Pomerium v0.31 replaces its Postgres-based storage backend with a custom file-based solution using Pebble (LSM-tree storage) and Raft consensus for clustering. The change addresses operational challenges with managed Postgres instances at scale, including performance issues, configuration complexity, and lack of DBA expertise. The new approach uses Raft for leader election rather than full consistency, forwarding writes to a single leader while followers replicate state for failover. This provides easier management, comparable performance, and automatic recovery while relaxing consistency guarantees since lost data can be rebuilt from external sources.