The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released the latest version of its open source database, PostgreSQL 9.2. This release features improvements in performance, scalability, and flexibility, including index-only scans, linear scalability to 64 cores, and native JSON support.
With improved vertical scalability and flexibility, PostgreSQL 9.2 is able to efficiently allocate hardware resources on larger servers and handle larger-volume workloads. Index-only access, one of the chief improvements in 9.2, “allows you to avoid needing to access the base table for some queries which is important because the index that you’re accessing is often much smaller than the table, thus letting you get a much faster response time,” Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL Core Team member, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
PostgreSQL 9.2 features cascading replication which allows users to run larger starcks of horizontally scaled servers. “The advantage of that is if you have geographically distributed data centers, then you can have a cluster of replicated servers in each data center, and minimize the bandwidth of replication data that you’re sending between them,” Berkus explains. Support for Range Types enables developers to create better calendaring, scientific, and financial applications, while native JSON support allows users to create and store documents efficiently for web APIs.
Visit www.postgresql.org to learn more.