Posts tagged “Amplifypostgres”

Welcome to "Cultivating DEI" , a series in which Postgres community members share their insight and experience about creating a more diverse and inclusive Postgres environment where all are welcome.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about relationships between the PostgreSQL community and the Database research community. To put it bluntly – these two communities do not talk to each other!

There are many reasons why I am concerned about this situation. First, I consider myself belonging to both of these communities. Even if right now I am 90% in industry, I can't write off my academic past. Writing a scientific paper with the hope of being accepted to the real database conference is something which appeals to me.

Secondly, we want to have quality candidates for database positions. Anyone who has tried recently to fill these positions knows that this is not an easy task. If you are looking at recent college grads, there are almost no chances that you can find somebody who has PostgreSQL experience. Here is where we face the other side of the problem.

The problem is not simply that scientists do not speak at the PostgreSQL conferences, and that PostgreSQL developers do not speak at academic conferences. The larger issue is that for many Computer Sciences (CS) students, their academic research and practical experience do not intersect. They learn about some incredible algorithms, and as part of their coursework they may suggest some enhancements to existing algorithms. They then practice their SQL skills with MySQL, which from my observations lacks so many basic features, that it can hardly be taken seriously as a data platform.

If students practiced using PostgreSQL, they would have a full-scale enterprise ready object-relational database -- not a "light" version, but a robust platform, which supports a multitude of index and data types, constraints, procedural languages and much more.

I've heard from several professors that "MySQL is okay for "learning SQL." I want to ask -- what does "learning SQL" mean? Is it just learning how to write a syntactically correct SQL? One contributing factor to the problem is that MySQL comes on each laptop by default, integrated with basic tools that allow building websites. It is integrated with Wordpress. There is no reason for PostgreSQL not to have similar support, but it is not in place.

This is particularly frustrating when you recognize the amount of database research was completed using Postgres, for Postgres or with help of Postgres; R-Tree and GIST indexes, for example. Also, the SIGMOD Test of Time Award in 2018 went to the paper "Serializable isolation for snapshot databases," which was implemented in PostgreSQL.

I know the answer to the question "why do they not talk?" Researchers do not want to talk at the PostgreSQL conferences, because those are not scientific conferences, and participation in these conferences will not result in a publication. Postgres developers do not present at the CS conferences, because they do not want to write long papers. Even if they do submit something, their papers are often rejected as "not having any scientific value." I have experienced this on multiple occasions.

I came across another example of "why” when I attended the ACM/SIGMOD conference in Amsterdam. I attended a compelling presentation on the problem of cardinality estimation over multi-join queries, that introduced new optimization techniques. The presenter mentioned that he had used Postgres to build the prototype. I was too far back in the room to ask my question, so I reached out via the conference website.

I asked the presenter why he didn't submit a patch. He replied that their approach was hacky, and it needs more work to think about adding it to Postgres. I've asked whether he would be interested in working on it with some PostgreSQL community members. His reply? "Not in the next two years, I've just received a post-doc position at Microsoft, so I can't do it for the next two years."

So yes -- I know the answer as to why these two communities historically do not communicate. However, I do not like or accept it. Perhaps we can talk about and resolve this problem together?!

Contributor Bio:

Henrietta Dombrovskaya is a database researcher and developer with over 30 years of academic and industrial experience. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Saint Petersburg, Russia. She taught Database and Transaction theory at the University of Saint – Petersburg (Russia), as well as multiple database tuning classes for both beginners and advanced professionals.

Her professional experience includes consulting for a number of government projects in Chicago and New York, and providing Data services in the financial sector, manufacturing, and distribution. She is a co-author, with B. Novikov, of the book “System Tuning”, BHV, S.-Petersburg, Russia. Her researches in overcoming object-relational impedance mismatch were publish in the Proceedings of EDBT 2014 Athens and ICDE 2016 in Helsinki. At Braviant Holdings she is happy to have an opportunity to implement the results of her research in practice.

Henrietta Dombrovskaya is a co-organizer of the Chicago PostgreSQL User Group and a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work Group for the Postgres Conference Series. She was recently awarded the 2019 "Technologist of the Year" award by the Illinois Technology Association. This award is  "presented to the individual whose talent has championed true innovation, either through new applications of existing technology or the development of technology to achieve a truly unique product or service."

2ndQuadrant Sponsor Highlight Blog for PostgresConf 2019

 As part of the countdown to PostgresConf US 2019, learn more about about featured Platinum Sponsor 2ndQuadrant, including their commitment to partnering with and contributing to the Postgres community.

 

Tell us about the recent uptick in Oracle to Postgres migrations.

Licensing costs of Oracle is a significant factor for businesses looking to migrate towards PostgreSQL. Not only is PostgreSQL a more cost effective solution, but it provides enterprise-level capabilities and customization options. The increasing demand for migration services from Oracle to PostgreSQL can also be attributed to the availability of PostgreSQL in the cloud.

 

Where do you see the Postgres market going?

PostgreSQL has been gaining traction with every release; interest and usage by large enterprises worldwide is growing exponentially due to the robust capabilities it provides. 2ndQuadrant intends to continue their active contributions in development and supports the overall growth of PostgreSQL.

 

 Do you have any big wins this year?

2Q PGConf 2018 had a successful second year bringing together PostgreSQL developers and users. Both speakers and attendees enjoyed the combination of technical and use case topics as well as the diverse range of networking opportunities. 

Sri Rangarajan, Lead Software Engineer at Enova International, commented saying he appreciates 2ndQuadrant’s hard work in “promoting and fostering a savvy, healthy and helpful community to welcome newcomers just like [it] did for [him] 5 years ago!”

For the second year in a row, PostgreSQL has been named DBMS of the Year by DB-Engines. This shows that developers and users alike are acknowledging the robust and versatile capabilities that it has to offer.

 

What is the number one benefit you see within Postgres that everyone should be aware of?

PostgreSQL's advanced features cater to a broad range of use cases all within the same DBMS. Rather than going for edge case solutions, developers are relying on the absolute reliability of the hyperconverged database to simplify their production deployments.

 

What is the best thing about working with the Postgres community?

The Postgres community is one of the easiest global communities to work with. There is an open mindset all around and a common goal of growing the Postgres ecosystem as a whole. 

 

Tell us why you believe people should attend PostgresConf 2019 in March.

Conferences are a great way for people in the PostgreSQL community to come together and share knowledge and ideas, which is the true spirit of open source. It is very exciting to see into the future developments of the project from the people who contribute so much to its growth.

It is a great way for members of the community to come together in person to share knowledge in different areas of the technology, describe practical use cases, and give sneak previews into cutting edge technologies for future versions of PostgreSQL.

 

About 2ndQuadrant:

2ndQuadrant provides PostgreSQL Solutions for the Enterprise - reliably deploying them on the platform of your choice and providing 24/7 Production Support. Our solutions address all aspects of your database ecosystem, ensuring high availability, disaster recovery, backup & failover management, and much more. 

Moreover, we provide tools to make your deployment process simple and reliable. With over 100 years of combined code contributions to the PostgreSQL project, our engineers ensure that your PostgreSQL solutions are fully supported in your production environment.

Visit the 2ndQuadrant team in the Exhibit Hall in the Metropolitan Ballroom on Wednesday, March 20, and Thursday, March 21.  

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2019, and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to PostgresConf US 2018, learn more about about featured Platinum Sponsor Microsoft, including their commitment to partnering with and contributing to the Postgres community:

 

You are newer in the Postgres community. Tell us how you contribute (or how you plan to).

We are excited to be working with PostgreSQL community. We would love to partner with the community to bring our experience, from building SQL Server over the years, to PostgreSQL – and to learn in areas where PostgreSQL excels. We have already engaged on pgsql-hackers mailing list and working with the community on patches. Moving forward, we will continue to contribute back and partner with the community in the service of our customers. As we look forward, the possibilities of what we can work together on are amazing.

How do you foresee yourself helping the Postgres community?

As mentioned above, we would love to share our learnings from working on SQL Server with the PostgreSQL community. While there are many areas that we can work on together with the community, a couple of areas to highlight would be connectivity for the cloud and making PostgreSQL more robust and compatible in Windows development environment.

What challenges did you face building AzureDB?

A key learning for us while working on Azure Database for PostgreSQL has been that the fundamental needs of the CIO from any database in the cloud is quite similar – cost saving, fundamentals like reliability, performance and scale, as well as security. In the 9 months between preview and general availability, we heard similar feedback again and again from customers and worked on these key areas. For example, we ensures that there is built-in HA so developers can be confident of their customer experience. Similarly we ensure that we have worldwide but also local compliance to serve customer needs across the globe.  

What goals do you have for the Postgres community?

Microsoft’s mission is to enable every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. To make this mission meaningful for our customers, we intend to meet them where they are, helping them to be productive with the technologies and tools of their choice. PostgreSQL has a strong community and is one of the most loved open source databases, bringing industry leading innovations to customers.

What is the number one barrier you see to contributing to the Postgres community?

For us this is start of an important and enduring journey and so far we have had great support from the community.

What is the best thing about working with the Postgres community?

PostgreSQL is a global community with talented engineers. So the best things about working with the community is the learning and sharing of experiences with the some great minds.

Tell us why you believe people should attend PostgresConf 2018 in April.

Because it is the best place to learn, interact, and network with everyone working on Postgres – either building Postgres or users of Postgres.

About Microsoft:

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With its Data & AI solutions, Microsoft enables developers to easily build and deliver intelligent apps by offering productive and familiar tools to integrate data and built-in AI. To offer more choice and flexibility to developers, Microsoft has now introduced Azure Database for PostgreSQL, a PaaS offering for PostgreSQL.

Mark Bolz, Principal Program Manager with the Microsoft Azure Data Group, presents "General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with Azure Database for PostgreSQL" on Wednesday, April 18 at 4:30 pm. Principal Program Manager Sunil Kamath presents "Combine the Power of Community PostgreSQL and Microsoft Azure to Migrate Existing or Build New Apps" on Friday, April 20 at 12:50 pm -- see event listing for location (subject to change).

Rohan Kumar, Corporate Vice President of Azure Data at Microsoft, will present the Microsoft keynote on April 19 at 3:40 pm, in the Newport Grand Ballroom. Visit the Microsoft team in the Exhibit Hall in the Newport Grand Ballroom on Wednesday, April 18, and Thursday, April 19.  

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2018, and buy your tickets soon!

Latest Posts

  • Welcome to "Cultivating DEI" , a series in which Postgres community members share their insight and experience about creating a more diverse and inclusive Postgres environment where all are welco...
  • 2ndQuadrant Sponsor Highlight Blog for PostgresConf 2019  As part of the countdown to PostgresConf US 2019, learn more about about featured Platinum Sponsor 2ndQuadrant, including their commitment...
  • As part of the countdown to PostgresConf US 2018, learn more about about featured Platinum Sponsor Microsoft, including their commitment to partnering with and contributing to the Postgres commun...