Debra Cerda Blog Posts

As part of the countdown to Postgres Conference 2024, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Relevant Logic President/CEO Guyren Howe is a web developer, trainer, database expert, technical writer, and more specializing in PostgreSQL, Flutter, and Rails. Guyren will present “Postgres’s Type System” at Postgres Conference 2024. Read what Guyren has to say about Postgres and why to attend his session:

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference 2024?

What would you like for them to take away from your session? Learn the important details of Postgres's type system: the built-in types, extension types, domains, arrays and custom types.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?

My talk :)

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who are interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?

Follow the pgsql-general list. Learn relational theory. Don't listen to the database haters.

How do you see the use of open source technologies evolving over the next five years?

I foresee an open source boom as AI technologies can work with open source much better than closed.

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2024. Learn more about our conference here and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to PostgresConf Silicon Valley 2023, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Bryn Llewellyn is a Technical Product Manager at Yugabyte, Inc., which offers an open source, cloud native distributed SQL database that looks like PostgreSQL to the developer. Bryn’s speciality is SQL and stored procedures in the context of distributed SQL.

Bryn has worked in the software field for more than forty years. He started working with SQL when he joined Oracle UK in 1990. He relocated to Oracle HQ (Redwood Shores, CA) in 1996 and his last role, before leaving, was as the Product Manager for PL/SQL. He left Oracle in April 2019 to join YugaByte, Inc.

Bryn started off doing image analysis and pattern recognition at Oxford University (programming in FORTRAN) and then worked in Oslo, first at the Norwegian Computing Center and then in a startup. In Norway, Bryn programmed in Simula—recognized as the first object-oriented programming language and as the inspiration for C++.

Bryn will be presenting a mini-tutorial on Friday, April 21st at 9:30am Pacific Time on "How to configure a PostgreSQL cluster for multitenancy." Read what he has to say about Postgres and why to attend his session:

Why Postgres? Tell us about your involvement with the greater Postgres community.

I work for Yugabyte, Inc. (Learn more about Bryn's background). YugabyteDB uses the PostgreSQL query processing code “as is” on top of its own open source Spanner-like distributed storage system. I started at Yugabyte four years ago. And that’s when I first started to learn and to use PostgreSQL. My job is to document YugabyteDB’s SQL and PL/pgSQL functionality. This, by construction, has the same syntax and semantics as does vanilla PostgreSQL. I therefore ask lots of questions on the “pgsql-general” mailing list and, very occasionally, discover bugs in vanilla PostgreSQL.

What new features of PostgreSQL 15 are you most excited about?

Actually it’s a feature that’s new in Version 14: the new syntax for “language sql” functions that lets you define the body without making it a text literal so that it’s parsed at “create” time—allowing proper dependency tracking (and other benefits).

What features do you believe should be developed/improved and released in the next major upgrade?

I would dearly like to see new functionality for "language plpgsql" subprograms that’s comparable to PL/SQL’s “package” construct (in Oracle Database).

Why should attendees come to your talk at PostgresConf US 2023?  What would you like for them to take away from your session?

I describe a practical solution to a genuine problem. And I make all the code easily available for download from the GitHub repo.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?

Meeting real PostgreSQL practitioners and talking with them about their real-world use cases.

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who are interested in learning and engaging with Postgres?

Get a job where you use the technology on a daily basis.

 What's your top suggested readings for 2023?  Books, blogs -- from fiction to non-fiction to technical, anything you enjoy?

Our Yugabyte blog!

What do you believe are the major achievements of open source and Postgres over the last decade?

How YugabyteDB has made the familiar PostgreSQL functionality available as an open source, cloud native, massively scalable and fault tolerant, distributed SQL database system. (Of course, I would say this!) 

Anything else to add?

I’m excited to be attending (again), and speaking (again) at the Postgres Conference Silicon Valley.

Check out the full schedule for Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023, and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to PostgresConf Silicon Valley 2023, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Meet Dave Stokes, Technology Evangelist for Percona. Dave Stokes is the author of MySQL & JSON - A Practical Programming Guide. He resides in Texas with the mandated pickup truck, hound dog, and guitars.

Read what Dave has to say about Postgres and why to attend his sessions which include "MERGE() - A Quick Introduction" and "PostgreSQL High Availability: The Considerations and the Candidates."

Why Postgres? Tell us about your involvement with the greater Postgres community. (How long have you been involved? How have you contributed? How else would you want to contribute?)

I have been mainly involved in the MySQL Community for a long time but am now exploring PostgreSQL. I have started a series on PostgreSQL for MySQL DBAs that is very popular

What new features of PostgreSQL 15 are you most excited about?

Merge()!

What features do you believe should be developed/improved and released in the next major upgrade?

JSON_TABLE()!! Please, please, pretty please!!

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023? What would you like for them to take away from your session?

From the Merge() talk, I hope they will go away understanding how transaction log processing works. For the HA talk, I do not expect them to walk away as they will be so filled with brain energy that they sort of levitate away!

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?

The people.

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who are interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?

Open source !- free. It provides a flexibility to innovate.

What's your top suggested readings for 2023?

Anything by Tim Dorsey.

What do you believe are the major achievements of open source and Postgres over the last decade?

Open-source software has proven that good code comes from more than just semi-benevolent corporations. And PostgreSQL has proven the power of the mailing list!

Check out the full schedule for Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023, and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to Postgres Conference 2024, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Baji Shaik is a Sr. Lead Consultant at AWS ProServe, GCC AMER, and is a seasoned expert in SQL/NoSQL databases, specializing in database migration and optimization. With a wealth of experience spanning various technologies, he's authored multiple books on PostgreSQL and actively contributes to the AWS blog community.

Baji will present “Beyond Boundaries: Mastering 2-Level Encryption Migration in PostgreSQL”. Read what Baji has to say about Postgres and why to attend his session:

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference 2024? What would you like for them to take away from your session?
Learn about encryption in Oracle, its pros and cons. Discover PostgreSQL's encryption methods. Choose and migrate to the right encryption method without compromising security or performance.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?
I actively participate in PostgreSQL Conferences to expand my knowledge base and forge valuable connections within the community.

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who is interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?
My advice would be to start by exploring online resources, joining community forums, and actively participating in relevant conferences and workshops to gain practical experience and network with industry professionals.

How do you see the use of open source technologies evolving over the next five years?
I envision open-source technologies playing an increasingly vital role across various industries, driving innovation, collaboration, and cost-efficiency while fostering a more inclusive and accessible digital ecosystem.

What considerations should be taken for the adoption and use of Postgres and related open source technologies?
Considerations for adopting and using Postgres and related open-source technologies include evaluating compatibility with existing systems, assessing scalability and performance requirements, ensuring adequate support and expertise, and considering factors like security, community support, and long-term sustainability.

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2024. Learn more about our conference here and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to Postgres Conference 2024, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Peter Celentano is a Senior Specialist Solutions Architect, specializing in RDS PostgreSQL and Aurora PostgreSQL. Collaborating with AWS clients, he crafts scalable, secure, performant, and resilient cloud-based database architectures.

Peter will present "PostgreSQL Architecture Considerations for Application Developers". Read what Peter has to say about Postgres and why to attend their session:

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference 2024? What would you like for them to take away from your session?
So much content in the PostgreSQL sphere focuses on the DBA best practices and how-to's, but not much exists by comparison for the database developer. In my talk, we'll discuss key PostgreSQL concepts and database architecture (and why app developers should care). I hope folks that attend my talk take away lessons learned from the field and some best practices which they may not be aware of yet.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?
Meeting community experts and customers whom I've met virtually (but not yet in person).

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry-level developer who is interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?
The documentation for PostgreSQL is excellent (by comparison to many other open source projects). Spin up an ec2 instance, install PostgreSQL, and start figuring out how it works! You'll always learn more by breaking something and figuring out how to fix it then by reading about it in a book! Don't forget to vacuum!!

How do you see the use of open source technologies evolving over the next five years?
I see the development of better open source LLMs and hardware to back them. And eventually, deeper integration with GenAI in the Postgres core.

What considerations should be taken for the adoption and use of Postgres and related open source technologies?
Streamlining the patch review/approval process, allowing for faster innovation in Postgres core (without compromising on security and stability)

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2024. Learn more about our conference here!

As part of the countdown to PostgresConf Silicon Valley 2023, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Meet Tatiana Krupenya, CEO of DBeaver. DBeaver provides a GUI interface that "connects to all data sources and stores, enables special extensions for big data databases, and includes supplemental features like a data viewer, an editor, mock data generator, metadata browsing and visual query builders, enabling users to dynamically access all of their databases while working within one environment."

Tatiana will present "Let robots help with queries" at this year's conference. Read more about Tatiana below:

Why Postgres? Tell us about your involvement with the greater Postgres community. 

DBeaver is one of the most popular UI tools for Postgres administration and data management. We support not only PostgreSQL itself but all popular forks and Postgres-based data sources, like Greenplum, Yugabyte, Redshift and others.

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023? What would you like for them to take away from your session?

We have gotten used to thinking that working with databases is for database administrators and developers. However, thanks to modern technologies, people from other professional areas can also do this. It's data engineers, data architects, financial analysts, machine learning specialists, and others. The only thing that we need is to provide them with a safe and convenient infrastructure. In my talk, I would like to show how OpenAI can help with that.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?

The best thing is the atmosphere. You can meet interesting people, learn about cutting-edge technologies, find new partners, and all of these in a friendly and positive environment.

Check out the full schedule for Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023. Walk-up registration is still available. Learn more here!

As part of the countdown to Postgres Conference 2024, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Manish Shah is founder and CEO of Datasparc, and brings expertise in product development, database security, and scalable cloud systems. His thought leadership and patent ownership in sensitive data discovery and protection underscore his ability to influence and innovate in the field.

Manish will present "Zero Trust database access with DBHawk". Read what Manish has to say about Postgres and why to attend his session:

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference 2024? What would you like for them to take away from your session?

Join the session exploring critical database security and access challenges. Manish will dissect current issues and provide solutions for achieving precise zero-trust database access.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?
Meeting face-to-face Postgres users.

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who are interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?
Learn SQL and other programming language. Install Postgres and start playing with it.

How do you see the use of open source technologies evolving over the next five years?
Businesses are recognizing the value of open source software, and its adoption in the enterprise is expected to grow.

What considerations should be taken for the adoption and use of Postgres and related open source technologies?
Strong security and reliable support are crucial for wider adoption of Postgres. After all, data is an organization's most valuable asset.

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2024. Learn more about our conference here and buy your tickets soon!

As part of the countdown to PostgresConf Silicon Valley 2023, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Meet Ry Walker, Founder and CEO of CoreDB, which is currently in private beta. CoreDB "provides provides a fully-managed, secure, scalable Postgres cluster with access to an ecosystem of extensions, expanding the capabilities of a database." Ry is a long-time coder, founder investor and champion of open source. He enjoys nature, science, art, tennis, platform tennis, golf, basketball, fishing and indie game development.

Read what he has to say about Postgres and why to attend his keynote session "The Growing Postgres Ecosystem" on Thursday, April 20th:

Why Postgres? Tell us about your involvement with the greater Postgres community.

I've been a user since the beginning, recently started CoreDB which will provide a managed Postgres SaaS.

Why should attendees come to your talk at PostgresConf US 2023?  What would you like for them to take away from your session?

Learn about exciting Postgres extensions and what CoreDB is planning to contribute to the ecosystem

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?

I'm a first timer :)

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry level developer who are interested in learning and engaging with Postgres?

Blog about your journey.

 What's your top suggested readings for 2023?  Books, blogs -- from fiction to non-fiction to technical, anything you enjoy?

The Hobbit :)

What do you believe are the major achievements of open source and Postgres over the last decade?

The rise of open source and open core companies is exciting!

Check out the full schedule for Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023, and buy your tickets soon!

Are you interested in learning about the latest developments and best practices in PostgreSQL? 

Then you won’t want to miss next week’s Postgres Conference Silicon Valley 2023! This annual conference brings together experts and enthusiasts from around the world to share their knowledge and experiences with the PostgreSQL community.

This year's conference will be held in San Jose April 20 and 21, 2023, at the San Jose Hilton, and promises to be another exciting and informative event. Attendees can expect a wide range of presentations, mini-tutorials, and networking opportunities, covering Postgres and open source related topics such as high availability, migration, security, machine learning, AI and much more.

Whether you're a seasoned PostgreSQL developer, a database administrator, or just curious about this powerful open-source database system, Postgres Conference Silicon Valley is the perfect place to learn and connect with like-minded individuals.

So why should you attend? For starters, you'll get to hear from some of the brightest minds in the PostgreSQL community. You'll learn about the latest trends and technologies, and gain valuable insights from real-world use cases and case studies. Check out our full program.

In addition, you'll have the opportunity to network with other PostgreSQL professionals and enthusiasts, and build relationships that can benefit you and your organization long after the conference is over. 

Be sure to stop by the exhibit area and chat with our incredible sponsors and partners, including our Conference sponsors CoreDB and Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well as our Cloud sponsor Google Cloud and Distributed SQL Summit (DSS) sponsor YugabyteDB. Our Conference Partners for this year include Airbyte, Command Prompt, Inc., DBeaver, Fujitsu, Neon, Nutanix, Percona, pgEdge and Community Partner OnGres.

Postgres Conference Silicon Valley is also a great chance to explore the local area, with plenty of opportunities for sightseeing, dining, and entertainment. A Welcome Reception will be hosted by YugabyteDB on Thursday evening for all registered attendees. 

So if you're looking to expand your knowledge of PostgreSQL, connect with other experts and enthusiasts, and have some fun along the way, be sure to register for Postgres Conference Silicon Valley today. We can't wait to see you there!

As part of the countdown to Postgres Conference 2024, learn more about the engaging content and our speakers for this year in our Speaker Spotlight Series.

Tracy Jenkins is a Database Solutions Architect with Amazon Web Services. She enjoys working with databases and helping customers architect performant, highly available, and scalable solutions while making recommendations on reliability, cost, and security.

Tracy Jenkins will present PostgreSQL Architecture Considerations for Application Developers. Read what Tracy has to say about Postgres and why to attend their session:

Why should attendees come to your talk at Postgres Conference 2024? What would you like for them to take away from your session?

It's a session to present and discuss beginning your journey into PostgreSQL and discussing some of the database-specific terms.

What is your favorite aspect of Postgres Conference?
The community getting together to network and help others working with the engine.

What advice would you have for a Computer Science graduate or entry-level developer who is interested in learning and engaging with Postgres and other open source technologies?
If you have any questions, ask.

How do you see the use of open source technologies evolving over the next five years?
I see its use increasing more and more because for PostgreSQL to be an open source engine, it's very powerful and the world is noticing.

Check out the full schedule for PostgresConf US 2024. Learn more about our conference here and buy your tickets soon!