Less known but worthwile PostgreSQL extensions

Postgres is known for it extensibility, which made it the universal database, that means it can meet the requirements of practically any project. Many extensions are well-known and widely used, for example, PostGIS extension - de-facto standard of open source GIS, hstore - an extension for storing and manipulation of arbitrary key/value pairs. I will talk about less known but useful PostgreSQL extensions, which provides a new functionaliy and/or improve the performance of PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL was designed to be extensible, it provides an API to application developers to extend PostgreSQL functionality and/or improve the performance for specific data and workloads. It is important that there is no need of having expertise of core developers, and these new functionality could be added online without restarting of database server. Application developer can create various database objects, such as functions, data types, operators, indexes, and even new access methods.

I will present my choice of two extensions out of hundreds:

vops - greatly improves the performance of Postgres for OLAP queries using vector operations, pg_variables - provides session variables for storing scalars and relations, useful for generating reports on read-only replicas.

What stops the transition on PostgreSQL and how to overcome it

Several real cases from those who stopped the migration to PostgreSQL.

Forward to the past

Sometimes there is a great desire to return the database to the past, for a day or two or more days. The reasons are diverse, but most often one is to see what has changed. Or to see if the application behaved incorrectly after the update. Or it was just a command from the boss. The classic way everyone knows is to keep full backups and sets of WAL-logs to be able to recover to an arbitrary moment. This method is a real headache for DBAs/administrators, and it will not work quickly. Sure, there are some ways to optimize this process, but downtime is inevitable. PostgresPro offers a new way — database snapshots and the ability to return to them.

NoSQL/PL: Programming in non-SQL-like procedural languages

Workshop on Server-Side development in procedural languages PL/Perl ,PL/Python, PL / v8 inside PostgreSQL and Postgres Pro. You will not only learn what they are for but also how to use them correctly and what results can be achieved using them.