Any interest in a Central Florida EnterpriseDB User Group?

I posted this question on my Postgres Blog. Send me a note if you would be interested.

LewisC

oracle enterprisedb

Win a copy of my EnterpriseDB book

I've been thinking long and hard about how I want to give away a few copies of my book. I will be at the SOUG meeting Thursday, Jan 24th here in Tampa. If you're in the area, stop by. I'm going to have a drawing for a couple of copies that night.

That doesn't really help those people who aren't near by. So, I am going to ask 3 questions and the first two people to answer all three correctly will get a copy.

They won't be hard to answer but the answers might require a little work. I will ask the questions and explain how you will need to respond.

To get the questions, you need to follow me on twitter. You can find my twitter account in various places on the net, including in my blog at ITToolbox.com. You will need to be watching at 9am Eastern time, Jan 12, 2008. Follow and be watching for my questions. I will ask the questions and then explain what to do next.

This contest is open to anyone. If you are outside the US and you win, we can discuss the best way to get you your book.

I hope this is a fun process. That's what I'm shooting for anyway.

Let me know what you think.

LewisC

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My Book Has Been Printed

Well, it's taken over a year but it has finally arrived. I started writing the book back in Aug 2006. I finished in late Jan 2007 and the technical editor finished his work in March. Now, In Jan 2008, EnterpriseDB: The Definitive Reference is available. I'm glad I didn't wait for the movie. ;-)

It's kind of ironic. Just this morning, I posted that I am working on my second book. My wife called me at work and told me two boxes of books had arrived. 2008 is turning out to be a good year. I'll have some additional news in the near future.

Anyway, the book looks good. I've already found a few typos and grammar errors just skimming around. I like the font and the pages look really crisp. All in all, I have to say I am very happy that the book is out.

Check out some photos:





I think I want to give a couple away. Maybe some kind of contest for the blog readers. Any ideas of something fair? I am willing to pay shipping for a couple but that would only be here in the US. Overseas shipping gets expensive.

LewisC

oracle enterprisedb

Compatibility Between EntepriseDB and Oracle

Have you wondered what features are compatible between Oracle and EnterpriseDB? Have you wondered if EnterpriseDB is REALLY compatible with Oracle?

EnterpriseDB has compiled a new document called the Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide. You can download the Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide for EntepriseDB 8.2 or the Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide for 8.3 Beta.

This new document should help answer one of the most common questions I get asked, i.e., what is compatible and what is not compatible between EnterpriseDB and Oracle. If you are interested in EnterpriseDB but haven't taken the plunge, check out this document.

Speaking of compatibility, I plan to start a series of articles that directly compares a feature between Oracle and EntepriseDB (with mentions to pure PostgreSQL).

LewisC

oracle enterprisedb

EDB*Plus and EDB*Loader Emulate Oracle’s SQL*Plus and SQL*Loader: EnterpriseDB 8.3 Beta

EnterpriseDB Advanced Server’s enterprise-class, cross-platform developer and DBA console now includes EDB*Plus, a command-line terminal interface that emulates Oracle’s SQL*Plus. Like SQL*Plus, EDB*Plus allows users to run SQL and PL/SQL commands interactively. Oracle users accustomed to SQL*Plus will find EDB*Plus immediately familiar. In addition, EnterpriseDB’s new EDB*Loader emulates Oracle’s SQL*Loader and provides even deeper compatibility.

EnterpriseDB Advanced Server 8.3 adds several new features that enhance the database’s ability to run, unchanged, applications written for Oracle. For example, there are more than 20 new Oracle-compatible system views, Oracle-compatible packages now support comments, and ROWNUM can now be used in sub-queries and views. In addition, EnterpriseDB’s new bulk binding feature, which allows collections of SQL statements to be collected and run together to improve performance, further improves Oracle compatibility.

Other updates to the new software include:

• A DBA monitoring console that provides real-time charting for CPU and memory usage, disk I/O, and cache hit ratios across multiple EnterpriseDB databases

• Support for embedded hints, which can alter program execution

• Transaction error recovery support, which enables implicit statement-level transactions

• Updateable cursors

• Definer/invoker rights to provide controlled access to database objects

oracle enterprisedb

Is EnterpriseDB Express Gone?

I was at the EnterpriseDB web site recently and noticed that the downloads have changed a bit. I no longer see a download for EnterpriseDB Express. If you remember a while back, I had found an annoyance with the installation of the express version.

Now you go right to the advance server download and get a messsage.

You have downloaded EnterpriseDB Advanced Server. Currently, EnterpriseDB Advanced Server 8.2 requires a Product Key in order to use the software above 1 CPU, 1 GB of memory, and 6GB of data. This product key will be removed from future releases of EnterpriseDB Advanced Server.

The message also provides a license key so that you can install the software. Kudos EnterpriseDB. I appreciate it. I'm not opposed to an express version. Actually, I think it makes a lot of sense. But before implementing it, the software should be able to limit itself.

It looks like that's what they plan to do.

I also noticed a new feature/offering. EnterpriseDB now offers a Developer Support Pack.

Need some help getting started with EnterpriseDB Advanced Server? Sign up for 6 months of technical support today for just $99. This Developer Support Pack is to be used for development only and not for production implementations.

That is an incredibly reasonable price for a developer to get up to speed. I didn't read the details but if that allows a developer access to phone support, $99 for half a year can't be beat.

oracle enterprisedb

EnterpriseDB Wins One From MySQL

Do you do GEO? If you do, you've probably at least heard of PostGIS, the Postgres GIS extension. PostGIS just gave EnterpriseDB a big win over its open source competition.

FortiusOne leads the market towards the next generation of Web mapping. Its breakthrough Intelligent Mapping technologies offer rich information visualization on maps and unprecedented access to geographic data. FortiusOne innovations include: high-speed Web-based geographic analysis tools, a flexible and scalable Web services platform supporting the special needs of geographic data, and an innovative application of social networking techniques to geographic knowledge creation.

FortiusOne's main product is GeoCommons. GeoCommons houses a large geospatial database with more than two billion attributes, 35,000 variables, and 1,500 datasets. As a fast-growing startup, FortiusOne required a low-cost, powerful database solution to run GeoCommons. Originally, FortiusOne selected MySQL; however, when FortiusOne was preparing to deploy the first public beta of GeoCommons, they encountered major performance roadblocks.



FortiusOne has migrated GeoCommons from MySQL to EnterpriseDB Advanced Server and improved overall system performance by 80%.

“We slammed into a brick wall with MySQL,” said Chris Ingrassia, chief technology officer, FortiusOne. “As an example, MySQL’s rather limited and incomplete spatial support dramatically impacted performance. We were looking for an affordable database solution, but we required enterprise-class features and performance that MySQL simply couldn’t deliver. Plus, philosophically we want to support open source-based technologies like EnterpriseDB.”

The PostGIS geospatial extensions to PostgreSQL played a key role in FortiusOne’s selection of EnterpriseDB Advanced Server, a PostgreSQL-based solution, and dramatically improved performance. FortiusOne needed to run complex spatial queries against large datasets quickly and efficiently, and found the MySQL spatial extensions to be far less complete and comprehensive than PostGIS. EnterpriseDB Advanced Server processes some of GeoCommons’ database-intensive rendering requests in one-thirtieth of the time required by MySQL. During peak loads, GeoCommons processes more than one hundred thousand complex requests per hour, requiring true enterprise-class performance and scalability.

“EnterpriseDB occupies that crucial middle ground between MySQL and Oracle,” continued Ingrassia. “EnterpriseDB is priced competitively with MySQL, but provides significantly better performance and advanced features you just don’t find in most open source databases.”

You can get additional information about GeoCommons at the GeoCommons FAQ. Checkout some cool screenshots at the FortiusOne screenshot page.


mysql enterprisedb