Relational database provider EnterpriseDB (EDB) on Tuesday said it has started offering a new Oracle-to-Postgres migration service, dubbed EDB Guaranteed Postgres Migration program.
The new migration program will ensure faster migration while providing a “zero risk” guarantee that allows enterprises to not pay for the entire cost of migration if their expectations are not met, the company said.
As part of the program, EDB will help enterprises migrate schema and data from their Oracle databases within 20 days, thereby minimizing downtime and disruption, the company said.
EDB said it will also provide a complementary migration for the first application, which could be used to experience the benefits of Postgres over Oracle database and help enterprises decide on completing the migration journey.
EDB’s move to launch the migration service could be attributed to the company’s broader strategy to move more customers to its EDB Postgres Advanced Server offering by aiding enterprises with the difficult task of database migration.
The company already offers a migration portal and a migration toolkit that is designed to help enterprises move from Oracle database to Postgres or EDB Postgres Advanced.
While the portal offers detailed information and steps required to complete the migration, the toolkit offers a command-line tool to migrate tables and data from an enterprise database management system, such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, to PostgreSQL.
Another reason behind launching the service, according to IDC’s research vice president Carl Olofson, is the demand from enterprises to move from Oracle database to PostgreSQL.
“We know of a number of Oracle users who would like to try PostgreSQL for at least part of their existing database workload but are put off by the risk and expense of conversion,” Olofson said in a statement.
PostgreSQL was found to be more popular than Oracle as a database management system in a survey of 73,268 software developers from 180 countries, conducted by Stack Overflow.
One of PostgreSQL’s advantages over Oracle is that it is open source, according to dbInsight’s principal analyst Tony Baer.
“As an open source database, the advantage of PostgreSQL is that customers have many vendor implementations to choose from and therefore, less chance of vendor lock-in,” Baer said, adding that Oracle database has “incredible maturity with its rich SQL and availability of database automation tools.”
However, Baer warned that the looseness of the PostgreSQL open source license has encouraged forks under the spirit of letting a thousand flowers bloom and because of this enterprises “must check carefully to see whether the particular vendor’s PostgreSQL implementation fits their needs.”
“EDB’s primary value proposition is that they are the PostgreSQL experts, and back it up with healthy participation in the PostgreSQL open source project,” Baer said.
EDB offers a range of plans, from Postgres in a self-managed private cloud, to a fully managed public cloud database-as-a-service with EDB BigAnimal.