PostgreSQL Popularity Continues to Grow!

Some years ago, I prophesized that PostgreSQL would win in the end, and that we would be able to tell because there would be “Microsoft PostgreSQL”.

I am happy to report that has now happened. Microsoft PostgreSQL database service on Azure was announced recently.

Of course, that was just a metaphor for “a.n.other big company”, I’m not signalling MS as requiring special attention here, in fact they have been the last to do this.

That means PostgreSQL database services are now available from all of the main cloud service providers: Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft. Yay! We have achieved 100% breakthrough in terms of cloud adoption – everyone recognizes now that PostgreSQL is big and adoption is accelerating.

PostgreSQL is now used in UK and US governments, see UK (http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2347067/met-office-selects-2ndquadrant-to-help-with-data-migration-to-open-source) or US Dept of Defense (http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/pdf/U_PostgreSQL_9-x_STIG_V1_Release_Memo.pdf), so it looks like the trend is the same in both industry and government, and across all parts of the world.

Hmmm, only issue at present is the support of the community. None of the biggest cloud players contribute features to open source, nor do they report bugs and definitely don’t fix them. PostgreSQL community releases four maintenance releases per yer. So if you want support for open source PostgreSQL with an SLA less than 90 days, you’ll still need to come to one of the service providers listed here: http://www.postgresql.org/support/professional_support/.

Now some will call that blatant and mercenary advertising. But it seems to me to be necessary to point out who’s providing support and who is merely giving you access to servers. If you buy a car and it comes with no warranty or support, that’s a fairly important thing for car users to know, so I figure it works the same way with databases.