We would like to share some exciting news for EDB and welcome Laetitia Avrot, who is joining us as a Senior Database Consultant in France. Those of you who are involved in the PostgreSQL community will already know Laetitia, as she is an active participant who has been leading important work to promote the role of women in the community.
An Opportune Time
This is an opportune time to have Laetitia join us, as interest in open source among enterprise users is growing significantly. Ever since the French Government decided to move away from commercial licensing agreements with the likes of Oracle to make open source databases like PostgreSQL the default for their database infrastructures, demand for open source has grown steadily. Today, we are talking to large enterprises across a range of industries as they look to modernize their database architectures. With Laetitia’s in-depth knowledge of PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL—and, more importantly, agile approaches to the deployment of such systems—she will be able to offer expert advice to our customers and partners. At a time when there is growing interest in database containers, but still a lot of confusion around the technology, Laetitia brings many insights as an experienced database administrator (DBA) who understands what developers need to know to spin up such database instances.
Discovering to Postgres
Laetitia did not start out wanting to be a database expert after having completed her degree in computer sciences engineering at INSA in Lyon. However, while working at the National Nuclear Safety Authority she gained a deep appreciation of the importance of data integrity, and at the National Geographic Institute, Laetitia had her first opportunity to become a DBA, gaining her first experience of PostgreSQL. Subsequently, Laetitia trained on Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM Db2, before returning to work with PostgreSQL in 2017.
A Passion for PostgreSQL
It is clear when you speak to Laetitia that she has a real passion for PostgreSQL and can skillfully articulate its merits compared to commercial proprietary databases. When talking to customers she uses her experience of both database types to demonstrate the distinct advantages PostgreSQL offers. Unlike commercial databases, where customers are locked into support contracts and often face challenges when integrating new functionality, PostgreSQL offers a reliable upgrade path for innovations and greater flexibility when it comes to support.
The Role of Women in PostgreSQL
Perhaps even more importantly, Laetitia is working to bring more women into the PostgreSQL community. Having set up the Postgres Women Group with Louise Grandjonc, Laetitia is working with Postgres user conferences across Europe to increase the attendance of female engineers and developers at events. The goal is to have more women speaking and contributing code to increase the diversity of the Postgres community.
Please do join us in welcoming Laetitia to the EDB France team. We encourage you to reach out to her for insights on how Postgres can play a central role in modernizing your database infrastructure!