Thread: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Oscar Calderon
Date:
Hi, this question isn't technical, but is very important for me to know. Currently, here in El Salvador our company brings PostgreSQL support, but Oracle and SQL Server are more popular here. 

Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in companies in our region or around the world, success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.

I think that in my country is more common to hear success stories like that about other databases like Oracle because is more expanded here, but i would like if there's a place or if you can share with me some real experiences or success stories that you ever heard of successful implementations of PostgreSQL in companies to talk with people when they ask that kind of things.

Regards.

***************************
Oscar Calderon
Analista de Sistemas
Soluciones Aplicativas S.A. de C.V.
www.solucionesaplicativas.com
Cel. (503) 7741 7850

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Steve Crawford
Date:
On 05/23/2013 02:36 PM, Oscar Calderon wrote:
> Hi, this question isn't technical, but is very important for me to
> know. Currently, here in El Salvador our company brings PostgreSQL
> support, but Oracle and SQL Server are more popular here.
>
> Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to
> PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very
> often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL
> implementations in companies in our region or around the world,
> success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of
> concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.
>
> I think that in my country is more common to hear success stories like
> that about other databases like Oracle because is more expanded here,
> but i would like if there's a place or if you can share with me some
> real experiences or success stories that you ever heard of successful
> implementations of PostgreSQL in companies to talk with people when
> they ask that kind of things.
>
Start with the web-site - especially:
http://www.postgresql.org/about/users/
http://www.postgresql.org/about/quotesarchive/

I don't know about name-recognition in El Salvador but Etsy, Wisconsin
Courts, Skype, Affilias, FlightAware, NTT are quite recognizable here.

Cheers,
Steve



Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Mike Christensen
Date:

On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com> wrote:
On 05/23/2013 02:36 PM, Oscar Calderon wrote:
Hi, this question isn't technical, but is very important for me to know. Currently, here in El Salvador our company brings PostgreSQL support, but Oracle and SQL Server are more popular here.

Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in companies in our region or around the world, success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.

I think that in my country is more common to hear success stories like that about other databases like Oracle because is more expanded here, but i would like if there's a place or if you can share with me some real experiences or success stories that you ever heard of successful implementations of PostgreSQL in companies to talk with people when they ask that kind of things.

Start with the web-site - especially:
http://www.postgresql.org/about/users/
http://www.postgresql.org/about/quotesarchive/

I don't know about name-recognition in El Salvador but Etsy, Wisconsin Courts, Skype, Affilias, FlightAware, NTT are quite recognizable here.


And don't forget about everyone's favorite recipe search engine, www.kitchenpc.com - powered by Postgres 9.1..

</ShamelessPlug> 

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Nathan Clayton
Date:
On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 2:51 PM, Steve Crawford <scrawford@pinpointresearch.com> wrote:
On 05/23/2013 02:36 PM, Oscar Calderon wrote:
Hi, this question isn't technical, but is very important for me to know. Currently, here in El Salvador our company brings PostgreSQL support, but Oracle and SQL Server are more popular here.

Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in companies in our region or around the world, success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.

I think that in my country is more common to hear success stories like that about other databases like Oracle because is more expanded here, but i would like if there's a place or if you can share with me some real experiences or success stories that you ever heard of successful implementations of PostgreSQL in companies to talk with people when they ask that kind of things.

Start with the web-site - especially:
http://www.postgresql.org/about/users/
http://www.postgresql.org/about/quotesarchive/

I don't know about name-recognition in El Salvador but Etsy, Wisconsin Courts, Skype, Affilias, FlightAware, NTT are quite recognizable here.

Cheers,
Steve

Salesforce is moving their core from Oracle to PostgreSQL.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/salesforce-hires-to-go-open-source/

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Shaun Thomas
Date:
On 05/23/2013 09:57 PM, Mike Christensen wrote:

>     I don't know about name-recognition in El Salvador but Etsy,
>     Wisconsin Courts, Skype, Affilias, FlightAware, NTT are quite
>     recognizable here.

Don't forget Instagram. :)

We're not quite that size, but our financial PG system peaks at 18k TPS
and handles roughly a billion queries per day.

--
Shaun Thomas
OptionsHouse | 141 W. Jackson Blvd. | Suite 500 | Chicago IL, 60604
312-676-8870
sthomas@optionshouse.com

______________________________________________

See http://www.peak6.com/email_disclaimer/ for terms and conditions related to this email


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
ocalderon@solucionesaplicativas.com
Date:
Thank you all of you for your answers! It helps me a lot because when I'm trying to convince a client to migrate to
PostgreSQLsometimes they think that because it's free, it only works for small databases for web or desktop
applicationswith a few users, while they blindly trust in oracle or sql server just because are propietary databases
(oracleis understandable, but sql server...) But with your examples and the links provided I can even create a document
recopilingthose success cases to encourage clients to implement Postgres.
 

Regards.
------Original Message------
From: Shaun Thomas
To: Mike Christensen
Cc: Steve Crawford
Cc: Oscar Calderon
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
ReplyTo: sthomas@optionshouse.com
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies
Sent: May 24, 2013 7:40 AM

On 05/23/2013 09:57 PM, Mike Christensen wrote:

>     I don't know about name-recognition in El Salvador but Etsy,
>     Wisconsin Courts, Skype, Affilias, FlightAware, NTT are quite
>     recognizable here.

Don't forget Instagram. :)

We're not quite that size, but our financial PG system peaks at 18k TPS 
and handles roughly a billion queries per day.

-- 
Shaun Thomas
OptionsHouse | 141 W. Jackson Blvd. | Suite 500 | Chicago IL, 60604
312-676-8870
sthomas@optionshouse.com

______________________________________________

See http://www.peak6.com/email_disclaimer/ for terms and conditions related to this email

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from Telecom.

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Alvaro Herrera
Date:
Oscar Calderon wrote:

> I think that in my country is more common to hear success stories like that
> about other databases like Oracle because is more expanded here, but i
> would like if there's a place or if you can share with me some real
> experiences or success stories that you ever heard of successful
> implementations of PostgreSQL in companies to talk with people when they
> ask that kind of things.

In 2010 I asked some communities to share info on this topic.  Here's
most of what I was given:

Argentina:
http://www.arpug.com.ar/trac/wiki/Entidades

Brasil:
http://www.postgresql.org.br/pesquisas/2009/utilizacao-do-postgres-no-brasil
http://listas.postgresql.org.br/pipermail/pgbr-dev/2010-February/003390.html

Ecuador:
http://listas.postgresql.org.br/pipermail/pgbr-dev/2010-February/003391.html

There are many interesting cases in Venezuela and Cuba too.

--
Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Chris Angelico
Date:
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:52 PM,  <ocalderon@solucionesaplicativas.com> wrote:
> Thank you all of you for your answers! It helps me a lot because when I'm trying to convince a client to migrate to
PostgreSQLsometimes they think that because it's free, it only works for small databases for web or desktop
applicationswith a few users... 


It's worth noting, by the way, that even options that "scale badly"
are often well used. How many huge web sites do you know of that are
built using Ruby on Rails? That's a system that actually cannot scale
past one CPU core, on its own; but there are ways around that by
bolting stuff to the outside (eg Apache and Passenger). And a single
core of a single computer with even a moderate amount of memory by
today's standards (just a few gig, say) can serve a fair amount of
traffic without noticing it. I have a server sitting a couple of
meters from me that's getting fairly old now - single-core CPU, 2GB
RAM, Ubuntu Karmic, etc - and it's happily serving a number of
community web sites. Not huge traffic of course, but we're talking a
few thousand hits per day per web site, up to 5-10K perhaps for the
busier ones... and the server barely gets above 0.01 load average. I
could handle a hundred times that traffic easily. In terms of database
load, it takes hundreds of transactions per *second* to be called
busy, but unless you have insane concentration in peak periods, that
represents upwards of 8,640,000 actions per day. There's a huge gap
between "desktop app with a few users" and ten million transactions a
day.

ChrisA


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Scott Marlowe
Date:
Also it's worth noting that there are no reporting / licensing
requirements for postgresql. It's all over the place, and you just
don't see it. My last company we had a 400G user database serving some
2million students daily, and were seriously pounding a pair of $25k db
servers to handle the load. And that was with memcache to remove a lot
of the read only load as well. We're talking 500 to 700Mb/s outbound
traffic, sustained, for about 9 months out of the year. For every
story you see of someone using pgsql, there are literally thousands of
users you never hear of.


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Oscar Calderon
Date:
Yes, i'm agree with you. What i tried to say was that, here in my country, Oracle support is very extended in the largest companies of the country, and those companies trusts that Oracle is a highly scalable and robust database, what is absolutely true, but they think that PostgreSQL is something like a "mini database" for small purposes like small web apps or personal desktop applications just because it's free, but i know that PostgreSQL is capable to be scalable and robust as Oracle or related databases, but i didn't have arguments to say to some software chief in a company "Hey, PostgreSQL is also capable of support a lot of TPS and work in a production environment with a lot of users (if the server is well configured and there are reasonable hardware resources)", but you're right about what you said.

Regards.

***************************
Oscar Calderon
Analista de Sistemas
Soluciones Aplicativas S.A. de C.V.
www.solucionesaplicativas.com
Cel. (503) 7741 7850


2013/5/24 Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:52 PM,  <ocalderon@solucionesaplicativas.com> wrote:
> Thank you all of you for your answers! It helps me a lot because when I'm trying to convince a client to migrate to PostgreSQL sometimes they think that because it's free, it only works for small databases for web or desktop applications with a few users...


It's worth noting, by the way, that even options that "scale badly"
are often well used. How many huge web sites do you know of that are
built using Ruby on Rails? That's a system that actually cannot scale
past one CPU core, on its own; but there are ways around that by
bolting stuff to the outside (eg Apache and Passenger). And a single
core of a single computer with even a moderate amount of memory by
today's standards (just a few gig, say) can serve a fair amount of
traffic without noticing it. I have a server sitting a couple of
meters from me that's getting fairly old now - single-core CPU, 2GB
RAM, Ubuntu Karmic, etc - and it's happily serving a number of
community web sites. Not huge traffic of course, but we're talking a
few thousand hits per day per web site, up to 5-10K perhaps for the
busier ones... and the server barely gets above 0.01 load average. I
could handle a hundred times that traffic easily. In terms of database
load, it takes hundreds of transactions per *second* to be called
busy, but unless you have insane concentration in peak periods, that
represents upwards of 8,640,000 actions per day. There's a huge gap
between "desktop app with a few users" and ten million transactions a
day.

ChrisA


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Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Scott Marlowe
Date:
In addition to the other places mentioned, don't forget that the .info
and .org TLDs run on pgsql. and run quite well too. Oracle tossed a
LOT of FUD when Afilias put in their bid to run the TLD on postgresql.
It was actually quite pathetic. Here's the comments from Oracle:

http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00000.html

And the replies to the FUD here:

http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00001.html
http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00002.html


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Bèrto ëd Sèra
Date:
The Greater London Authority is also ditching Oracle in favour of PG. I consulted them while they kick started their transition and the first new PG/PostGIS only project is already delivered. The number of companies ditching Oracle is probably much larger than it seems, giving the dynamics in salaries. The average PG based salary goes up steady, while working with Oracle is going down pretty quick.

At least, so it would look from the UK. An Oracle DBA in average is currently offered some 15% less than a PG dba.

My 10p

Bèrto


On 24 May 2013 15:56, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com> wrote:
In addition to the other places mentioned, don't forget that the .info
and .org TLDs run on pgsql. and run quite well too. Oracle tossed a
LOT of FUD when Afilias put in their bid to run the TLD on postgresql.
It was actually quite pathetic. Here's the comments from Oracle:

http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00000.html

And the replies to the FUD here:

http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00001.html
http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00002.html


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==============================
If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music.

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Scott Marlowe
Date:
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Bèrto ëd Sèra <berto.d.sera@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Greater London Authority is also ditching Oracle in favour of PG. I
> consulted them while they kick started their transition and the first new
> PG/PostGIS only project is already delivered. The number of companies
> ditching Oracle is probably much larger than it seems, giving the dynamics
> in salaries. The average PG based salary goes up steady, while working with
> Oracle is going down pretty quick.
>
> At least, so it would look from the UK. An Oracle DBA in average is
> currently offered some 15% less than a PG dba.

Where I currently work we've been looking for a qualified production
postgres DBA. They (we?) are hard to come by.


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Ian Lawrence Barwick
Date:
2013/5/25 Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com>:
> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Bèrto ëd Sèra <berto.d.sera@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The Greater London Authority is also ditching Oracle in favour of PG. I
>> consulted them while they kick started their transition and the first new
>> PG/PostGIS only project is already delivered. The number of companies
>> ditching Oracle is probably much larger than it seems, giving the dynamics
>> in salaries. The average PG based salary goes up steady, while working with
>> Oracle is going down pretty quick.
>>
>> At least, so it would look from the UK. An Oracle DBA in average is
>> currently offered some 15% less than a PG dba.
>
> Where I currently work we've been looking for a qualified production
> postgres DBA. They (we?) are hard to come by.

I recently got hired for my good looks and passing acquaintance with
Postgres by a finance-orientated company in Japan which is transitioning
to Postgres.

Ian Barwick


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Chris Angelico
Date:
On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 12:56 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com> wrote:
> In addition to the other places mentioned, don't forget that the .info
> and .org TLDs run on pgsql. and run quite well too. Oracle tossed a
> LOT of FUD when Afilias put in their bid to run the TLD on postgresql.
> It was actually quite pathetic. Here's the comments from Oracle:
>
> http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00000.html

"PostgreSQL ... lacks the transactional features ..."

What? Really? PostgreSQL was the first database engine where I started
rolling back ALTER TABLE statements. (I'm not sure whether DB2 v5
could do it or not, but if it could, I never made use of it.) It's a
flexibility I've come to not only appreciate, but depend on; schema
changes and content changes are now no different to me, both can be
versionned the same way.

> And the replies to the FUD here:
>
> http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00001.html
> http://forum.icann.org/org-eval/gartner-report/msg00002.html

"Ms. Gelhausen is quite correct that these are important
capabilities, finally available with the release of Oracle9i. We
applaud Oracle's continued efforts to close the gap and stay
competitive with this, and other open source database features."

Burrrrrrrn!

ChrisA


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Atri Sharma
Date:
>
>
> "Ms. Gelhausen is quite correct that these are important
> capabilities, finally available with the release of Oracle9i. We
> applaud Oracle's continued efforts to close the gap and stay
> competitive with this, and other open source database features."
>
> Burrrrrrrn!
>


Apply ice to affected areas.

Hahaha! Too good,made my day.

Regards,

Atri
>


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Merlin Moncure
Date:
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Bèrto ëd Sèra <berto.d.sera@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The Greater London Authority is also ditching Oracle in favour of PG. I
>> consulted them while they kick started their transition and the first new
>> PG/PostGIS only project is already delivered. The number of companies
>> ditching Oracle is probably much larger than it seems, giving the dynamics
>> in salaries. The average PG based salary goes up steady, while working with
>> Oracle is going down pretty quick.
>>
>> At least, so it would look from the UK. An Oracle DBA in average is
>> currently offered some 15% less than a PG dba.
>
> Where I currently work we've been looking for a qualified production
> postgres DBA. They (we?) are hard to come by.

This.  The major barrier to postgres adoption is accessibility of
talent.  OTOH, postgres tends to attract the best and smartest
developers and so the price premium is justified.  This is not just
bias speaking...I work on the hiring side and it's a frank analysis of
the current state of affairs.  Postgres is white hot.

The database is competitive technically (better in some ways worse in
others) vs the best of the commercial offerings but is evolving much
more quickly.

merlin


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Karl Denninger
Date:

On 5/24/2013 10:49 AM, Merlin Moncure wrote:
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 10:15 AM, Scott Marlowe <scott.marlowe@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Bèrto ëd Sèra <berto.d.sera@gmail.com> wrote:
The Greater London Authority is also ditching Oracle in favour of PG. I
consulted them while they kick started their transition and the first new
PG/PostGIS only project is already delivered. The number of companies
ditching Oracle is probably much larger than it seems, giving the dynamics
in salaries. The average PG based salary goes up steady, while working with
Oracle is going down pretty quick.

At least, so it would look from the UK. An Oracle DBA in average is
currently offered some 15% less than a PG dba.
Where I currently work we've been looking for a qualified production
postgres DBA. They (we?) are hard to come by.
This.  The major barrier to postgres adoption is accessibility of
talent.  OTOH, postgres tends to attract the best and smartest
developers and so the price premium is justified.  This is not just
bias speaking...I work on the hiring side and it's a frank analysis of
the current state of affairs.  Postgres is white hot.

The database is competitive technically (better in some ways worse in
others) vs the best of the commercial offerings but is evolving much
more quickly.

merlin

They/we are not THAT hard to come by.

It's the common lament that customers have in a nice whorehouse.  The price is too high.....

(You can easily pay me to quit doing what I'm doing now and do something else; the problem only rests in one place when it comes to enticing me to do so -- money. :-))


--
Karl Denninger
karl@denninger.net
Cuda Systems LLC

Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Wolfgang Keller
Date:
> Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to
> PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very
> often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL
> implementations in companies in our region or around the world,
> success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of
> concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.

Not a company, but a pretty "big" installation, I guess: French Caisse
Nationale des Allocations Familiales (welfare agency) is running on
PostgreSQL:

123 local offices all over France
11 million families and 30 million people as "customers"
69 bio EUR annual turnover
168 databases, 4TB all databases together, largest database is 250 GB
1 bio SQL statements a day

Sincerely,

Wolfgang


Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
ocalderon@solucionesaplicativas.com
Date:
Thank you Wolfgang, just one question, what "bio" means? In the part that says "69 bio EUR..."

Regards.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from Telecom.

-----Original Message-----
From: Wolfgang Keller <feliphil@gmx.net>
Sender: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.orgDate: Mon, 27 May 2013 17:15:41 
To: <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in
 different companies

> Even with that, some clients are being encouraged to change to
> PostgreSQL to lower their companies costs in technologies, but very
> often they ask if there are success stories of PostgreSQL
> implementations in companies in our region or around the world,
> success stories (if is possible) with some information like number of
> concurrent users, some hardware specs or storage size.

Not a company, but a pretty "big" installation, I guess: French Caisse
Nationale des Allocations Familiales (welfare agency) is running on
PostgreSQL:

123 local offices all over France
11 million families and 30 million people as "customers"
69 bio EUR annual turnover
168 databases, 4TB all databases together, largest database is 250 GB
1 bio SQL statements a day

Sincerely,

Wolfgang


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Re: Success stories of PostgreSQL implementations in different companies

From
Michael Paquier
Date:
On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 12:25 AM, <ocalderon@solucionesaplicativas.com> wrote:
Thank you Wolfgang, just one question, what "bio" means? In the part that says "69 bio EUR..."
In this case, billions.
--
Michael