3 Questions to EnterpriseDB
Marc Linster, VP of Professional Services, EnterpriseDB
Q1. What are your current product offerings?
EnterpriseDB provides the following products:
Postgres Plus Advanced Server is the flagship database product that integrates and extends PostgreSQL with advanced performance features, additional security, enterprise-class tools and Oracle compatibility enabling organizations to dramatically reduce their costs by utilizing open source based products effectively in their IT infrastructures. Included is the Postgres Enterprise Manager, a management console with enterprise-class tools for managing, monitoring and tuning large scale Postgres deployments. With Postgres Enterprise Manager, database professionals can easily manage vast deployments of databases across the enterprise from a single, highly customizable and easy-to-use graphical console.
Postgres Plus Cloud Database, is comprised of a purpose-built cloud architecture that enables the database, whether it’s community PostgreSQL or Postgres Plus Advanced Server, to dynamically scale additional resources, such as servers, storage and network capacity, and release them as needed in response to fluctuations in demand for processing power, without human intervention. Postgres Plus Cloud Database is throttled by user-defined thresholds, which the data professional or other department professional adjust using an easy-to-use, point-and-click management console. Postgres Plus Cloud Database gives users access to and control over all the database configuration parameters, a key differentiator from so-called “black box” Postgres platforms.
Training and Services, a comprehensive lineup of Postgres training and packaged services, including Postgres Architectural Health Check and Database Migration Assessment. A Postgres Architectural Health Check consists of an extensive audit of the Postgres environment, examining everything from hardware and OS configuration to the database architecture and configuration as well as measuring and cataloging components that affect scalability, High Availability, manageability, security and tuning. The results produce an analysis of issues or areas of concern, a list of actionable measures, some of which can be accomplished in minutes or during the analysis stage yet have significant impact on performance, and finally, a series of best practices for managing the Postgres environment long term. The Oracle Migration Assessment consists of an analysis of the Oracle database architecture, configuration and application usage to identify the ease by which the migration can be performed. The assessment identifies those objects that would require some manual intervention in order to be migrated over completely.
Q2. Who are your current customers and how do they typically use your products?
EnterpriseDB has more than 2,200 customers worldwide, including 47 of the Fortune 500 list of global companies and 73 of the Global 1000. In the US, these companies include one of the three largest brands in global hosting, security software and government contractors. We have experienced significant traction in the insurance, financial services, telecommunications sector and government sectors. In the US, federal agencies using Postgres include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Labor and multiple agencies throughout the Department of Defense (DoD). Worldwide, customers include Sony Online Entertainment, ABN AMRO, Fujitsu, Sony-Ericsson, NTT Corp. and KT Corp.
Our customers are increasingly large, global enterprises deploying Postgres Plus Advanced Server for both mission-critical and non-mission-critical applications. Initial deployments often fall under one of three categories with customers replicating data for reporting applications, developing new applications, both mission-critical and non-mission-critical, or migrating non-mission-critical applications.
Our Postgres Plus Cloud Database customer base is spread out across multiple industries but users typically fall into two categories, the very sophisticated, hands on database professional and the hands off. Each deployment of Postgres Plus Cloud Database is a completely private instance (root access) of the database and is not shared with nor impacted by other users. Because the instance is private, users have full control over tuning and configuration parameters to meet varied application needs. Similarly, users can continue to use all the features they are accustomed to using in their own data center in the cloud without sacrifice while getting all the cloud environment benefits too. As a result, Postgres Plus Cloud Database is attractive to very sophisticated database professionals who want the same enterprise-class database they have in the data center but need the promised benefits of the cloud. On the other hand, the instant setup, the ease-of-use, and cloud resource auto-scaling have also made Postgres Plus Cloud Database attractive to savvy technology companies that may lack database professionals internally or want to deploy those resources elsewhere and to application development companies and teams that need a database to function autonomously while they focus on code.
Q3. What are the main new technical features you are currently working on and why?
Just as the PostgreSQL community works to enhance the database at the core of our offering, we also continue to enhance our software. We are developing new features and expanded capabilities around horizontal scale out, both cloud- and server-based, multi-master replication and high availability. Technical features in recent releases include a parallel loader multiple times faster than PostgreSQL COPY (v 9.0), improved read/write lock management on multi-core hardware (v9.1), index only scans and linear read scaling to 64 cores (v9.2), and materialized views and enhanced partitioning (v9.3).