PostgreSQL - Proprietary Derivatives and Support

Proprietary Derivatives and Support

Although the license allowed proprietary products based on Postgres, the code did not develop in the proprietary space at first. The first main offshoot originated when Paula Hawthorn (an original Ingres team member who moved from Ingres) and Michael Stonebraker formed Illustra Information Technologies to make a proprietary product based on Postgres.

In 2000, former Red Hat investors created the company Great Bridge to make a proprietary product based on PostgreSQL and compete against proprietary database vendors. Great Bridge sponsored several PostgreSQL developers and donated many resources back to the community, but by late 2001 closed due to tough competition from companies like Red Hat and to poor market conditions.

In 2001, Command Prompt, Inc. released Mammoth PostgreSQL, a proprietary product based on PostgreSQL. In 2008, Command Prompt, Inc. released the source under the original license. Command Prompt, Inc. continues to support the PostgreSQL community actively through developer sponsorships and projects including PL/Perl, PL/php, and hosting of community projects such as the PostgreSQL Build Farm.

In January 2005, PostgreSQL received backing by database vendor Pervasive Software, known for its Btrieve product which was ubiquitous on the Novell NetWare platform. Pervasive announced commercial support and community participation and achieved some success. In July 2006, Pervasive left the PostgreSQL support market.

In mid-2005 two other companies announced plans to make proprietary products based on PostgreSQL with focus on separate niche markets. EnterpriseDB added functionality to allow applications written to work with Oracle to be more readily run with PostgreSQL. Greenplum contributed enhancements directed at data warehouse and business intelligence applications, including the BizGres project.

In October 2005, John Loiacono, executive vice president of software at Sun Microsystems, commented: "We're not going to OEM Microsoft but we are looking at PostgreSQL right now," although no specifics were released at that time. By November 2005, Sun had announced support for PostgreSQL. By June 2006, Sun Solaris 10 (6/06 release) shipped with PostgreSQL.

In August 2007, EnterpriseDB announced the Postgres Resource Center and EnterpriseDB Postgres, designed as a fully configured distribution of PostgreSQL including many contrib modules and add-on components. EnterpriseDB Postgres was renamed to Postgres Plus in March 2008. Postgres Plus is available in two versions: Postgres Plus Solution Pack (comprising PostgreSQL delivered in a GUI one-click install plus Solution Pack components that include; Postgres Enterprise Manager, Update Monitor, xDB Replication Server, SQL Profiler, SQL Protect, Migration Toolkit and PL/Secure), and Postgres Plus Advanced Server which has all the features of Postgres Plus Solutions Pack plus Oracle compatibility, performance features not available in PostgreSQL, as well as advanced security features not available in PostgreSQL. Both versions are available for download at no cost and are fully supported. The Solution Pack components and Advanced Server are restricted by a "limited use" license for evaluation purposes only unless purchased though a subscription. In 2011, EnterpriseDB announced Postgres Plus Cloud Database, which easily provisions PostgreSQL and Postgres Plus Advanced Server databases (with Oracle compatibility) in single instances, high availability clusters, or development sandboxes for Database-as-a-Service environments.

In 2011, 2ndQuadrant became a Platinum Sponsor of PostgreSQL, in recognition of their long-standing contributions and developer sponsorship. 2ndQuadrant employ one of the largest teams of PostgreSQL contributors and provide professional support for open source PostgreSQL.

In January 2012 EnterpriseDB released a cloud version of both PostgreSQL and their own proprietary Postgres Plus Advanced Server with automated provisioning for failover, replication, load-balancing, and scaling. This runs on Amazon Web Services.

Many other companies have used PostgreSQL as the base for their proprietary database projects. e.g. Truviso, Netezza, ParAccel. In many cases the products have been enhanced so much that the software has been forked, though with some features cherry-picked from later releases.