Elephants vs. Dolphins: Comparing PostgreSQL and MySQL for use in the DoD

1. Elephant vs. Dolphin
Comparing PostgreSQL and MySQL in the DoD
James Hanson
jhanson@freedomconsultinggroup.com
jamesphanson@yahoo.com
@jamey_hanson
Freedom Consulting Group
http://www.freedomconsultinggroup.com
14-Ju1-2015

2.  What are the similarities and differences between
PostgreSQL and MySQL?
 Highlight features that support projects delivering
capabilities in our environment
Elephant vs. Dolphin in the DoD
PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-20152
vs.

3.  They are both Relational Database Management
Systems (RDBMS)
 Store data in tables and views
 Relate tables with foreign keys that are automatically
updated with triggers
 Interact with data using ANSI SQL
 Support procedural programming language(s)
 Support "transactions"
COMMIT statement to make a permanent change
 Support multiple, concurrent connections working with the
same data
How are PostgreSQL and MySQL similar?
PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-20153

4.  On-line ("hot") backups and database exports
 Full or partial replication from Master to Standby
 Including “hot” Standby for reporting
 Multiple Standby with automatic failover
 Clustering support with virtual IP interface
 Command-line interface that can run scripts
 Bulk load tools for OS files
 Connection pooling tool(s)
Both have the expected suite of tools
PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-20154

5. PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-20155
Both have a GUI

6. PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-20156
Both have a GUI

7.  Free and “freemium” versions
 PostgreSQL has an active FOSS development
community.
MySQL FOSS development forked to MariaDB
 EnterpriseDB only supports PostgreSQL.
Oracle also supports (protects) Oracle RDBMS
 Both are included in CentOS / Fedora / RHEL
Similar distribution and business models
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8.  Dr. Google has multiple, conflicting performance
comparisons. An (over)simplification …
 MySQL is considered to be slightly faster in simple
(i.e. no join) queries
 PostgreSQL is faster in queries with joins and more
complex transactions
Similar performance
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9.  Magic Quadrant for Operational Database
Management Systems.
 http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-
23A415Q&ct=141020&st=sb
What does the Gartner say?
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10. What does the Gartner say?
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11.  Strategic planning assumptions
 By 2017, the "NoSQL" label will cease to distinguish
DBMSs, which will reduce its value and result in it falling
out of use.
 By 2017, all leading operational DBMSs will offer multiple
data models, relational and NoSQL, in a single platform.
 EnterpriseDB (i.e. PostgreSQL) has higher
Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute
What does the Gartner say?
PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-201511

12.  The MySQL™ software delivers a very fast, multi-
threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured
Query Language) database server.
(https://dev.mysql.com/)
 MySQL implements a subset of ANSI SQL and features
that are used by simple and (typically) ORM-based
applications.
 PostgreSQL delivers a fast, robust implementation of
the ANSI SQL standard with NoSQL*, geospatial,
row-level-security and partitioning support. It is also
extensible with multiple programming languages.
* JSON, XML, key-value-pair, limited graph queries and natural
language full-text search.
Different missions and visions:
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13. Why the passion?
13
MySQL
PostgreSQL

14.  Oracle owns MySQL, which effectively means it will never
have a feature set that competes with Oracle RDBMS.
 Not everyone wants their database to support Larry’s
private island and America’s Cup
Business reasons …
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15.  PostgreSQL’s mission is bigger than MySQL’s and
so it does more
 Full implementation of ANSI SQL (vs. MySQL subset)
 Native NoSQL support including JSON, XML, key-value-
pair and recursive (graph) queries.
Only Oracle RDBMS has these.
 GeoSpatial support with PostGIS
 Support for common language procedural extensions
Java, Python, Perl, Program/R
 Application-customized data types including IPv4/6,
range, array and ENUM
Technical reasons …
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16.  Analytic functions (a.k.a. Windowing functions)
 Calculate moving average and similar statistics that can
only be done in the application tier with MySQL
How does that impact my mission?
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17.  Find events within a user-select box, IP-location,
nearest event(s), event(s) within radius
 Use internal mapping and related services … for free
GeoSpatial data
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18.  Validate IP’s on input (hard to do with IPv6)
 Find IPs within subnet (CIDR notation) or range
 Associate array’s of ports and/or MAC addresses
with IP(s)
 PostgreSQL lets you think like a router when working
with IPs rather than thinking like a parser
IPv4 / 6 data types (+ MAC)
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19.  Beyond the Relational model for …
 Large data sets that need to be stored efficiently
 Focus on queries, relationships and analysis
(vs. transactions)
 Read-only data
 Does any of this sound applicable to our domain?
Arrays
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20.  Similar to Apache SOLR, but automatically updated
and part of the database
 Not as fast or full-featured
 Ranked results base on search-term frequency
weighted for document size. Similar to TF/IDF.
 Highlighted surrounding phrases
Full-text search w/ranked results
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21.  Leverage the skills your team has today
(any) Procedural language support
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22.  Per Gartner – “By 2017, all leading operational DBMSs will
offer multiple data models, relational and NoSQL, in a single
platform.” (PostgreSQL does today)
 JSON support similar to MongoDB, but integrated with the
rest of your data
NoSQL support … JSON & XML
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23.  HSTORE data type stores key-value pairs as a column in a
relational table
NoSQL support … key value pair
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24.  PostgreSQL recursive* queries support graphs.* “recursive”
is the ANSI-SQL term.
 Similar functionality to Neo4J and SPARQL, but on smaller
data sets
NoSQL support … graph data
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25.  PostgreSQL and MySQL are both good products for
simple, pure-relational applications using a subset of
ANSI-SQL
 They have similar performance & tools
 Both are free and “fremium”
 But MySQL will never have the features of Oracle RDBMS
… because Larry Ellison won’t allow it.
 MariaDB has FOSS active development, but it is a fork – not
MySQL
Summary
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26.  Consider PostgreSQL if, over the lifespan of your project,
you ever envision …
 Using JSON, XML, key-value pair or other NoSQL data
 Validating, storing or analyzing IPv4/6 or MAC addresses
 Points on a map, selecting records based on a bounding-box,
searching for nearby/far-away records or looking for
communication that crosses a geographic boundary
 Performing moving averages, Excel pivot-table queries or
advanced statistics
 Leveraging your team’s Java, Python, Perl, TCL or Program /R
skills
 Using (simple) graph analysis to find a path between records
Summary
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27.  Contact any member of the PostgreSQL Migration Team
 James Hanson, Chris Fort and Russell Janusz
 Connect to our YUM repository (or GUI installer) … and go
 Contact Corporate Hosting … and let them host your
PostgreSQL database and VM
 Contact Aaron Pestel or James Hanson for capability and
license information on EnterpriseDB
OK great … how do I move forward?
PostgreSQL Migration Team 14-Jul-201527

28. Are
there
any
Questions
or
follow up?
PGConf US, NYC 26-
Mar-2015
28