On 7/18/19 7:23 AM, Dirk Riehle wrote:
Hello everyone!
tl;dr: How well is PostgreSQL positioned to serve as the database of
choice for a DBaaS operator? Specifically, how much open source is (may
be) missing?
----
Im un-lurking hoping to learn more about PostgreSQL in DBaaS land.
You may have seen this announcement.
https://blog.yugabyte.com/why-we-changed-yugabyte-db-licensing-to-100-open-source/
YugaByte bills itself as a PostgreSQL compatible database (yay to at
least the intent) but most importantly, it decided to single-license its
database under a permissive license, including "the enterprise features"
that frequently are held back by single-vendor open source firms who
want to earn a RoI for their VC investment.
The interesting part (and why I'm posting it here) is the following
staging of functionality implied in that post.
1. Core database (permissively licensed)
2. Enterprise features (permissively licensed)
3. DBaaS features (trial license, commercial, no open source)
4. Managed by YugaByte (commercial)
Point 3. suggests that they want to make money from self-managed DBaaS,
but in the post they also write they really only expect significant
income from 4, i.e. YugaByte (the database) managed by YugaByte (the
company).
Where is PostgreSQL in relation to this?
1. PostgreSQL itself is certainly 1 above, the core database.
2. PostgreSQL permissive license allows commercial offerings to build
and not share enterprise features (and I'm sure some companies are
holding back). However, PostgreSQL is true community open source so
whatever enterprise features become relevant, they'll eventually be
commoditized and out in the open. Is there a lot that is missing? And
that some companies have but are not contributing?
3. So, PostgreSQL as-a-service. There are several companies (plenty?)
who service PostgreSQL. I wonder how this is being shared back? I don't
have a clear picture here, my impression is that the software to run
these potentially large farms is proprietary? Or, that operators would
argue, this is all configuration and shell scripts and not really
shareable open source?
One aspect related to as-a-service is scaling out, i.e. not just having
many small customers, but also serving large customers in the cloud. I
looked around for scaling out solutions. There used to be CitusData (not
any longer it seems), there is PostgresXL which seems to be moving
slowly. Is that it?
4. Managed DBaaS is not relevant here but always a commercial offering.
So, back to my main question above. If I wanted to run a DBaaS shop with
only PostgreSQL open source, how far away from being able to compete
with AWS or Azure (or YugaByte for that matter) would I be?
The difference in resources available. The pull of DBaaS as I see it is
the being able to spin up db's as needed on a scale needed from one or
more locations. All with a unified management fronted/API. Being
competitive means being able to match that.
Thanks for any thoughts and opinions! Dirk
--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@xxxxxxxxxxx
