You need to improve throughput for concurrent application requests to PostgreSQL.

The correct solution is to implement connection pooling , ideally by using the built-in PgBouncer capability in Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server. Connection pooling allows many concurrent application requests to share and reuse a smaller set of established PostgreSQL server connections instead of repeatedly opening and closing database sessions. Microsoft notes that creating a new PostgreSQL connection for each operation consumes server resources because each connection involves its own backend process. Reusing pooled connections therefore reduces connection overhead, lowers CPU and memory consumption, and improves throughput for high-concurrency workloads.

This directly matches Fabrikam ' s stated requirement that database connections support high concurrency with minimal latency through connection optimization . PgBouncer can efficiently multiplex large numbers of client connections onto fewer PostgreSQL connections, particularly in transaction pooling mode.

Increasing max_connections is not the preferred solution because each additional PostgreSQL connection consumes memory and other resources; Microsoft explicitly recommends PgBouncer instead when more concurrent connections are required. Increasing shared_buffers addresses caching and memory allocation rather than connection-management overhead. Read replicas can scale read workloads, but they do not optimize the application ' s connection lifecycle.

Study Guide references: Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server → connection pooling; PgBouncer; connection management and high-concurrency performance.