The recent Streaming Replication patch committed to the PostgreSQL source tree is the potential killer feature that can catapult PostgreSQL into a prominent position in the cloud computing landscape. This combined with Hot Standby fills a major void in PostgreSQL by providing a replication solution native to the core engine and allows for a horizontally scalable solution without any bolt ons. This is a key piece of functionality to leverage the elasticity promise of compute clouds. While it has always been possible to use replication with PostgreSQL, integrating this into the core will allow new PostgreSQL users to easily use replication without feeling overwhelmed by learning Slonik scripts. What is most exciting about this is the timing of when this is all happening. With the uncertainty of the future of MySQL, there are more people than ever looking at PostgreSQL and one of the biggest historical knocks on PostgreSQL is the lack of an integrated replication solution. This is huge as this new audience starts to look at PostgreSQL and realize that PostgreSQL can more than fit their needs as an open source database instead of MySQL.
Streaming PostgreSQL into the CloudPosts Tagged ‘postgres’
Does PostgreSQL Run in the Cloud?
Monday, January 11th, 2010 by Jim MlodgenskiCloud Computing is the new big wave in the Information technology industry, but it is an amorphous term that is commonly misunderstood. I talk to people everyday who are confused by the Cloud, but Cloud Computing is simply a shared computing resource and has actually been part of the IT landscape for many years. The Cloud Computing ecosystem can be split into three categories, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). SaaS can be considered the first major breakthrough in what is considered Cloud Computing today with services such as Salesforce.com and email hosting like Gmail and Hotmail. PaaS evolved out of the success of successful SaaS offering and spawned platforms allowing users to enhance SaaS offerings with platforms like the Google App Engine and Force.com. The latest category of Cloud Computing of IaaS is driving the excitement. This includes Storage Clouds and most importantly Compute Clouds. Compute Clouds are shared environments providing virtualized Operating Systems allowing users a platform to deploy applications with greater control over the resources and the ability to deploy the applications of their choice. These Compute Clouds are where PostgreSQL can be used to back any sort of application you would run inside a traditional data center. These different types of Clouds and the use of the common Cloud Computing terminology among them leads to the confusion of what Cloud Computing really is and ultimately leads to the common question I hear “Does PostgreSQL run in the Cloud?”…Of course it does…
Does PostgreSQL Run in the Cloud?The Growing Popularity of PostgreSQL
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by Ed BoyajianThere are some interesting statistics in the survey from Matt Aslett of the 451 Group (451 Group survey highlights user concerns over Oracle’s proposed ownership of MySQL).
One of the stats that stands out in the write up is:
“PostgreSQL usage is also expected to grow, from 27.1% of all users today to 30.5% in 2011″
This statistic in particular prompted a flurry of calls from partners and customers over the past few days excited about the relative penetration of Postgres indicated in this survey.
For those who follow Postgres carefully, this is not big news. The community has been thriving for a long time. In fact, the community version of PostgreSQL has long been generating millions of annual downloads (from PostgreSQL.org) and that doesn’t count how many other MILLIONS of user receive Postgres via its inclusion in every major Linux distributions like RHEL, SLES, Fedora and Open SuSE.
Regarding the projected growth of Postgres, I think the Oracle acquisition of MySQL is a small reason for it. We have a unique view on this through our work with the community and our customers (we get a front row seat), and here are some important drivers why Postgres is on the rise independent of MySQL’s uncertain future:
- Technical improvements in recent releases. Developers, architects and DBAs are getting more out of Postgres now. It was only in 2005 that Postgres began supporting the win32 port, a major step forward for developers who work in a Windows environment. This was a major door opener for Postgres. In fact, some of the most important features for broad-based adoption are much more recent than most are aware, given the 20-year history of Postgres.
- Enterprise architects and corporate developers writing more complex server-centric (Java) applications with increasing need to specify lower cost, open technologies. This class of application and developer is different than the recent trend to getting quick apps done with lightweight scripting languages (PHP, Perl, Python) where MySQL has always been strong. Java applications are different and still the dominant force in server-centric enterprise application development. They also require a higher order database like Postgres. The de-facto standard here has long been Oracle, but cost pressures are changing this quickly. Postgres is enjoying a strong and growing relevance to Java developers. The 2009 Eclipse Developer Survey points this out with even more clarity.
- Newer versions of Postgres are just “hitting the shelves” in production in notable deployments. Given 2-year development cycles for some key projects, the more recent technical and feature enhancements in Postgres are just starting to emerge from notable users. One of our customers, Sony Online Entertainment is a great example of this. After two-years in development, one of SOE’s newest MMORPGs, (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) Free Realms, just went live and it is powered entirely by Postgres (in this case it is EnterpriseDB Postgres Plus Advanced Server). This is a heavy-duty, graphic-intensive application handling over 5 million registered users and built around “micro-transactions.”
The fact that 27.1% of the 451 Group’s surveyed database users currently use Postgres looks bigger than expected highlights how under-represented basic Postgres facts and figures are in the press and media. This is actually a testament to the independence of the Postgres community, which appropriately is more focused on technology than PR.
It is worth repeating that the growth of Postgres isn’t tied to the uncertainty of MySQL. The open source database market isn’t a single unified market. The two leading open source databases, Postgres and MySQL, are very different types of databases addressing different workloads and needs. The growth of Postgres signals increasing acceptance of an open source RDBMS in the enterprise for applications that were typically built to run on products like Oracle, DB2, Sybase – a segment of the database market MySQL was never designed to support.
The Growing Popularity of PostgreSQLHow to Install Postgres Binaries (in One Click)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 by Scott MeadIn the Linux world, many people have come to rely on (for better or worse) their distribution package management. Personally, I feel that until this is fixed, Linux will never be a mainstream desktop OS. The problem with using your OS package manager for installing Postgres is that there are no real consistency guidelines from vendor to vendor. How do we get around this problem? Simple!
How to Install Postgres Binaries (in One Click)Elephant Roads: PostgreSQL Patches and Variants
Saturday, October 17th, 2009 by Bruce MomjianToday at PG West I saw a great presentation by Josh Berkus about the many variants of Postgres — it was a trip down memory lane. I was also surprised to see how many offshoots there are of Postgres; I had heard many of the names before but it was surprising to see them all listed together.
Elephant Roads: PostgreSQL Patches and VariantsCoding Simplicity
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 by Bruce MomjianWhen developing the Postgres backend, we are always mindful of keeping the code clean, efficient, and reliable. For some people, our style is too conservative, but end-users appreciate our current approach. One thing we often avoid is complex coding — the pitfalls of which are well presented in a blog post by Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software). Talking about programmers grappling with complex designs, Joel wrote:
“You see, everybody else is too afraid of looking stupid because they just can’t keep enough facts in their head at once to make multiple inheritance, or templates, or COM, or multithreading, or any of that stuff work. So they sheepishly go along with whatever faddish programming craziness has come down from the architecture astronauts who speak at conferences and write books and articles and are so much smarter than us that they don’t realize that the stuff that they’re promoting is too hard for us.”
No, I am not advocating Duct Tape programming (as mentioned in the blog), but the Postgres project is always trying to steer between Duct Tape programming and overly-complex design programming.
Coding SimplicityHow to Monitor a Postgres Warm Standby
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 by Scott MeadWarm standby with Postgres is all the rage nowadays, and the PostgreSQL team has done an incredible job of building an easy to use, robust log shipping / replay system. Even the newest of users can build a warm standby in just minutes; however, documentation seems to lack questions to the standard set of ‘operational’ questions that users have. Here, I will nose-dive …
How to Monitor a Postgres Warm StandbyReaching Out to Middleware Users
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 by Bruce MomjianI just presented a talk at JBoss World with Jim Mlodgenski of EnterpriseDB. We showed the changes necessary to allow Hibernate to work well with Postgres. I wonder if we should be doing more to encourage middleware users to use Postgres, perhaps by creating resources so they can use Postgres more efficiently. Here is our talk (registration required).
Reaching Out to Middleware UsersQuick and Powerful Database with OpenOffice.org and Postgres
Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by Scott MeadUnless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 3 years, you’ve heard of OpenOffice.org. Like most people, I’ve used the software a few times to edit some documents and haven’t really given much thought to it. During one of my last plane trips, I decided that the small database I keep (in PostgreSQL) needed a facelift, err, well, a face actually. I built the database completely on the CLI with the postgres ‘psql’ utility and all my access to it is via the CLI. This is nice, but I figured that there had to be something easier. I fired up OO.org and started a ‘New Database’ just to see what was possible. The first screen up gives us the option:
I was immediately beside myself with excitement, if OpenOffice base had the ability to draw forms like MS Access, and will let me hook it up to my existing postgres DB, then I may be done with an interface before the flight deck signals ‘initial approach’.
Quick and Powerful Database with OpenOffice.org and Postgres
