The National Land Survey of Finland (NLS) is an over 200-year-old public sector organization whose mission is to benefit the Finnish society. NLS conducts land surveys nationally, maintains property and housing company share information, and handles the registration of ownership and mortgages. NLS maintains topographic data and produces maps, aerial photos and laser scanning data throughout Finland. NLS's Geospatial Research Institute FGI conducts innovative research and expert work within the field of spatial data.
The Challenge
NLS needed to provide 24/7 service to customers, but due to limited working hours, couldn't maintain high availability and business continuity.
The Solution
Already being PostgreSQL users, NLS chose EDB to supercharge PostgreSQL and achieve high availability (HA). NLS is currently using EDB Failover Manager (EFM), Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM), Backup and Recovery Tool (BART), and PostGIS—an open source extension to PostgreSQL that spatially enables your database server.
The Results
Using EDB, NLS was able to quickly build up the HA system that their applications run on. They also plan to use EDB for years to come because of the excellent quality of support they receive.
The need for highly available PostgreSQL
Database downtime can lead to losses in revenue and reputation, so it’s crucial that they maintain high availability (HA). PostgreSQL has built-in features to ensure business continuity—and EDB enhances PostgreSQL with tools and services to maintain HA.
NLS had been using PostgreSQL for many years even before working with EDB. They went with PostgreSQL largely because of its attractive cost structure and PostGIS feature, but needed a supported HA solution to ensure 24/7 always-on support. After evaluating EDB, they chose EDB Failover Manager because it provided them peace of mind by automatically detecting primary database failures and promoting the most up-to-date standby database to take over.
EDB delivers enterprise grade support and services
The development team at NLS was happy with EDB and PostGIS features, felt good about the product, and had not encountered any major issues. NLS runs EDB Postgres servers within their own data centers located in Finland. The application models public administration's common spatial data and all related processes. PEM does Postgres monitoring, and BART is used for full backups only, which are copied to tape.
What really stood out to them was EDB’s support and training. Support was always helpful, with quick response times. And EDB’s “Know Your Customer” initiative provided helpful training and workshops. It was clear that EDB’s approach was customer-centric, with a firm mission to make PostgreSQL easier for us.
Since working with EDB, NLS has been able to build up their HA system. This was accomplished fairly quickly thanks to EDB training, assessments, and tuning. As a result of EDB’s excellent support, all NLS systems continue to run smoothly.
NLS plans to use EDB for a long time because of the assurance that EDB Failover Manager provides.
As PostgreSQL continues to explode in popularity and relevance to enterprises, NLS will rely on EDB’s commitment to applying its energy and expertise to bring power to Postgres.
NLS plans to deploy additional EPAS servers within their IT landscape within the next 1-2 years.
To learn more about EDB's customer successes, check out our customer stories here.