Live From JBoss World Orlando!

I'm just back from a brisk walk around the Marriott World Center Resort in Orlando, FL.

What an amazing place! It is incredibly huge. I asked "How big?" when I was checking in and it has 2004 rooms, 265,000 square feet of meeting space, multiple pools (including some with waterfalls), at least one hot tub and a golf course. Oh yeah, and an alarm clock that doesn't work. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm here manning the EnterpriseDB booth with Derek Rodner and, my boss, Jim Mlodgenski. Jim is giving a presentation on Friday. We're giving away copies of my book. I'm doing the signing thing. It's amazingly fun.

I have gotten to talk to so many smart people. JBoss World is not one of the largest conferences but it is a very open source friendly group. I have been amazed at how many people tell me they are already running Postgres and many have been for years. These are production systems too, not just tryouts.

A big draw (besides a free book) has been EnterpriseDB's Oracle compatibility features. Many of these companies are using Oracle and wouldn't mind saving money as long as they don't have to rewrite their apps.

Orlando is just about 65 miles or so from my house so I just drove over. Jim and Derek flew down. We'll all be leaving tomorrow.

postgresql jboss

First Meeting of the Suncoast Postgres User Group

Set aside March 11 at 6pm for the first meeting of the Suncoast Postgres User Group. The SPUG serves Tampa, St Pete, Lakeland, Bradenton and the rest of central and western Florida. You can get additional information at http://pugs.postgresql.org/spug

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Postgres 8.3 is out

Postgres 8.3 is out and it contains plenty of new and improved features. Some of my favorites are: sql/xml support, text search, autovacuum improvements, performance improvements (significant) and some additional SQL changes. You can read the press release. You can also check out the feature list or review the simpler feature matrix which compares all of the versions since 7.4. You may also want to read the release notes. You can read about the release in the press by following along with the discussion at postgresql.org.

postgresql new release

MySQL vs Postgres Wiki

There is a new wiki comparing MySQL to PostgreSQL. Because it's a wiki, hopefully it can be kept updated so that it's current AND accurate. The wiki is MySQL vs PostgreSQL. Personally, I'd like to see this grow into a universal comparison site that the community could keep updated. LewisC

postgresql mysql

Postgres in the Sky (well, EnterpriseDB in the Cloud)

EnterpriseDB Corp announced yesterday that they will be joining Amazon in the cloud. So what the heck does that mean?

Amazon's cloud computing is also called the Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute or Amazon EC2. EC2, when tied with Amazon's cloud storage (Amazon S3), gives you cheap and easy scalability for your applications. Your computing power moves from your own data center and hardware to the "cloud". You control the servers but they are virtual servers running somewhere else. You control access, you control what applications are running and who can use them. If you only need a trickle, you pay for a trickle. When you need to scale to huge proportions, you pay for what you need.

Amazon recently announced Amazon SimpleDB which utilizes Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. With SimpleDB, you can store and query data (i.e. build data web services). I really wasn't all that impressed with SimpleDB when I first read about it as it is a very simple database. It's named well. ;-)

SimpleDB gives you named value sets of data. It is the most basic of data structures. You can assign anything to the "database" by giving it a name and a value. A name can have multiple values. And so on.

EnterpriseDB's announcement, EnterpriseDB to Deliver OLTP Database Using Amazon Cloud, means that instead of the very basic SimpleDB, you will now be able to get a robust, Enterprise-class database in the cloud.

The beta testing for EnterpriseDB Advanced Server Cloud Edition starts in March, 2008. Cool.

You can run EnterpriseDB on a tiny server to build and test your apps and then, in minutes, scale up to huge proportions when you go live. No worries about data centers or buying hardware.

No mention if the vanilla EnterpriseDB PostgreSQL package would be offered. I would think not as EnterpriseDB Advanced Server is more geared towards this kind of solution.

I'm not sure what kind of SLAs Amazon offers. It will be interesting to see what kind of guarantees can be offered on a service like this. OLTP processing requires very reliable computing, much more so than OLAP and reporting.

We live in interesting times.

LewisC

postgresql enterprisedb

Postgres and/or EnterpriseDB User Groups?

Hi all. I'm going to be using Postgres and EnterpriseDB a lot more in the near future. I was wondering if there is a Tampa area, or central Florida, Postgres user group or if there might be interest in starting one. If not, maybe a general database user group. I know the local Oracle user group is very popular (and it's a group I attend and enjoy) and I was hoping to have the same kind of thing for Postgres and EnterpriseDB. I think a general database user group might be a good idea too. It could cover all of the databases and give people who don't normally work with a particular database some exposure to it. For example, I have never worked with SQL Server but wouldn't mind an occasional presentation on SQL Server topics. Any interest in something like this? I don't know how many people in Central Florida read my blog and would be interested in meeting and discussing various databases. Let me know if you are already aware of something like this or would be interested in attending if something was available. Thanks, LewisC

postgresql enterprisedb

Would you like to win a copy of my EnterpriseDB book?

I've been thinking long and hard about how I want to give away a few copies of my book. I will be at the SOUG meeting Thursday, Jan 24th here in Tampa. If you're in the area, stop by. I'm going to have a drawing for a couple of copies that night. That doesn't really help those people who aren't near by. So, I am going to ask 3 questions and the first two people to answer all three correctly will get a copy. They won't be hard to answer but the answers might require a little work. I will ask the questions and explain how you will need to respond. To get the questions, you need to follow me on twitter. You can find my twitter account in various places on the net, including in my blog at ITToolbox.com.. You will need to be watching at 9am Eastern time, Jan 12, 2008. Follow and be watching for my questions. I will ask the questions and then explain what to do next. This contest is open to anyone. If you are outside the US and you win, we can discuss the best way to get you your book. I hope this is a fun process. That's what I'm shooting for anyway. Let me know what you think. LewisC

postgresql enterprisedb