PostgreSQL is taking a more prominent role in the data center. That’s the bottom line of the “PostgreSQL Adoption Survey 2015,” conducted by EnterpriseDB in May among users of the open source database. Adoption is rising with more users than two years ago, when the survey was last conducted, and more are deploying PostgreSQL (also called Postgres) to support mission-critical apps than two years ago. Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of respondents are using Postgres for all of their new applications with more than a third saying they will gradually replace all of their legacy systems with Postgres.
It’s a great time to be Postgres.
The enterprise-class performance, security and stability of Postgres is on par with traditional database vendors for most applications and has helped position Postgres among the world’s largest vendors. And more and more organizations have discovered they get the performance they need from Postgres without the high costs of traditional vendors. A recent Gartner research paper stated “as much as 80% of of the in-house developed application portfolio may be candidates to migrate” [to an OSDBMS].
According to my colleague Kevin Grittner, a PostgreSQL community committer and EDB database architect, the performance and stability of Postgres achieved (around the release of version 8.0 in 2005) helped contribute to the database reaching a critical mass of users. First they started deploying Postgres in enterprise environments. Then they started needing or wanting new features and improvements and contributed the resources to build them. These in turn drew more users in the community. “Rinse and repeat – the cycle is continuing and looks to continue to accelerate for the foreseeable future,” Kevin said.
EDB survey findings and Kevin’s predictions are not the only indicators that Postgres is on upswing. The findings also support statements in a recent Gartner report that reflect the widespread acceptance of open source databases. “There is a clear increase in awareness and demand for OSDBMS products. Also, the majority of our inquiries are from end-user organizations, as opposed to third-party software vendors. This demonstrates a willingness of organizations to use OSDBMSs for new development and increasingly to replace existing RDBMS platforms,” according to the April 2015 Gartner report, The State of Open-Source RDBMs, 2015.*
“By 2018, more than 70% of new in-house applications will be developed on an OSDBMS, and 50% of existing commercial RDBMS instances will have been converted or will be in process,” the report* stated.
The key findings include:
- 55% of users – up from 40% two years ago – are deploying Postgres for mission-critical applications and 77% of users are dedicating all new apps for PostgreSQL deployment.
- Migrations are already under way with 37% reporting they had migrated applications from Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server to Postgres. Many users were still planning further migrations with 37% of PostgreSQL users saying they will gradually replace their legacy systems with Postgres, compared to 29% who said that in the 2013 survey.
- End users predict their deployments of Postgres will expand significantly, with 32% saying they anticipate production deployments of Postgres to increase by at least 50% over the next year.
- Enterprises are realizing significant savings through PostgreSQL as compared to their previous database spend with 45% percent of respondents reporting a first-year total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction of 50 percent or more.
- End users are turning to Postgres for its handling of unstructured and semi-structured data with 64% using the JSON/JSONB document database capability of Postgres and 23% using the HSTORE key/value data type.
The success of Postgres has been decades in the making; enterprises aren’t known for making significant foundational changes overnight and an enterprise-class database is not developed in just months. The years to come will be pivotal for Postgres if the cycle of adoption and development continue to accelerate.
Contact us at EnterpriseDB for help deploying PostgreSQL, and transforming your IT by redploying budget to more strategic customer-driven applications.
Keith Alsheimer is Chief Marketing Officer at EnterpriseDB.
*The State of Open Source RDBMSs, 2015, by Donald Feinberg and Merv Adrian, published April 21, 2015.