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PostgreSQL Inc. Open Sources Replication Solution
Martin Marvinski writes "PostgreSQL Inc, the commercial company providing replication software and support for PostgreSQL, open sourced their eRServer replication product. This makes PostgreSQL one step closer to being able to replace Oracle as the de facto RDBMS standard. More information can be found on PostgreSQL's website."
There is an enormous distance between "viable alternative" and "defacto standard" and the path between them is not paved with features.
You would still have to pay boatloads for support...even with postgres... Open Source does not mean 24/7 Support calls...
Implementing replication at the application layer is about as much fun as implementing table locking at that layer.
While this is a nice step forward, the real reason large sites utilize Oracle is because of synchronous replication.
The replication needs to be able to keep all data consistent across multiple servers, without any conflicts. Then, if a particular server goes down, the DNS can simply fail over to a second server.
Once the above has been achieved, then we have a viable alternative to Oracle.
I like PostgreSQL, and Open Source deserves capitalization, but I'd like to hear an enterprise DBA's perspective on if this really compares to Oracle's configurability, clustering capabilities, or the seamless swapping of redundant database packages when deployed on, say, an EMC 1000, for reliability and failover. BTW, for this request, "enterprise" = Fortune 100, not Joe's Web Hosting.
Like the subject says, I'm not a DBA, but I know some pretty heavy-duty ones that say nothing beats Oracle running on HP Superdomes with EMC storage.
PostgreSQL and mySQL are real, undeniable threats to Oracle. Not threats in the sense that Oracle's business will disappear, or that either of these databases will become de facto standards, but threats in that they will indisputably affect Oracle's ability to grow its database revenues.
My forecast, for what it's worth, is that Oracle's database business is in secular decline.
It doesn't matter that mySQL or PostgreSQL can't do everything that Oracle 9i does. That they do some of it, do it better and do it cheaper is what is key.
Five years ago, if you wanted to build a web-based application of any size, you probably went with Oracle. Now there is a free option. At the very least corporate purchasers will use this as a way to extract price concessions from their Oracle salesperson. More likely, in a few places (at first) PostgreSQL and mySQL will work their way into the corporate psyche by being used. Maybe for internal stuff, where budgets are tight. Or where projects are being "hidden" from management. But slowly, open source databases are taking hold.
The next stage is for the enterprise application vendors (SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel) to start supporting OSS databases. They'll want to, because it lowers the cost of projects to clients, while safeguarding their (falling) application license revenues. Hence, SAP "donating" SAP DB to mySQL. My forecast (number two) is that we'll see all three of the application vendors at least trialling OSS databases with beta customers by end '03. (Yes, I know SAP is already doing it, and that PeopleSoft has issued press releases but no product.)
And in this way, in the same way Linux slipped quietly into corporates, OSS databases will take off.
My only hope is that PostgreSQL, which is a much superior product to mySQL, will get the publicity it richly deserves.
*r
--- My dad's political betting
By the time PostgreSQL is capable of replacing Oracle as the de facto standard, MS SQL Server will already have done the job and be the new standard to beat. No matter how much people despise MS SQL Server, nor how much they over rate Oracle, it is now the standard for companies needing a low or mid range solution. As with all MSFT products, it improves with each iteration. Our needs aren't high-end, but it handles our 300GB databases with 170 million row tables remarkably well.
Even though the article is about an improvement in the PostgreSQL community, the comments are mostly pgsql vs mysql. People in the bazaar need to have personal motivations to work on opensource projects, mostly to have something against Microsoft, but increasingly, it is becoming a series of team wars. Linux vs BSD, then we had KDE vs GNOME and now qmail vs postfix and mysql vs pgsql. More than a decade ago we had vi vs emacs and BSD vs SYSV.
What the posters here need to realize is that it is exactly this competition that is driving the projects. If MySQL was not given the press and did not have its cult following, we would not see this pace of development for pgsql. The developments for FreeBSD really improved to compete with Linux although their developers claim they are not competing... they do have the fear Linux will supplant them.
What is interesting to note is that in most of these project wars, both projects really survive and get two different niches of their own. This was true of bash vs csh, BSD vs SYSV, BSD vs Linux, KDE vs GNOME, and now MySQL will become the standard entry level database and pgsql the higher level.
I use pgsql because my databases have complicated requirements that MySQL cannot meet. Yet MySQL is the quick and dirty solution when I have to set things up fast. For all new learners I always suggest MySQL. For people thinking of replacing or duplicating their ERP systems, I always suggest pgsql. I even know how to program in sleepycat's db and know where it should replace mysql in smaller embedded systems and where the mysql license cannot be used.
I believe this competition is coming to a close since pgsql has taken a big lead over MySQL in features, and therefore made itself more difficult to deal with especially for newbies. All I can say about the postgresql replication is bravo, and hope MySQL doesnt follow suit so it remains the simple fast and easy database in its own niche.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
SQL Server will never run on any version of UNIX. AFAIK, there aren't even (MS-supported) SQL Server client libraries for non-windows platforms. I realize that FreeTDS is available, but such a library would never be used in a highly critical sector.
If you have to integrate multiple platforms, you cannot use SQL server. Closest similar product is Sybase ASE, but Microsoft broke Sybase compatibility on purpose.
I think if people understood how irrationally obstinate SQL Server's platform dependence was, they would look elsewhere. I hope that this attitude holds them below 10% penetration - it certainly has up to now. They are a bit player.
In any case, there is a cheap, new version of DB2 out for $500/copy.