SQL Server Users: What You Don't Know About PostgreSQL Can Cost You

Contributed by Gary Carter

PostgreSQL has advanced significantly in features and capabilities in recent releases, prompting companies worldwide to accelerate their adoption of PostgreSQL. With this rising interest come more and more queries from users of Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server exploring PostgreSQL (commonly called Postgres) for their individual needs. With this rising interest in Postgres, which threatens the status quo of traditional database vendors, is an associated increase in FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about Postgres.

One population of user–SQL Server users–has become significantly active in investigating Postgres. This is possibly because of recent changes in Microsoft pricing policies for SQL Server, with users concluding they are simply paying too much for their database. But this population has clearly been served a healthy dose of FUD.

Postgres ignorance is understandable if one has spent much of their career in the Microsoft fold but the misinformation is more than likely the result of FUD-driven marketing. But if some of the assertions they’re being told were true, that using Postgres would put their operations at risk, then major corporations like ABN AMRO Bank, Grupo BBVA, Deutsche Börse AG, Ericsson, Fujitsu, KT Corp., Lockheed Martin, McKesson, Corp., Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (NTT) and RSA Security LLC, as well as agencies throughout the U.S. government, including many within the Department of Defense and NSA, would not be using Postgres.

EnterpriseDB has prepared a position paper to clarify many misconceptions about Postgres among SQL Server users and to explain what the open source PostgreSQL project really is and how it functions. In many ways, it operates with more discipline, vigilance, visibility and predictability than many major software vendors we know, and they deliver code with far fewer bugs. We have some examples to illustrate that.

Then contact us to learn more about Postgres and the performance, security and manageability enhancements we have developed to meet enterprise-class demands.  

Gary Carter is Director of Product Marketing at EnterpriseDB.