Hans-Juergen Schoenig: PostgreSQL: Why true Open Source matters

PGConfEU2023 is over and a New Year has started. For those who did not manage to make it to Prague to attend the conference, I wanted to use the occasion, to sum up what I tried to communicate during my keynote session and reflect a bit on the importance of true Open Source versus Closed Source as well as on subscription services. Longevity in data processing On August 10th a new baby was born in my family. The question is: Why would anybody care? Kids are born every day all over the world and people leave the face of the earth from time to time. What is the point of all this? Here is why we should care about those things. What does a new child mean for database people? Life expectancy: 82 years Government data: Stored for 100+ years Pension fund: Stored for 60+ years Banking data: Bank accounts might exist for decades The important point here is that we have to store data for a really long time in the most reliable way. We are talking about way more than the lifespan of a single person and we have to do that for entire countries, millions of people, and potentially for entire continents. In other words: This is a huge, important, and relevant task we are facing here. In today’s world people are not only in existence physically but also digitally – therefore one’s digital existence is of utmost importance. Data outlives applications An additional observation is that data usually outlives applications. This might seem odd at first place but this is true. Just consider a simple e-banking system. The data feeding those applications is basically living forever while your frontends might change once in a while depending on trends, customer requirements, and a lot more. The way the amount of cash in your account is stored is mostly untouched for way longer. Why does this observation actually matter? Commercial database products tend to die Well, database products and commercial products die once in a while. What do I mean by that? Let us take[...]