When your entire business depends on your database—the beating heart of your IT stack—ensuring that database is available, performant and expertly supported must be a top priority for your organization. Without the backing of robust support solutions, your database management system (DBMS) could experience issues that prove catastrophic to your most vital teams—IT leaders, developers, architects and more.
In search of the most reliable DBMS on the market, many top innovators across industries have turned to Postgres. Its reputation for open source freedom, complete control over your own data and high availability has made it the gold standard for businesses looking to grow and evolve.
But, while focused entirely on these qualities, many of these enterprises take support for granted.
That’s why EDB premiered our two-part “Avoid Postgres Distress” webinar series. In the first installment—“Flying Solo”—we dove deep into the pitfalls of handling database maintenance and management without support, a misstep we’ve seen all too frequently.
We’re excited to present you with the alternatives, the best solutions to manage your Postgres database to ensure optimal functionality without sacrificing freedom or cost-efficiency. In this blog, we’ll recap the key takeaways from the second installment in this webinar series—“Support Solutions”—which we encourage you to also watch in full, on-demand.
Postgres self-support: a risky endeavor
As we discussed in our recap of “Flying Solo,” it’s both common and understandable for organizations to consider self-support after a move to Postgres. Those who opt for this strategy frequently believe that the knowledge of their developers, architects and IT personnel—amplified by the expertise and resources of the Postgres community—will be more than enough to ensure the stability of their database.
But it rarely is.
As EDB Senior Vice President of Support Services Jamie Watt and Senior Principal Support Engineer William Ivanski emphasized in that first conversation, businesses often underestimate the complexity of database management, especially with a new DBMS. Furthermore, while the Postgres community is active, robust and enthusiastic, it simply doesn’t provide the one-on-one 24/7 support that modern organizations require.
Because self-support relies almost entirely on what you know, enterprises that adopt this approach often find themselves hindered by “the unknown unknown”—not knowing something, and not knowing that you don’t know it.
Even with the full library of Postgres community resources at their disposal, these businesses will struggle:
- To ask the right questions or search for the right terms when addressing a problem
- To recognize issues in their infancy, before they become major problems
- To prioritize which performance metrics and architectural elements to monitor
- To fully envision what they can achieve and how they might achieve it
Your teams know your business, and there’s no substitute for their hands-on, lived-in insight. Just the same, self-support can’t compete with the hands-on, lived-in insight of those who know Postgres best—and will be there when you need them.
The best support resources are knowledgeable and readily available
Over the course of their session, Watt and Ivanski layout the top support priorities that most enterprises using Postgres keep top of mind. These include:
- 24/7 staffing
- An effective flow from ask to answer
- Defined levels of severity to analyze database problems
- Fast, meaningful and contextually valuable responses
- Access to specialized expertise for a specific question or need
- “Us” commitment: the sense that support is in this with your business and will own the problem
In some ways, the Postgres community embodies each and every one of these qualities. Resources are being updated constantly. No matter what your issue is, there will likely be extensive documentation that covers every imaginable context.
But being able to access all of this information, to parse it and to find your answer in the moment, right when you need it—that’s a whole different story.
Why enterprise support?
This is why, rather than going with consultants or self-support, Watt and Ivanski believe that robust enterprise support, like that provided by EDB Community 360, is the best approach. With this level of support, you’re getting both knowledge and 24/7 availability from a provider who understands the nuances of and is dedicated to your database challenges and business mission. Services like Community 360 are Always On and prepared to help you problem solve and make the most of your DBMS.
It’s not just our Postgres experience; it’s our Postgres experience tailored to your needs.
De-risk your database; innovate fearlessly
The very best database support serves two vital purposes: protecting your enterprise from unnecessary risk and raising the ceiling for what you can accomplish. It’s the greatest ally to the most valuable component of your IT stack.
While it can be tempting to adopt a self-support strategy, the risks this approach imposes can pose a major threat to your business, your teams and to the benefits that led you to open source in the first place. With enterprise support, you don’t have to abandon open source PostgreSQL; you just get to amplify it with the full range of support resources you might not have access to otherwise—whenever and wherever you need them.
You deserve a database that allows you to transform and innovate your business past the limits of your competitors. In order to do so, you need support that will empower you every step of the way.