What is PostgreSQL?¶

PostGreSQL is a general purpose and object-relational database management system, the most advanced open source database system. PostgreSQL was developed based on POSTGRES 4.2 at Berkeley Computer Science Department, University of California.

It is designed to run on UNIX-like platforms, but it is also designed to be portable so it can run on platforms like Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows.

PostgreSQL is free and open source, licensed under PostgreSQL license - you can modify, distribute it in any form.

PostgreSQL requires very minimum maintained efforts because of it's stability. Therefore, if you develop applications based on PosgreSQL, the total cost of ownership is low in comparison to other DBMS.

PostgreSQL feature highlights¶

PosgreSQL has many advanced features that other enterprise DBMS offer: 1. User-defined types 2. Table inheritance 3. Sophisticated locking mechanism 4. Foreign key referential integrity 5. Views, rules, subquery 6. Nested transactions (savepoints) 7. Multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) 8. Asynchronous replication 9. Native Microsot Windows Server version 10. Tablespaces 11. Point-in-time recovery

What makes PostgreSQL stand out¶

PosgreSQL is the first DBMS that implements multi-version concurrecy control (MVCC) feature, even before Oracle. The MVCC feature is known as snapshot isolation in Oracle.

PostgreSQL is a general-purpose object-relational DBMS. It allows you to add custom functions developed using different programming languages such as C/C++, Java etc.

PostgreSQL is designed to be extensible. In PostgreSQL, you can define you own data types, index types, functional languages, etc. If you don't like any part of the system, you can always develop a custom plugin to enhance it to meet your requirements e.g., adding a new optimizer.

If you need any support, an active community is available to help. You can always find the answers from the PostgreSQL's community for the issues that you may have when working with PosghreSQL. Many companies offer commercial support services in case you need one.

Who is using PosgreSQL¶

Many companies have built products and solutions using PostgreSQL. Some featured companies are Apple, Fujitsu, Red Hat, Cisco, Juniper Network, etc.

Full list of featured companies are available at []