PostgreSQL To Get Boost From Telecom Giant

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has agreed to co-develop with Enterprise DB a feature of modern database management systems: synchronous replication.

EnterpriseDB is an Edison, N.J. , firm established in 2004, whose EnterpriseDB database is based on the open source database, PostgreSQL. The joint development effort appears to be in its final stages and will bring a sophisticated replication mechanism to PostgreSQL.

"This partnership wil accelerate PostgreSQL community contribution and the creation of enhancements required by mega-scale carriers, such as NTT," said Noritaka Uji, senior executive VP of NTT, in a prepared statement announcing themove.

Synchronous replication allows updates to a database to be simultaneously propagated to matching satellite systems for backup and recovery purposes or to make the data more widely available. It requires that all systems be monitored to ensure each update is finalized so that the databases remain synchronized and is frequently used in transaction processing systems.

Gaining synchronous replication will further enhance PostgreSQL's reputation as a sophisticated open source database. It's not the most widely used. That honor goes to MySQL. But PostgreSQL has full text search and has based its SQL handling on the same ANSI SQL standard as commercial systems. It can also perform ANSI standard XML processing, and export data from PostgreSQL as XML rather than relational data that needs to be coverted to XML. The feature is useful in Web

In a joint statement today, the two firms said they will "finalize and submit" their version of synchronous replication to the PostgreSQL project and community at www.postgresql.org. It was initially developed by NTT's Open Source Software Center, which it established in 2006. The two firms will also collaborate to drive the use of PostgreSQL into NTT operating companies that make up the NTT Group. NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Japan.

They anticipate collaboration on another PostgreSQL feature, parallel query technology pioneered in EnterpriseDB's GridSQL.

NTT has also agreed to make an equity investment in EnterpriseDB through its investment arm, NTT Investment Partners Funds. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. It follows similar investments by IBM, Sony Online Entertainment, Fidelity Ventures, Charles River Ventures and Valhalla Partners.