EDB launches BigAnimal PostgreSQL cloud database service

EDB said today its PostgreSQL database-as-a-service cloud offering on Microsoft Azure is generally available.

The new database service, which EDB has dubbed BigAnimal, brings a managed EDB PostgreSQL cloud database to users for the first time.

To date, EDB's platform has been available on premises and users have also been able to install and run it in the cloud on their own.

EDB, known as EnterpriseDB until 2020, builds a commercially distributed platform that extends the open source PostgreSQL database with Oracle database compatibility features. The name BigAnimal refers to the elephant -- a big animal -- that is the logo for the PostgreSQL project.

With the launch of its PostgreSQL cloud DBaaS, EDB enters a competitive market. Multiple vendors already provide PostgreSQL support in the cloud today, including Aiven, AWS, Instaclustr and Google.

IDC analyst Carl Olofson noted that several levels of decision-making are involved in choosing a database cloud service.

One decision is whether the organization wants to be tethered to a specific cloud platform or have a service it can use in the same way on multiple cloud platforms. Another has to do with whether the organization needs consulting, training and guidance -- areas in which EDB stands out.

EDB employees are leading contributors to the PostgreSQL project, and EDB sponsors user meetings focused not just on EDB products, but also open source PostgreSQL, with user experience sessions and training sessions focused on the open source technology.

"EDB employees are leading contributors to the PostgreSQL project, and EDB sponsors user meetings focused not just on EDB products, but also open source PostgreSQL, with user experience sessions and training sessions focused on the open source technology," Olofson said. "This means, to me, that if the consulting and guidance dimension are important, one should take a close look at the EDB solution."

Olofson added that many PostgreSQL users have considerable experience working with EDB, which may also influence their choice.

EDB PostgreSQL DBaaS provides cloud flexibility

Among the reasons why EDB is now launching its own DBaaS is that many of the vendor's customers are already in the cloud.

EDB CEO Ed Boyajian said that 40% of the vendor's customers are running and managing EDB PostgreSQL in the cloud on their own. He noted that customers have increasingly been asking EDB to offer a managed PostgreSQL DBaaS and the BigAnimal release is the result of that.

BigAnimal is a PostgreSQL database that EDB deploys and manages for its customers. The service runs within an organization's own customer account, initially on Microsoft Azure. That means the organization has more direct control over storage and compute resources, Boyajian said.

"Customers take full advantage of all their negotiated pricing with the cloud providers and we don't mark up in any way the underlying network, the compute or the storage," Boyajian said. "So, with our cloud BigAnimal service, they're just paying for the infrastructure according to how they've negotiated those terms with their cloud provider."