground. Nor is it for a team whose upgrade path is already decided and simply needs executing: hands-on execution is available, quoted as separate work once a plan exists.
What does the assessment cover?
The assessment checks the current version, extensions, and features against the target version; identifies the breaking changes and deprecations relevant to your actual workload; and reviews application-side risks — driver versions, query-plan changes, and connection handling. For RDS estates it also weighs extended-support cost exposure against the cost of upgrading.
- Extension and feature compatibility against the target version
- Breaking changes and deprecations for your workload
- Application-side risks: drivers, query plans, connections
- RDS extended-support exposure vs upgrade cost
What does upgrade planning cost?
The assessment starts from £4,250 for an agreed PostgreSQL upgrade scope. The fixed price covers compatibility analysis, the recommended upgrade path and recovery plan. Running the upgrade is separately scoped; your own team can use the plan without buying further work.
Ian Compton leads the work, with specialist help where required. He reads your enquiry personally; the usual next step is a free 20–30 minute technical fit call to check scope, access and likely budget.
Discuss your upgradeUK company and contracting entity · UK GDPR-aware delivery · Independent — nothing to resell · Reports written for your team to act on
Which upgrade paths are considered?
The assessment compares in-place upgrade, dump and restore, managed Blue/Green deployment where supported, and logical-replication cutover. Downtime is estimated from data size, replication lag, application behaviour and rehearsal results. Recovery planning also accounts for writes after cutover: keeping the old database does not make switching back safe once the new one has accepted changes.
AWS RDS behaviour after a Blue/Green switchover
| Path | Downtime depends on | Recovery planning |
|---|---|---|
| In-place upgrade (pg_upgrade) | Data transfer mode, checks and application restart | Tested backup or snapshot; account for writes after restart |
| Dump and restore | Export, transfer, restore and validation time | Retained source; reconcile any writes accepted by the target |
| Managed Blue/Green deployment | Replication catch-up, switchover and application reconnection | Separate recovery plan; RDS replication stops after switchover |
| Logical-replication cutover | Replication lag, write freeze and connection cutover | Plan for target writes before considering a return to the source |
Why act before end of standard support?
Because staying put has a hard cost. When a major version leaves standard support, AWS RDS moves it to extended support — billed per vCPU-hour on top of the instance price, a real and growing line item — while self-hosted estates stop receiving security patches. Planning the upgrade early keeps the timing, and the downtime window, yours to choose.
Cost pressure on AWS is familiar ground: the founder's prior-role work on cloud spend took around 60% off a platform's bill while its traffic doubled.
What you receive
- A written upgrade plan: recommended path, sequenced steps, and a realistic downtime window
- A risk register and rollback plan
- A “further investigation recommended” section for anything material outside the fixed scope
- A findings walkthrough call
How the engagement runs
- Typical turnaround: two weeks from start to report
- Fixed scope and fixed price — from £4,250, agreed before work starts
What we need from you
- Current version, extension list, and configuration — or read access to gather them
- Application driver and framework details
- For RDS estates: instance details and billing visibility for the extended-support exposure
- A short walkthrough with the team that owns the database
Access and client data are handled under our information security statement.
Frequently asked questions
Is the price fixed?
It is — from £4,250, to a scope agreed up front, and both stay put. There is no day rate to watch.
What if the assessment surfaces problems beyond the upgrade?
They go in the plan under further investigation rather than quietly widening the engagement. Each is described with enough context to judge its urgency, and can be scoped separately if you want it addressed.
Can you run the upgrade as well?
Yes. Hands-on execution of the upgrade plan is available as a separately scoped, fixed-price engagement. The plan is deliberately complete without us: the sequencing, risks, and rollback steps are already worked out, so your own team can execute it.
Each package is an audit or assessment offered on its own — the process behind it is covered in how we work.
Paying extended-support fees? Let's talk.
Get in touchIan Compton reads your message personally. The usual next step is a free 20–30 minute technical fit call to check the problem, scope and likely budget.