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Is write-ahead log something new in PostgreSQL? I recall SQL Server being able to do log shipping since the 90s.

The WAL itself isn't new, but the capabilities to use it externally in a robust manner have improved in recent years via Logical Replication.

Logical decoding has been added in PG 9.4, released approx 9 years ago. WAL itself was added in 7.1, back in 2001.