EnterpriseDB has announced the immediate availability of the latest version of its flagship Postgres Plus Advanced Server database. EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Advanced Server 8.4, which is built on the open source object relational Postgres database, is now fully compatible with all the features and functionality found in the most recent community distribution. In this latest release, EnterpriseDB continues to enrich Postgres Plus by building enterprise-class capabilities on top of the open source relational database management system.
Among key enhancements in version 8.4, are increased core functionality for the database as a whole, increased Oracle compatibility, increased manageability, and increased security, Robin Schumacher, EnterpriseDB's director of product strategy, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
In terms of core functionality in the new release of Postgres Plus Advanced Server, there are more SQL analytic functions available to people who are interested in doing reporting and data warehousing, and there is also a new parallel restore capability that gives customers anywhere from double to 8 times the speed increase "which is always important when you are trying to do restoration of a database," notes Schumacher. Additionally, there is increased localization, with the addition of Japanese, and simplified Chinese.
With this sixth generation of its Oracle compatibility layer, EnterpriseDB continues to expand the universe of Oracle-centric applications that can be newly built in or migrated to Postgres. The new features help ensure that the time and cost of Postgres adoption is minimized, as organizations can preserve their existing investments in Oracle technology and skill sets. Compatibility, stresses Schumacher, is different than migration. It is different than just doing a migration from say, Oracle to Postgres, because compatibility means users can continue to write their Oracle PL/SQL procedures and functions "and it runs unchanged."
In terms of manageability, StackBuilder Plus, an installation management and automation tool, enables users to easily add new features to Advanced Server. EnterpriseDB selects the features most critical to enterprise customers, acquires the latest source code, builds binaries and installers, and tests the integration of the features. New modules added to StackBuilder Plus specifically for Advanced Server include Postgres Plus HQ, a comprehensive database infrastructure monitoring tool that can check more than 160 availability, performance, throughput and utilization metrics for Postgres Plus databases and automatically alert DBAs to out-of-bounds conditions; and xDB Replication Server, which allows organizations to offload Oracle reporting tasks from an OLTP server, create Postgres Plus warm stand-by servers, or use xDB Replication Server to migrate data to a new Advanced Server system. "StackBuilder basically puts its arm around all of the different components, whether they are freely open source, or pay-for only, available just with Advanced Server, and it puts them all in one place," explains Schumacher.
And for security, new query learning and enforcement modes provided by SQL/Protect give DBAs a greater level of power in guarding against SQL injection attacks. DBAs can now provide an additional layer of security to what is normally left up to application developers.
The new release continues to build upon EnterpriseDB's model of being the enterprise Postgres company, being able to take what the community has developed, and add additional functionality that enterprise users expect in a database, in addition to support and services, observes Schumacher. "We really do have that differentiation that is there at the server level as well as at the ancillary software and services and support level."
Postgres Plus Advanced Server is a commercially licensed product that adds enterprise-class functionality and increased performance to Postgres Plus, EnterpriseDB's open source distribution of Postgres. Go here for more details.