The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has announced the release of the open source relational database system PostgreSQL 9.3 which expands PostgreSQL's reliability, availability, as well as its ability to integrate with other databases.
Version 9.3 makes PostgreSQL's Foreign Data Wrappers, which were previously read-only, also writable, enabling two-way data interchange between systems. Postgres’s ability to help in integrating data from disparate sources into a coherent stack, the company says, addresses today's complex IT environments which involve multiple databases and semi-structured data sources. The project has also released postgres_fdw, a higher-performance, read/write PostgreSQL-to-PostgreSQL federation driver.
However, the actual early adopters of this feature are ones that have been using it for integration with Postgres and other databases, Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL Core Team member, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Many of the non-relational databases are adopted because of their scale-out features “but then people miss the ability to do queries that do more than retrieve one object at a time,” says Berkus. In addition, many newer databases are chosen because they have one specialty that they do really well, he adds. “By giving Postgres the ability to interface bi-directionally, to read and write other database systems, Postgres can be used as a hub to manage the disparate set of databases that are in an enterprise,” Berkus notes.
PostgreSQL 9.3 also adds new features to improve and extend PostgreSQL's reliability and availability, including the Data Page Checksums to help administrators quickly detect failing disks and bad hardware that corrupts data; sub-second switch-offs from master to replica, enabling "carrier-grade" availability; and easier, faster reconfiguration of cascading replicas after failover.
Additional information is available at PostgreSQL.org.