The Great Debate: PostgreSQL vs MySQL

The Great Debate: PostgreSQL versus MySQL Jim Mlodgenski VP, Technical Services EnterpriseDB

Agenda • Open Source Database Trends • PostgreSQL Strengths • PostgreSQL Weaknesses • MySQL Strengths • MySQL Weaknesses • Application Types • About EnterpriseDB

Open Source Database Trends

Open Source Database Trends (cont.)

Open Source Database Trends (cont.) Battle for Open Source Database Dominance

Open Source Database Trends (cont.) Battle for Database Dominance

PostgreSQL Strengths • Strong Advanced Feature Support – Triggers, Stored Procedures, Rules – Server side languages • SQL, Java, Ruby, Perl, Python, TCL, etc – Point in Time Recovery – Table partitioning – Transactional DDL – Table Inheritance

PostgreSQL Strengths (cont.) • Strong Security • Object Level Privileges assigned to “Roles & User”. • Kerberos + SSL communication. • Data Level Encryption (AES, 3DES, etc) • Ability to utilise 3rd party Key Stores in a full PKI infrastructure • Foundation for full compliance with some of the strictest of security standards (PCI Data Security Standard). “By default PostgreSQL is probably the most security-aware database available” David Litchfield - The Database Hackers Handbook

PostgreSQL Strengths (cont.) • Data Integrity – Multi Version Concurrency Control – Write Ahead Logging – Online Backup – Foreign Keys – Constraints

PostgreSQL Strengths (cont.) • Flexible BSD license – Corporate IT developers can modify open source code under the BSD license without having to contribute back enhancements – Independent Software Vendors are free to redistribute without the fear of being “infected” by an open source license

PostgreSQL Strengths (cont.) • Strong Open Source Community – Independent & Thriving Development Community • 10 committers and ~200 reviewers • 1,500 contributors and 10,000+ members • 2,000,000+ downloads – 20 years of enterprise-class development

PostgreSQL Weaknesses • Lack of an integrated replication solution – External solutions are required – There is no agreed solution in the PostgreSQL community for the majority of replication requirements – The current external solutions have a high learning curve

PostgreSQL Weaknesses (cont.) • No upgrade facility for major releases – The data must be either exported or replicated to the new version • At least twice of the storage is needed during the upgrade process • On large datasets, an upgrade is a very time consuming process

PostgreSQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Performance issues – Indexes can not be used to directly return the results of a query – Query execution plans are not cached – Some update and delete operations leave expired data in the data files causing more IO – Bulk loading operations may become CPU bound

PostgreSQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Lack of experienced production talent – Many of the experienced PostgreSQL administrators do not have experience in large corporate environments

PostgreSQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Sparse Independent Software Vendor support – There are few management and monitoring tools capable of using PostgreSQL – When tools are available, many times it is through a generic ODBC or JDBC data source – PostreSQL is Rarely the primarily database for an application, including open source applications

MySQL Strengths • Integrated Replication – Master-Slave Replication • Scale-Out Implementations • Offload Reporting • Geographic Data Distribution – MySQL Cluster • Horizontal Scalability

MySQL Strengths (cont.) • Performance – Low overhead MyISAM storage engine for read mostly applications – Memory storage engine for frequently accessed tables – Query Cache for frequently used statements

MySQL Strengths (cont.) • Multiple Storage Engines – Native Storage Engines • MyISAM • Merge • Memory • Federated – Partner Developed Storage Engines • InnoDB • solidDB • Infobright

MySQL Strengths (cont.) • Strong Corporate Backing • Corporate Platinum Partners

MySQL Strengths (cont.) • Popularity – Independent Software Vendor Support – Availability of experienced resources – Easily accessible information from various sources such as whitepapers, blogs, and books

MySQL Weaknesses • Metadata uses MyISAM – Transactions involving the system catalog are not ACID compliant – A server crash can corrupt the system catalog

MySQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Immature security model – No pluggable authentication module preventing centrally managed accounts – No support for roles resulting in difficulty in maintaining privileges for many users

MySQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Immature server side programming model – Stored procedures are not cacheable – All tables used in the procedure or trigger are pre-locked – All cursors are materialized – Only supports SQL

MySQL Weaknesses (cont.) • Scalability Problems – Difficulty with increases in concurrency – Difficulty with an increase in the number of cores in the server

MySQL Weaknesses (cont.) • “Closed” Open Source Community – The community is not contributing to the MySQL server code base • It is currently very hard to contribute code and ideas – There are not many MySQL developers that are also using MySQL – Developers outside of MySQL do not have commit rights – There are no new 'innovative' features in 5.1 from real life applications

Application Types • MySQL – Web 1.0 Type Applications • The MyISAM storage engine is ideal for online catalog functionality • Dynamic data is centered around an individual user such as user profiles and shopping carts

Application Types • MySQL – Reporting and Data Warehousing • The pluggable storage engine facility allows for enhanced business intelligence functionality – Infobright • The MyISAM storage engine has very low overhead for read intensive applications

Application Types • MySQL – Commercial and Open Source Applications • MySQL is the primary database for many of the popular open source projects • Many commercial applications include MySQL in the demonstration versions

Application Types (cont.) • PostgreSQL – Web 2.0 Type Applications • The use of a distributed memory cache offloads many of the queries from the database resulting in a heavy transactional load • The dynamic data such as forum posts and wikis are commonly being viewed by users while updates are occurring

Application Types (cont.) • PostgreSQL – Operational Data Stores • The data is constantly changing while reports executing – Leverages the Multi Version Concurrency Control feature • Multiple users running reports simultaneously requiring a scalable database

Application Types (cont.) • PostgreSQL – New Application Development • The numerous procedural languages allows developers to leverage existing knowledge • Transactional DDL is almost a requirement in a Ruby environment • Debugging server side code speeds the development process

EnterpriseDB Company Facts • Award-winning enterprise open source database company • World’s largest concentration of PostgreSQL expertise including several core team members Best Database Award 2005, 2006 & 2007 • Founded in March 2004 • Headquartered in Edison, NJ and Top 100 Technology offices in 6 countries. Companies • Over 250 customers including: Sony, 2006 “Ones to Watch” FTD, TDAmeritrade, British Telecom • 65 partners including: Red Hat, Sun, IBM, Cognos, Compiere

Postgres Plus Postgres Plus Advanced Server offers additional features including Oracle compatibility Postgres Plus is fully open source and contains the PostgreSQL project along with additional components

Sample Customer Case Studies Oracle-based Custom Applications • Sony replaced Oracle for on-line games, user forums, back-office Oracle-based ISV • Tomax, retail industry ISV, replaced Oracle as default database MySQL upgrade for Custom Applications • Vonage scaled applications from MySQL to EnterpriseDB SQL Server upgrade by 3rd party ISV • Replaced SQL Server as embedded mammography database Oracle-based Business Intelligence • Running Oracle Reports on EnterpriseDB; saved 80%

Contact Information Jim Mlodgenski VP, Technical Services, EnterpriseDB jim@enterprisedb.com

Thank you.

The Great Debate: PostgreSQL vs MySQL

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