PgConf.Russia 2020

To build a decent query plan, the optimizer has to understand statistical characteristics of underlying data. It is interesting to observe how the structure of the collected information became more complicated over time: what the optimizer relied on back in its early days and what is at his disposal now with the release of the 12th version. We will also talk about how and when statistics are collected, how to manage this process and whether it is necessary to think about it at all.

In May 2019 «Postgres Professional» launched the PostgreSQL Certification Program. Now you can not only get training in our courses, but also confirm your knowledge by passing an appropriate set of tests.

In this presentation, I will share the results of the first months of the program and answer the most frequently asked questions:

Where can I get information about the certification program?
PostgreSQL or Postgres Pro certification?
Certificates for PostgreSQL version 10. When will you upgrade to the current version?
Do I have to attend training centers?
Can I pass the test remotely? Not in Moscow?
Is it possible to take several tests at once in one day?
How to prepare for the test? Are there any examples of training questions?
During the test I got an incorrect question, what should I do?
How to find out exactly which questions the answers were not correct?
When can I retake after an unsuccessful attempt?
How to appeal the test results? 

In my talk, I will tell how we built a geographically distributed system of personal data storage based on Open Source software and PostgreSQL. The concept of the inCountry business is to provide customers with a ready-to-use infrastructure for personal data storage. Our business customers are ensured that their customer’s personal data is securely stored within their country’s borders. We wrote an API and SDK and built a variety of services. Our system complies with generally accepted security standards (SOC Type 1, Type 2, PCI DSS, etc.). We built our infrastructure with Consul, Nomad, and Vault, used PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch as a storage system, Nginx, Jenkins, Artifactory, other tools to automate management and deployment. We have assembled our development and management teams - DevOps, Security, Monitoring, and DBA. We use both cloud providers and bare-metal servers located in different regions of the world. Development of the system architecture and ensuring the stability of the infrastructure, consistent and secure operation of all its components is the main task facing our teams.

In the report I will talk about how Zabbix appeared in our company, how we lived with Oracle, why we decided to switch to PostgreSQL, what problems we had during the transition, and what software seemed like a good choice for working with PostgreSQL.