Open Source

We as OptimaData hope that all clients and other relations have been able to conclude 2022 nicely. It is time for a new chapter. In the year behind us, we received many questions about database consulting and were able to give just as much advice and implement solutions. So what were the most important and common issues we discovered and what lessons can you take into the new year?

On Oct. 13, PostgreSQL version 15 was released. Performance improvements, new features and capabilities for managing workloads in both onpremise and cloud environments make PostgreSQL 15 a valuable update. At the largest European PostgreSQL conference in Berlin, there was therefore a lot of attention for this new version. In this blog, we summarize the most important changes and new options.

Do you recognize this? You look back at your work and see that you've spent far too long doing repetitive, boring, manual tasks that are not very sustainable. Moreover, their number only increases as the environment grows. As a Product Owner or IT Manager, this is also hard to understand. You only see that a team does not get around to producing deliverables in the development sprints. You don’t see them drowning in putting out fires and making manual database changes. How beautiful the world would be if the DBA could lean forward in DevOps teams, speak the same language as the software and system engineers, empower team members and act as a trusted advisor. Everyone wants a DBA like that! In this blog, we go one step further in talking about useful redundancy and how you can create a stable and secure work environment with the shift to Database Reliability Engineering.

In recent years, ‘someone else's computer in a different place’ is no longer a sufficient explanation of what the cloud actually is. Cloud-native has become a way of working. That doesn't just mean working ín the cloud, but it's about making full use of the technology that the cloud can offer. Issues such as scalability, efficiency, agility and cost saving motivate organizations to develop and apply more and more cloud-native technology. Martijn Wallet gave an interview at the KubeCon & CloudNativeCon conference in Valencia about how we at OptimaData apply cloud-native technology when working with clients.

Our partner EDB helps organizations to get the most out of PostgreSQL. Joost Wasser, Public Sector Account Executive at EDB, and his colleague Aret Aprahamian, Partner Account Executive Benelux, DACH and Nordics, talk about working with OptimaData.

The popularity and adoption of open source software and databases continues to grow. Even the government is catching on. Yet there are still concerns about the reliability of open source solutions. How reliable is a product that is developed in all openness? Can't malicious people just get hold of it? Or does transparency make things safer?

UpCloud is an European cloud provider based in Finland that focuses on companies that need reliable, fast cloud services. In addition to cloud servers, UpCloud also provides other services, such as object storage and managed databases for MySQL and PostgreSQL environments. Because UpCloud and OptimaData have joined forces, UpCloud can now also offer custom solutions to customers with complex database issues. Jasper Jonk, Business Development Manager, talks about the added value of our partnership in this blog.

When you're just starting out with your IT environment, everything is still very manageable. But once you're a few years down the road, you might find yourself with a tangle of databases. Centralizing can be the solution, Eric Gipon tells us how in this blog.

What has always surprised Gerard Zuidweg, Managing Partner at OptimaData, is that the profession of database administrator is often somewhat undervalued. And that while a well-organized database is crucial to any IT solution. It may not be the sexiest profession in the world, but it is one that should be cherished. In this blog, Gerard explains why.

We regularly get staffing firms on the phone looking for a full-time DBA for - say - a year. That's quite a lot. Are you going to migrate the whole world, I then ask. When I then hear what the request for help is, I think: surely that can be done much more efficiently. Where does it go wrong?

For the past six months, Thomas Brinkman has been conducting a research assignment at OptimaData. During the assignment, he investigated how a company like OptimaData can deal with the development around databases in the cloud and how they can function efficiently. What are his conclusions?

In our work, we encounter many companies and organizations with a mission-critical database environment that is managed by a single database administrator or where care of the database environment rests with a single application or system administrator. In many cases, that can be an excellent solution. And as long as there are no exciting changes and everything is functioning normally, there are no worries. And yet ... it just so happens that something goes wrong while your employee is on vacation. Can your employee with all the knowledge of your database also go on vacation without a laptop?

In part 1 of this blog - Help! MySQL is spinning out of control - we wrote about performance challenges you may face when your database grows and which pitfalls you should take into account if you want to be well prepared. In short: what you need to think about beforehand to be able to grow flexibly along with your database. In this blog we want to give you the 6 most important parts you can pay attention to and which parameters are of influence.

Recently, we have been receiving regular consulting requests about MySQL or MariaDB environments. The industries where the problems arise vary and the type and size of the organization are very diverse. From large payment platforms, comparison sites, booking platforms, sporting events to crowd control and e-commerce or SaaS environments. However, the theme is the same in many cases: performance issues due to growth.

IT develops at the speed of light. Innovations and updates follow each other in rapid succession and one new tooling is presented after another. There is also a lot of movement in the field of open source databases. Staying abreast of all these developments is therefore quite a challenge. In this blog we will give you some tips and valuable resources.

There is a growing interest in Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS). At the same time we only seem to be at the forefront with regard to quality and possibilities. Countless variations are now available from different cloud providers. Databases can be deployed in the cloud with seeming simplicity. If you believe the marketing stories, you no longer need a database administrator. Developers with ready-to-use building blocks - containers - can get started right away. But did they really take a good look at DBaaS?

In this blog Martijn Wallet, our Manager Consultancy and Training, discusses what containerization is, what the pros and cons are and when it's better to stay away from it.

I ran into the challenge to determine the best partitioning key on an Amazon RDS Postgres database. Normal approach would be to start a project trying to implement this on a development environment. But in most cases, like during a QuickScan, the customer expects an educated guess in as little time as possible. It concerns running production environments where you would rather not release all kinds of scripts and analysis tooling to avoid disrupting the primary process. Which then also takes up unnecessary extra time.

Voiceworks devises and develops innovative communication and collaboration solutions for the business market. A healthy database environment is crucial in this respect. Because database management just is not their core business, Voiceworks has decided to outsource this to OptimaData. Bas Roos, Infrastructure Engineer at Voiceworks, explains why.

My first experience of a Postgres day, where people talk postgreSQL all day. My day started very early – I left home at 05:15 and arrived in Brussels at 09:10. Unfortunately, due to the train schedules (where trains seem to wake up later than I do) I arrived a bit late for the opening talk by Magnus Hagander. Magnus is one of the core members of the PostgreSQL infrastructure team, developer and comitter in the Global development group. And then, straight into the sessions in a packed room, fortunately there was a seat available.

In a previous post I deployed a PostgreSQL database in a container from a standard image. Now I’m going to look at deploying a PostgreSQL cluster. Well, kind of. PostgreSQL uses the term cluster to refer to “a collection of databases managed by a single PostgreSQL server instance”. I’m using it in the more general sense, to refer to High Availability.

In my previous blog post, I quickly ran through how to set up PostgreSQL inside a Docker container, up to the point where you could administer the database with psql or pgAdmin. What I didn’t do was explain how any of it worked. If you’re trying to anything even slightly different, or if you encounter errors running it as I outlined, then you’re going to need to know what all of those commands actually do.  In this blogpost I will explain some Docker basics.

Open Source Database Management Systems are on the rise. Not only among newtech companies, but now also in banks, government departments and multinationals. Recent research among CIOs has shown that more than 60 percent want to drastically reduce licensing costs. Opting for more open source software helps, if well-considered choices are made. The most important points to consider are shown below.

Each year there a new version of PostgreSQL is released. That’s the moment in which many new features and improvements become available for all users. During the last PostgreSQL meetup in Amsterdam, Devrim Gündüz, major contributor and passionate PostgreSQL consultant, explained the upcoming release of PostgreSQL 12. In this blog we list the most important changes in PostgreSQL 12 for everyone who does not closely follows all the commits in Github or who did’nt have the opportunity to visit the PostgreSQL Usergroup NL meetup.

In addition to the well-known databases such as Oracle, MySQL or MS SQL, Open Source databases are developing at lightning speed. In fact, they’re developing so quickly that more and more companies will be using open source databases such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB in their IT infrastructure, and an increasing number of IT brokerage and recruitment agencies will start working with open source professionals. On one hand, that is a nice compliment for the Open Source Community, but on the other, there is also a danger: market forces threaten to undermine the principle of Open Source.

As a partner of MongoDB we have unlimited access to the MongoDB University (on demand). What does unlimited mean in this case? If you don't have this kind of access to the MongoDB university, then you can still do the courses for free, but the only limitation is that you can't do the courses on your own pace. New course subjects will be available on a per week basis. This means that if you've done one course subject, that you have to wait a week for the next subject to become available.

I recently started as a multiplatform DBA. Two weeks before I actually started working at the company where I work now, I already got an invite to go to PG day UK, with a few other DBA's. As I had no prior experience with PostgreSQL, I did not know what to expect. The first few weeks there I've looked into both MongoDB and PostgreSQL, just to get to know the products my colleagues were already supporting. So I started my first PG day with very little knowledge of PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL is an advanced SQL database server, which is available on a wide range of platforms. It has an enviable reputation for performance, stability, and a wide range of advanced features, which have been developed over the course of more than 20 years. With that, PostgreSQL is one of the oldest open source projects in existence, completely free to use, and developed by a very diverse, worldwide community. And best of all, it just works!

A few months ago I came across a job opening that stated "multiplatform DBA". Immediately I was intrigued. What would this multiplatform DBA job require, is this something I would like to do, am I able to let go of my notion of "one database platform is better than other database platforms", what other database platforms should I have knowledge of? I had lots of questions, but no answers. So I decided to apply for the job. Talking about this job and being assessed about my Oracle and MS SQL knowledge made me realize that I have picked up more on the SQL server platform than I realized, the company was really happy to have me. I've had multiple opportunities to expand my IT knowledge to other areas in IT like storage, operating systems, and network but never had I the chance to expand my knowledge on multiple databases.