Thread: Semi-final draft for press release
Folks, Rob Napier and I have been hammering on this for several days. The draft looks very different now; we're trying to make it news even for the sites which covered the beta. As Rob pointed out to me, if folks already saw it 4 months ago, it's not news. Here's our semi-final text. Please point out any *major* problems; at this point, it's too late for fancy wordsmithing and debating themes. Also, do keep in mind that the target audience of this release is *the press*, and not our own community. Company names have been redacted because, well, you know. ======================== ## SEPTEMBER 2012: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces PostgreSQL 9.2, the latest release of the leader in open source databases. Since the beta release was announced in May, developers and vendors have praised it as a leap forward in performance, scalability and flexibility. Users are expected to switch to this version in record numbers. "PostgreSQL 9.2 will ship with native JSON support, covering indexes, replication and performance improvements, and many more features. We are eagerly awaiting this release and will make it available in Early Access as soon as it’s released by the PostgreSQL community," said Senior Engineer, Web2.0 Company. Improved Performance and Scalability Hewlett Packard has adopted PostgreSQL for their remote support software and to power their HP-UX/Itanium solutions. "With the release of PostgreSQL 9.2, the PostgreSQL Project has significantly advanced scalability and developer flexibility to provide our customers a highly performant database for their most demanding workloads," Manager at Big Tech Company said. "We are especially happy with the addition of linear scalability to 64 cores, index-only scans and reductions in CPU power consumption." Improvements in vertical scalability increase PostgreSQL's ability to efficiently utilize hardware resources on larger servers. Advances in lock management, write efficiency, index-only access and other low-level operations allow PostgreSQL to handle even larger-volume workloads. Numerically, this means: * Up to 350,000 read queries per second (more than 4X faster) * Index-only scans for data warehousing queries (up to 20X faster) * Up to 14,000 data writes per second (5X faster) Also, the addition of cascading replication enables users to run even larger stacks of horizontally scaled servers under PostgreSQL 9.2. "SomeSocialSite relies on Postgres for storing millions of sites and subscriptions. Solid and reliable for years," said Some Guy, founder of SomeSocialSite.com. "We're consistently on the bleeding edge (9.1 now, moving to 9.2 soon for the cascading replication alone) and it's been a pleasure since 8.4." Flexibile Developer Support The flexibility of PostgreSQL is reflected in the diversity of organisations that have adopted it. For example NASA, the FAA, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Instagram all rely on it to perform mission-critical applications. Version 9.2 extends this flexibility even further by including support for Range Types and JSON, allowing developers to use PostgreSQL in completely new ways. Range Types allow developers to create better calendaring, scientific, and financial applications. No other major SQL database supports this feature, which enables intelligent handling of blocks of time and numbers. With PostgreSQL 9.2, query results can be returned as JSON data types. Combined with the new PL/v8 Javascript and PL/Coffee database programming extensions, and the optional HStore key-value store, users can now utilize PostgreSQL like a "NoSQL" document database, while retaining PostgreSQL's reliability, flexibility and performance. "Native JSON support in PostgresSQL provides an efficient mechanism for creating and storing documents for web APIs. We use front-end libraries like jQuery to request tabular and tree-structured data; and the new features make it convenient and provide performance advantages in retrieving that data as JSON, " said Senior Architect, TelCo Inc. -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://pgexperts.com
On Aug 20, 2012, at 12:04 AM, Josh Berkus wrote:
Folks,
Rob Napier and I have been hammering on this for several days. The
draft looks very different now; we're trying to make it news even for
the sites which covered the beta. As Rob pointed out to me, if folks
already saw it 4 months ago, it's not news.
Here's our semi-final text. Please point out any *major* problems; at
this point, it's too late for fancy wordsmithing and debating themes.
Also, do keep in mind that the target audience of this release is *the
press*, and not our own community.
Company names have been redacted because, well, you know.
========================
## SEPTEMBER 2012: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces
PostgreSQL 9.2, the latest release of the leader in open source
databases. Since the beta release was announced in May, developers and
vendors have praised it as a leap forward in performance, scalability
and flexibility. Users are expected to switch to this version in record
numbers.
"PostgreSQL 9.2 will ship with native JSON support, covering indexes,
replication and performance improvements, and many more features. We are
eagerly awaiting this release and will make it available in Early Access
as soon as it’s released by the PostgreSQL community," said Senior
Engineer, Web2.0 Company.
Improved Performance and Scalability
Hewlett Packard has adopted PostgreSQL for their remote support software
and to power their HP-UX/Itanium solutions.
"With the release of PostgreSQL 9.2, the PostgreSQL Project has
significantly advanced scalability and developer flexibility to provide
our customers a highly performant database for their most demanding
workloads," Manager at Big Tech Company said. "We are especially happy
with the addition of linear scalability to 64 cores, index-only scans
and reductions in CPU power consumption."
Improvements in vertical scalability increase PostgreSQL's ability to
efficiently utilize hardware resources on larger servers. Advances in
lock management, write efficiency, index-only access and other low-level
operations allow PostgreSQL to handle even larger-volume workloads.
Numerically, this means:
* Up to 350,000 read queries per second (more than 4X faster)
* Index-only scans for data warehousing queries (up to 20X faster)
* Up to 14,000 data writes per second (5X faster)
Also, the addition of cascading replication enables users to run even
larger stacks of horizontally scaled servers under PostgreSQL 9.2.
"SomeSocialSite relies on Postgres for storing millions of sites and
subscriptions. Solid and reliable for years," said Some Guy, founder of
SomeSocialSite.com. "We're consistently on the bleeding edge (9.1 now,
moving to 9.2 soon for the cascading replication alone) and it's been a
pleasure since 8.4."
Flexibile Developer Support
The flexibility of PostgreSQL is reflected in the diversity of
organisations that have adopted it. For example NASA, the FAA, Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and Instagram all rely on it to perform
mission-critical applications. Version 9.2 extends this flexibility
even further by including support for Range Types and JSON, allowing
developers to use PostgreSQL in completely new ways.
Range Types allow developers to create better calendaring, scientific,
and financial applications. No other major SQL database supports this
feature, which enables intelligent handling of blocks of time and numbers.
With PostgreSQL 9.2, query results can be returned as JSON data types.
Combined with the new PL/v8 Javascript and PL/Coffee database
programming extensions, and the optional HStore key-value store, users
can now utilize PostgreSQL like a "NoSQL" document database, while
retaining PostgreSQL's reliability, flexibility and performance.
"Native JSON support in PostgresSQL provides an efficient mechanism for
creating and storing documents for web APIs. We use front-end libraries
like jQuery to request tabular and tree-structured data; and the new
features make it convenient and provide performance advantages in
retrieving that data as JSON, " said Senior Architect, TelCo Inc.
Looks very good! My only recommendation would be to put the paragraph / list with the performance numbers higher up in the release. People like numbers showing speed, plus 350,000 reads / second is something to brag about :-)
Jonathan
On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 9:04 PM, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote:
Folks,
Rob Napier and I have been hammering on this for several days. The
draft looks very different now; we're trying to make it news even for
the sites which covered the beta. As Rob pointed out to me, if folks
already saw it 4 months ago, it's not news.
Here's our semi-final text. Please point out any *major* problems; at
this point, it's too late for fancy wordsmithing and debating themes.
Also, do keep in mind that the target audience of this release is *the
press*, and not our own community.
Company names have been redacted because, well, you know.
Good press release. Reads well and is compelling. No major issues I can see.
========================
## SEPTEMBER 2012: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces
PostgreSQL 9.2, the latest release of the leader in open source
databases. Since the beta release was announced in May, developers and
vendors have praised it as a leap forward in performance, scalability
and flexibility. Users are expected to switch to this version in record
numbers.
"PostgreSQL 9.2 will ship with native JSON support, covering indexes,
replication and performance improvements, and many more features. We are
eagerly awaiting this release and will make it available in Early Access
as soon as it’s released by the PostgreSQL community," said Senior
Engineer, Web2.0 Company.
Improved Performance and Scalability
Hewlett Packard has adopted PostgreSQL for their remote support software
and to power their HP-UX/Itanium solutions.
"With the release of PostgreSQL 9.2, the PostgreSQL Project has
significantly advanced scalability and developer flexibility to provide
our customers a highly performant database for their most demanding
workloads," Manager at Big Tech Company said. "We are especially happy
with the addition of linear scalability to 64 cores, index-only scans
and reductions in CPU power consumption."
Improvements in vertical scalability increase PostgreSQL's ability to
efficiently utilize hardware resources on larger servers. Advances in
lock management, write efficiency, index-only access and other low-level
operations allow PostgreSQL to handle even larger-volume workloads.
Numerically, this means:
* Up to 350,000 read queries per second (more than 4X faster)
* Index-only scans for data warehousing queries (up to 20X faster)
* Up to 14,000 data writes per second (5X faster)
Also, the addition of cascading replication enables users to run even
larger stacks of horizontally scaled servers under PostgreSQL 9.2.
"SomeSocialSite relies on Postgres for storing millions of sites and
subscriptions. Solid and reliable for years," said Some Guy, founder of
SomeSocialSite.com. "We're consistently on the bleeding edge (9.1 now,
moving to 9.2 soon for the cascading replication alone) and it's been a
pleasure since 8.4."
Flexibile Developer Support
The flexibility of PostgreSQL is reflected in the diversity of
organisations that have adopted it. For example NASA, the FAA, Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and Instagram all rely on it to perform
mission-critical applications. Version 9.2 extends this flexibility
even further by including support for Range Types and JSON, allowing
developers to use PostgreSQL in completely new ways.
Range Types allow developers to create better calendaring, scientific,
and financial applications. No other major SQL database supports this
feature, which enables intelligent handling of blocks of time and numbers.
With PostgreSQL 9.2, query results can be returned as JSON data types.
Combined with the new PL/v8 Javascript and PL/Coffee database
programming extensions, and the optional HStore key-value store, users
can now utilize PostgreSQL like a "NoSQL" document database, while
retaining PostgreSQL's reliability, flexibility and performance.
"Native JSON support in PostgresSQL provides an efficient mechanism for
creating and storing documents for web APIs. We use front-end libraries
like jQuery to request tabular and tree-structured data; and the new
features make it convenient and provide performance advantages in
retrieving that data as JSON, " said Senior Architect, TelCo Inc.
--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://pgexperts.com
--
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Jonathan
On 20/08/12 2:50 PM, "Jonathan S. Katz" <jonathan.katz@excoventures.com> wrote:
I see your point and I’m always open to other views; but here is why I disagree on this occasion:
Para 1&2. Introduction followed by quote supporting claim in introduction.
Paras 3,4,5,6,7&8. High profile name and quote introduces scalability & improvement.
Establishing credibility is more important than numbers in my view.
This is followed by the numbers and a second supporting quote.
Paras 9,10,11&12. Techie benefits but introduced with some good reference sites.
If the numbers is what we are pushing, it would be a totally different piece. The quotes would need to change and we have to work with the quotes we have. Also, I think it is well balanced as it is. If the journalists think that the numbers are more important, they will move them!
However you did remind me of something: I had the headline in the back of my mind but I didn’t enunciate it. I suggest:
If its virtue is not immediately obvious, I’m happy to explain why.
Regards
Rob Napier
On 20/08/12 2:50 PM, "Jonathan S. Katz" <jonathan.katz@excoventures.com> wrote:
Looks very good! My only recommendation would be to put the paragraph / list with the performance numbers higher up in the release. People like numbers showing speed, plus 350,000 reads / second is something to brag about :-)
I see your point and I’m always open to other views; but here is why I disagree on this occasion:
Para 1&2. Introduction followed by quote supporting claim in introduction.
Paras 3,4,5,6,7&8. High profile name and quote introduces scalability & improvement.
Establishing credibility is more important than numbers in my view.
This is followed by the numbers and a second supporting quote.
Paras 9,10,11&12. Techie benefits but introduced with some good reference sites.
If the numbers is what we are pushing, it would be a totally different piece. The quotes would need to change and we have to work with the quotes we have. Also, I think it is well balanced as it is. If the journalists think that the numbers are more important, they will move them!
However you did remind me of something: I had the headline in the back of my mind but I didn’t enunciate it. I suggest:
PostgreSQL 9.2 to set new record for market acceptance
If its virtue is not immediately obvious, I’m happy to explain why.
Regards
Rob Napier
On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 11:04 PM, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote: > > Flexibile Developer Support > i guess that "Flexibile" is a typo, isn't it? the rest looks fine to me -- Jaime Casanova www.2ndQuadrant.com Professional PostgreSQL: Soporte 24x7 y capacitación
Hi Rob,
On 20/08/12 2:50 PM, "Jonathan S. Katz" <jonathan.katz@excoventures.com> wrote:
I see your point and I’m always open to other views; but here is why I disagree on this occasion:
Para 1&2. Introduction followed by quote supporting claim in introduction.
Paras 3,4,5,6,7&8. High profile name and quote introduces scalability & improvement.
Establishing credibility is more important than numbers in my view.
This is followed by the numbers and a second supporting quote.
Paras 9,10,11&12. Techie benefits but introduced with some good reference sites.
If the numbers is what we are pushing, it would be a totally different piece. The quotes would need to change and we have to work with the quotes we have. Also, I think it is well balanced as it is. If the journalists think that the numbers are more important, they will move them!
Looks very good! My only recommendation would be to put the paragraph / list with the performance numbers higher up in the release. People like numbers showing speed, plus 350,000 reads / second is something to brag about :-)
I see your point and I’m always open to other views; but here is why I disagree on this occasion:
Para 1&2. Introduction followed by quote supporting claim in introduction.
Paras 3,4,5,6,7&8. High profile name and quote introduces scalability & improvement.
Establishing credibility is more important than numbers in my view.
This is followed by the numbers and a second supporting quote.
Paras 9,10,11&12. Techie benefits but introduced with some good reference sites.
If the numbers is what we are pushing, it would be a totally different piece. The quotes would need to change and we have to work with the quotes we have. Also, I think it is well balanced as it is. If the journalists think that the numbers are more important, they will move them!
First thanks again for both of your hard work on this, it is excellent, which is a word I use limitedly for praise :-) The copy itself does not need any work.
Let me clarify my suggestion. Beneath the "Improved Performance and Scalability" subsection, I would recommend leading with the "Improvements with vertical scalability" paragraph, followed by the stats, then followed by the adoption quote, the thought process being:
1. explain what the improvements are
2. justify it with numbers
3. show that they are being adopted
I think it helps a lot with readability of the section, though I see how it does push two quotes close together (which for press purposes is ok, I see that in major publications all the time) . Just to demonstrate how it would read instead:
==========
Improved Performance and Scalability
Improvements in vertical scalability increase PostgreSQL's ability to
efficiently utilize hardware resources on larger servers. Advances in
lock management, write efficiency, index-only access and other low-level
operations allow PostgreSQL to handle even larger-volume workloads.
Numerically, this means:
* Up to 350,000 read queries per second (more than 4X faster)
* Index-only scans for data warehousing queries (up to 20X faster)
* Up to 14,000 data writes per second (5X faster)
efficiently utilize hardware resources on larger servers. Advances in
lock management, write efficiency, index-only access and other low-level
operations allow PostgreSQL to handle even larger-volume workloads.
Numerically, this means:
* Up to 350,000 read queries per second (more than 4X faster)
* Index-only scans for data warehousing queries (up to 20X faster)
* Up to 14,000 data writes per second (5X faster)
Hewlett Packard has adopted PostgreSQL for their remote support software
and to power their HP-UX/Itanium solutions.
"With the release of PostgreSQL 9.2, the PostgreSQL Project has
significantly advanced scalability and developer flexibility to provide
our customers a highly performant database for their most demanding
workloads," Manager at Big Tech Company said. "We are especially happy
with the addition of linear scalability to 64 cores, index-only scans
and reductions in CPU power consumption."
and to power their HP-UX/Itanium solutions.
"With the release of PostgreSQL 9.2, the PostgreSQL Project has
significantly advanced scalability and developer flexibility to provide
our customers a highly performant database for their most demanding
workloads," Manager at Big Tech Company said. "We are especially happy
with the addition of linear scalability to 64 cores, index-only scans
and reductions in CPU power consumption."
Also, the addition of cascading replication enables users to run even
larger stacks of horizontally scaled servers under PostgreSQL 9.2.
"SomeSocialSite relies on Postgres for storing millions of sites and
subscriptions. Solid and reliable for years," said Some Guy, founder of
SomeSocialSite.com. "We're consistently on the bleeding edge (9.1 now,
moving to 9.2 soon for the cascading replication alone) and it's been a
pleasure since 8.4."
larger stacks of horizontally scaled servers under PostgreSQL 9.2.
"SomeSocialSite relies on Postgres for storing millions of sites and
subscriptions. Solid and reliable for years," said Some Guy, founder of
SomeSocialSite.com. "We're consistently on the bleeding edge (9.1 now,
moving to 9.2 soon for the cascading replication alone) and it's been a
pleasure since 8.4."
==========
However you did remind me of something: I had the headline in the back of my mind but I didn’t enunciate it. I suggest:PostgreSQL 9.2 to set new record for market acceptance
If its virtue is not immediately obvious, I’m happy to explain why.
It sounds nice, but which record are we breaking? PG adoption? All the RDBMS? All data stores? It does appear from early indications 9.2 will have much wider + faster adoption than previous releases, but please do explain further :-)
Jonathan
On 8/20/12 1:18 AM, Rob Napier wrote: >> > PostgreSQL 9.2 to set new record for market acceptance > If its virtue is not immediately obvious, I¹m happy to explain why. I see the appeal. However, I have two concerns about it: 1) We really want the fact that 9.2 has been released in the headline somewhere. 2) We don't have good stats to back up "market acceptance", like numbers of users. I have the 451Research stat on commercial usage, and that's about it. -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://pgexperts.com
Thanks, well spotted! It seems that Microsoft can't spell it either. On 21/08/12 2:06 AM, "Jaime Casanova" <jaime@2ndquadrant.com> wrote: > On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 11:04 PM, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote: >> >> Flexibile Developer Support >> > > i guess that "Flexibile" is a typo, isn't it? > the rest looks fine to me Regards Rob Napier
On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 3:32 PM, Rob Napier <rob@doitonce.net.au> wrote:
Thanks, well spotted!
It seems that Microsoft can't spell it either.
That's what interpersonal Cupertino is for ;-)
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
On 20 August 2012 05:04, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote: > With PostgreSQL 9.2 That all sounds good. What I'm particularly surprised about is the lack of mention of power reductions, which is a good thing for embedded devices, desktop, cloud and large enterprise deployments. That sounds like a feature everybody can understand. "Postgres goes Green" -- Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
> What I'm particularly surprised about is the lack of mention of power > reductions, which is a good thing for embedded devices, desktop, cloud > and large enterprise deployments. That sounds like a feature everybody > can understand. "Postgres goes Green" It's mentioned in one of the quotes. -- Josh Berkus PostgreSQL Experts Inc. http://pgexperts.com
On 27/08/12 07:21, Simon Riggs wrote:
On 20 August 2012 05:04, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote:With PostgreSQL 9.2That all sounds good. What I'm particularly surprised about is the lack of mention of power reductions, which is a good thing for embedded devices, desktop, cloud and large enterprise deployments. That sounds like a feature everybody can understand. "Postgres goes Green"
Green as in greenhorn, immature, unseasoned??? :-)
(Sorry, my perverse sense of humour escaped!)
I think for the kind of people that kind of phrase might attract, saying 'PostgreSQL' might be better as 'everyone' knows, all databases (MySQL, SQLserver) have SQL in their name.
From what I have read, energy costs (not only for running the servers, but also the air conditioning required) is a major cost factor in data centres. So mentioning power savings should rank a significant mention – that 9.3 does, when and why.
Cheers,
Gavin