PostgreSQL nears parity with Oracle 11g

PostgreSQL nears parity with Oracle 11g, with streaming replication and Hot
Standby features
 
6 July 2010: The next version of open source database PostgreSQL, which is
scheduled for release in August, will have near feature-parity with Oracle
11g, according to PostgreSQL consultancy 2ndQuadrant.
 
Simon Riggs, CTO and Founder of 2ndQuadrant, said the implementation of
streaming replication and Hot Standby in the core of the database, will
encourage companies to migrate from expensive proprietary databases, such as
Oracle. 
 
"A couple of years ago, when people said to me, 'how does Postgres compare
to Oracle?', I used to say 'We're a bit like Oracle 8'. Now - with these new
replication features - I can say, 'We're a bit like Oracle 11g'," said Riggs
at a PostgreSQL conference on Friday. "Postgres has had replication for four
years, but as separate packages. Getting replication into the core of
Postgres is key for commercial adoption."
 
Riggs was speaking at the CHAR(10) Conference, which is the first PostgreSQL
conference worldwide to focus on Clustering, High Availability and
Replication features in the open source database. The conference, which was
held at Oxford, UK on 2 and 3 July, was run by PostgreSQL consultancy
2ndQuadrant.
 
Nic Ferrier, CTO of social dating site WooMe.com, said at the CHAR(10)
conference that he was delighted that PostgreSQL 9.0 will have streaming
replication in its core. 
 
"It's really, really good that they've implemented replication in the core
of PostgreSQL. Customers and end users don't want modularity - they want it
to work out of the box," said Ferrier.
 
All the data from the WooMe site is stored in PostgreSQL databases. The site
is currently using the londiste replication engine, but plans to migrate to
9.0 over the next two years, according to Ferrier.
 
Conference attendee Jonathan Harden, who works as a Systems Engineer at
Internet Service Provider Zen Internet, said he plans to move to PostgreSQL
9.0 as soon as possible. 
 
"As soon as the final version is released, I will start testing it. I'd like
to start using it as soon as is feasible," said Harden.
 
Harden is particularly interested in the Hot Standby feature, which will
allow him to redistribute the read-load for the PostgreSQL servers, which
Zen Internet uses to collect and analyse statistics for customers. 
 
"Having the Hot Standby feature is going to be fantastic - I'm really
looking forward to it," said Harden.
"At the moment I can only do read and write on the primary server, which
means I have a heavy read-load on that server. With Hot Standby, I'll be
able to do writes on one server and spread the reads on other server."
 
The Hot Standby feature in PostgreSQL 9.0 was written by 2ndQuadrant CTO
Simon Riggs. 
 
"I've been working on the Hot Standby feature for the last 18 months," said
Riggs. "It has consistently been voted to the top feature for replication
users, which is why I was keen to focus on it."
 
PostgreSQL 9.0 is due to be released in Beta 3 soon. The final version of
PostgreSQL 9.0 is scheduled for release on August 15, but the release is
"more likely to be in September", according to Riggs. 
 
Notes for editors
 
For more information, contact Simon Riggs, CTO of 2ndQuadrant, on +44 7900
255 520 or simon@2ndQuadrant.com
 
For photos of the CHAR(10) conference, contact Ingrid Marson of Acorn PR on
+44 1707 328 511 or ingrid@acornpr.org.uk
 
2ndQuadrant offers services, training and support to help companies get the
best from the PostgreSQL database. The consultancy, which was founded by
long-term PostgreSQL contributor Simon Riggs, offers 24x7 support for
PostgreSQL implementations, including guaranteed Service Level Agreements
and PostgreSQL bug fixes. 
 
Many 2ndQuadrant staff are committers or contributors to the PostgreSQL
project, including Simon Riggs, who wrote the Hot Standby feature for
version 9.0, Greg Smith, who is an expert on High Availability and Hannu
Krosing, who has worked extensively on scaling the database.
 
The company, which is a Gold Sponsor of PostgreSQL, has offices in three
countries and works with customers in 15 countries. For more information
visit: http://www.2ndquadrant.com
 
More information on the streaming replication and Hot Standby features are
available on the PostgreSQL website:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/streaming...
and
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/hot-stand...
 
The CHAR(10) conference was attended by 70 people from 12 countries,
including employees from Skype, NTT and Zen Internet. More information on
the conference can be found on the CHAR(10) website: http://www.char10.org/ 
 
Ingrid Marson
Acorn PR
Tel: 01707 328 511
Email:  <mailto:ingrid.marson@acornpr.org.uk> ingrid@acornpr.org.uk
Web:  <http://www.acornpr.org.uk> www.acornpr.org.uk
 
Acorn Public Relations Ltd is a limited company (no. 06386021) registered in
England and Wales.