EnterpriseDB launches a 'center' for Postgres database

There's no phone number on the PostgreSQL.org open-source database Web site. And for EnterpriseDB CEO Andy Astor, whose company makes money from a Postgres-based product, that's been a problem.

On Tuesday, Astor's company launched a site called the EnterpriseDB Postgres Resource Center, which gives interested parties a phone number to call and, Astor hopes, other useful items.

The site's launch coincides with this week's LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco and includes a package of software tools meant to make it easier for business customers to install the open-source database. The site also offers technical information to developers.

The software package includes the Postgres database, along with a multi-operating system installer, administration tools and a text search add-on. Enterprise DB intends to offer support, training and installation services around the database.

The larger hope in setting up the site and database bundle is to create more critical mass around Postgres, Astor said.

Postgres is an enterprise-class database, but it faces competition from other database alternatives, both open-source and proprietary.

The new Web site "creates a center around which the market can develop and drive adoption of Postgres, which frankly has been slow to develop because there is nobody at the center. This is us trying to create a center," said Astor. "We hope it will become the de facto open-source database distribution."

EnterpriseDB Advanced Server, which is built on top of Postgres, will remain a separate product from the open-source distribution available on the site.

Iselin, N.J.-based EnterpriseDB has signed on about 125 customers that have bought EntepriseDB Advanced Server as a replacement for Oracle. The company has built compatibility with Oracle, the most widely used corporate database, and sells it as a enterprise-grade alternative at a fraction of the cost, according to Astor.

EnterpriseDB on Tuesday also extended its product line with a version of its database tuned specifically for large databases used in business intelligence applications.

Called GridSQL fpr EnterpriseDB Advanced Server, the product is designed for analyzing large amounts of data across several parallel servers.

Another open-source company called Greenplum has also developed a specialized edition of Postgres for high-end business business intelligence applications.

[kevinclosson]

GridSQL for EnterpriseDB

I've bloged about the popular shared-nothing architecture of GridSQL at:

http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/nearly-free-or-not-gridsql-for-enterprisedb-is-simply-better-than-real-application-clusters-it-is-shared-nothing-architecture-after-all/

[Snarky Baloogle]

GridSQL is an old Java joke named Extendb

This is a totally weak vaporware thing. They bought a single developer that made a java front end called Extendb that doesn?t even work. Why not check out CJDBC while you are at it.

If you want to download it (gridsql) go here:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/extendb/

Note that when you click on www.extendb.com you are redirected to edb?s website.

I?m so sick of vendor claims without proof, where are the customers?