EnterpriseDB, which provides products, services, support and training based on the PostgreSQL open source database project, has announced support for the newly released PostgreSQL 9.0 open source relational database.
PostgreSQL 9.0 includes more than a dozen major improvements that enhance every aspect of database application design and performance, including built-in replication and hot standby capabilities that give PostgreSQL 9.0 the high availability required for the "scale out" and failover architectures that characterize cloud computing and other demanding application environments, as well as 64-bit Windows support. The new release also simplifies major upgrades by removing the need for the "dump/load data" procedure required in prior versions and instead performs an in-place upgrade, which is much easier and faster.
The streaming replication that is in 9.0 is going to be very welcome to EnterpriseDB customers, says Robin Schumacher, director of product strategy at EnterpriseDB. "The EnterpriseDB customers that I have spoken to are all eager to upgrade to get to that. Postgres has had third-party contributors that have brought along replication solutions but now it has built-in streaming replication." A close second in terms of the most sought-after new capability is the "hot warm standby" feature which gives database administrators more capabilities in terms of the area of data protection and "being able to easily set up and configure a hot warm standby that is able to take over in the event of a failure on the actual primary database server."
Additionally, he notes, for EnterpriseDB customers, another key feature in the new Postgres release is the in-place upgrade capability. One of the most stressful things that a database administrator does is upgrade software, says Schumacher. Especially if they have to dump the data, install the new software, and reload the data, there is always fear that it is going to be an error-prone process and they are going to have issues, he notes. The in-place upgrade capability streamlines and simplifies the upgrading of the software. "For some of the customers that I have spoken to, that is one of the first things that they point to in the new release, even more so than the streaming replication in some cases."
Additional PostgreSQL 9.0 improvements are detailed on the PostgreSQL community site. EnterpriseDB customers and PostgreSQL community members can immediately benefit from EnterpriseDB's one-click installer for PostgreSQL 9.0.