Simplyblock Launches Serverless, Branchable Postgres Built on Distributed NVMe Storage

BERLIN - Feb. 9, 2026 - PRLog -- Vela transforms PostgreSQL into a branchable system, allowing developers and teams to create isolated, production-grade environments in seconds, without copying data. Whether for development, staging, or AI pipelines, branches behave like full databases but share a common storage backend. The result is fast, efficient database provisioning that supports high iteration velocity while reducing operational burden.

Unlike traditional database-as-a-service offerings, Vela is built from the ground up to be self-hostable and cloud-agnostic, with deep integration into Kubernetes. Each instance includes a lightweight virtualization layer and runs on Simplyblock's NVMe-native storage engine, allowing compute and storage to co-reside for maximum performance. Vela manages autoscaling, snapshots, and lifecycle orchestration natively, delivering a serverless experience, even inside the enterprise."

The platform includes integrated authentication, row-level security, a self-service UI, and observability baked into the control plane, reducing the complexity of running Postgres at scale.

"Vela brings the speed of serverless, the structure of version control, and the resilience of modern storage into one unified database platform," said Rob Pankow, CEO and co-founder of Simplyblock. "By combining orchestration, virtualization, and high-performance storage under one API-driven architecture, we're giving teams the tools to run Postgres like a modern platform. Not just a database."

Vela coordinates not just databases, but the full platform stack, including storage, snapshots, lifecycle management, and security. From volume creation to multi-tenant isolation and data recovery, every layer is infrastructure-as-code and fully observable. For high-performance use cases, Vela also supports RDMA networking via RoCE (https://www.simplyblock.io/glossary/what-is-nvme-over-roce/) alongside NVMe/TCP (https://www.simplyblock.io/glossary/what-is-nvme-over-tcp/).

To simplify onboarding, Simplyblock has launched a hosted Vela Sandbox (https://vela.simplyblock.io/sandbox), which allows developers to experience the branching model and spin up full environments in minutes with no setup. Once teams are ready to scale, Vela runs in their own infrastructure—on Kubernetes, bare metal, or virtual machines—preserving data sovereignty, security, and operational control.

The Vela Beta is available starting today, with documentation, guides, and the hosted sandbox at: https://vela.simplyblock.io/sandbox

About Simplyblock
Simplyblock is a high-performance, NVMe/TCP software-defined storage platform built for modern cloud-native infrastructure. Designed for deep integration with Kubernetes, Simplyblock enables dynamic orchestration of stateful workloads across virtualized, bare-metal, and hybrid environments. With support for NVMe-oF, erasure coding, and scale-out deployments, it provides the low-latency, resilient foundation needed to run enterprise storage services at scale.