To speed up the creation of backups for large PostgreSQL databases, the authors of the platform Timescale combined pgBackRest with EBS (Elastic Block Store) snapshots. This approach significantly improved the backup and restore process, reducing the time it takes to create full backups by over 100x and restoring from backups by a similar margin. By taking EBS snapshots at regular intervals, the authors were able to quickly restore their databases in case of failures, while still maintaining the reliability of pgBackRest for data integrity and validation. This approach has improved the customer experience and peace of mind for the Timescale team, making it an attractive solution for PostgreSQL users running in AWS environments.