PostgreSQL Plus Advanced Server says yes to NoSQL
Rating: 10 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
We started recommending Postgres Plus Advanced Server (PPAS) to customers as a lower-cost alternative to Oracle Enterprise Edition, which it is. Now we also use PPAS for the simple and stable multi-master replication as well as the JSON capabilities native to PostgreSQL. We also have customers who use PostGIS, the geospatial add-on.
Pros
- PPAS Oracle compatibility, especially the PL/SQL syntax, has made migrating database-tier code very simple. Most Oracle packages do not need to be changed at all and those that do are generally for simple reasons like a reserved word in PPAS that is allowed in Oracle.
- PPAS xDB, the multi-master replication tool, is simple and - most important - does not break with network or other interruptions. We have been able to configure and forget, which our customers could never do with other multi-master tools.
- Most people had no idea that PPAS and PostgreSQL have full CRUD support for JSON. They think you need a specialized product and/or that JSON is read-only. Every organization that I have worked with is evaluating adding JSON to their relational model.
Cons
- There are too many custom add-ons that should be part of the default installation. For example, PostGIS - the geospatial tool, foreign-data-wrappers, XML & HSTORE data types, UUIDs and other pieces are not included by default.
- The marketing and related material is too focussed on technology and not enough on capability. For example, you would not know that full CRUD on JSON is supported unless you read all the material - that is a big deal, but they seem to miss it.
- The backup and recovery tools are not as good as Oracle's and they should be improved.
Likelihood to Recommend
Very well suited to applications mixing relational with NoSQL and/or complex data types, such as network analysis, JSON, key-value-pair, etc. Excellent if you have multiple programming languages in use (Python, Perl, R, etc.) because PPAS supports so many languages natively.
Not well suited if you need encryption at rest, compressed data or very large database-tier backups. [Large backups should be done at the storage tier if possible.]
Not well suited if you need encryption at rest, compressed data or very large database-tier backups. [Large backups should be done at the storage tier if possible.]
JH
Jamey Hanson
Senior Software Engineer in Information Technology at Freedom Consulting Group, Inc. (51-200 employees)
Vetted Review
2 years of experience