Case Study: gematik GmbH achieves ultra-high availability for Germany’s national healthcare directory with pgEdge

Gematik GmbH achieves near-zero downtime upgrades with pgEdge

Gematik GmbH, the organization responsible for Germany's national healthcare directory, faced a challenge in guaranteeing ultra-high availability and zero-downtime upgrades for its critical system. Their application, built on the HAPI FHIR API and Hibernate framework, was constrained by extended maintenance windows and an inability to modify the application code. Traditional single-node PostgreSQL deployments could not meet these stringent requirements without risking significant downtime for healthcare providers. pgEdge was engaged to provide a solution.

pgEdge implemented a distributed PostgreSQL solution that delivered multi-node redundancy and active-active replication without requiring any changes to the existing application. This included a zero-downtime upgrade from PostgreSQL 14 to 16. The results were substantial, reducing system downtime from hours to near-zero during maintenance and ensuring continuous access to critical patient information. The pgEdge deployment provided a resilient, compliant foundation that strengthened the entire national digital health infrastructure.

Gematik GmbH