40% of PostgreSQL Production Deployments Support Mission-Critical Apps

Date -2013-06-04 Location - BEDFORD, Mass. EnterpriseDB-sponsored survey supports industry reports that PostgreSQL use as a replacement for Oracle and other legacy databases is rising, and it finds that nearly half of community PostgreSQL users cut database costs by 50% or more by migrating to the open source database

EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class PostgreSQL products and Oracle database compatibility solutions, today announced the results of its “PostgreSQL Adoption Survey 2013,” a survey of open source PostgreSQL users. Conducted by TechValidate on behalf of EnterpriseDB, the survey found that users had increased their production deployments of PostgreSQL in 2012, with 40 percent supporting mission-critical applications and 40 percent driving reporting functions. Further, the survey found that almost half the users of PostgreSQL had cut their database costs by 50 percent or more by migrating to the open source database.

The findings underscore multiple industry trends that show the rising popularity of PostgreSQL. They include an increasing number of job postings for database administrators with PostgreSQL experience over the last two years and the soaring number of PostgreSQL software downloads on websites that host the software, including EnterpriseDB’s.

EnterpriseDB sponsored the survey to gain greater insight into how PostgreSQL had penetrated the enterprise and what plans users had for further deployments. The 150 respondents represented both government and corporate organizations and included 12 of the Global 500 and a significant number of large enterprises.

“These findings validate what we’ve been saying, and that’s PostgreSQL has achieved a stronghold in the enterprise as an Oracle replacement and can support mission-critical applications at a much lower cost,” said Ed Boyajian, CEO of EnterpriseDB. “The success of Red Hat and Linux has companies more comfortable with the idea of using open source for their database. PostgreSQL has advanced significantly to include many of the same enterprise-grade characteristics of the large proprietary databases. And we have the software, services and support that enterprises need to deploy PostgreSQL. ”

Among the other key findings of “PostgreSQL Adoption Survey 2013” survey were:

Production Deployments Growing: While 40 percent of users said their PostgreSQL deployments supported mission critical applications, an equal number said their PostgreSQL deployments supported reporting applications. As for total production deployments, 33 percent of respondents said 80 percent or more were PostgreSQL. Further, 35 percent said within a year their number of PostgreSQL-driven production deployments would increase by half, with 15 percent planning to double deployments. Overall, 24 percent of users deployed PostgreSQL for the first in 2012, compared to 14 percent in 2011 and 15 percent in 2010, demonstrating the growth in use of PostgreSQL.

Legacy Database Replacement: 29 percent of users said they planned to gradually replace their legacy databases with PostgreSQL, with 14 percent planning hybrid environments with PostgreSQL supporting mission critical and 14 percent with their legacy system supporting mission critical applications. The large portion of respondents looking to replace their legacy databases reflect the strength of PostgreSQL software as a threat on Oracle’s hold on nearly half of the $26 Billion dollar relational database market.

PostgreSQL Produces Real Savings: 49 percent of respondents reported they had cut their database costs by at least 50 percent by deploying PostgreSQL; with 10 percent saving 90 percent or more and 30 percent citing savings of 70 percent or more. However, 23 percent reported 10 percent or less in savings. This can be largely reflective of the uptick in new users and the short-term costs of associated with change.

Challenges not Slowing Adoption: The top three challenges database administrators and chief information officers cited when deploying PostgreSQL were: management tools (45 percent), performance (36 percent) and backup and recovery (34 percent). However, two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said they were not slowing down their adoption because of the challenges.

“All of the signs that use of PostgreSQL in the enterprise is soaring have been there – rising conference attendance, training and workshop participation and community contributions. We know businesses rely on PostgreSQL, and this survey confirms it,” said Selena Deckelmann, a database consultant and major contributor to the PostgreSQL community. “EnterpriseDB plays an important role in this expanding use of PostgreSQL by providing the corporate assurances and the kinds of software services many enterprises need to adopt open source software.”

Connect with EnterpriseDB

Learn more about EnterpriseDB
Read the blog: http://blogs.enterprisedb.com/
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/enterprisedb
Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseDB?ref=ts
Join us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/108046988421677398468
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/enterprisedb

About EnterpriseDB

Corporation EnterpriseDB, based in Bedford, MA, is the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services. Used by thousands of business and government customers globally, EnterpriseDB delivers the industry’s best price-performance in a relational database. Employing some of the most innovative members of the PostgreSQL Community, EnterpriseDB builds upon 25-plus years of development to provide companies a proven, secure and feature-rich alternative to costly traditional databases. EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus family of products includes the open source community PostgreSQL, Postgres Plus Advanced Server with Oracle database compatibility, a Database-as-a-Service with its Postgres Plus Cloud Database and enterprise management and monitoring tools. Founded in 2004, EnterpriseDB is backed by Charles River Ventures, Volition Capital (formerly Fidelity Ventures), Valhalla Partners and strategic investors including Red Hat, IBM, NTT and KT. For more information, please visit http://enterprisedb.com.