I’m pretty excited that Robert Treat is talking at PostgreSQL Conference East 2009. He’ll be talking about the upcoming release of PostgreSQL 8.4. The postgres product is pretty complete and has been pretty complete for quite some time. I’ve been noted for saying I wouldn’t use a database feature in production that hasn’t been available (and tested) for several years. As such, it is a bit ironic for me to say I’m excited for a new release of a database product. Let me explain myself.

I’m excited by several of the new features coming in PostgreSQL 8.4 because the sooner they are released, the sooner I can start my count down to when I’d trust them in production. Okay, that’s not entirely fair. When you engineer things to embrace failure it is easy to launch newly released features with less risk. However, we run people’s online businesses. Some things (e.g. those that must comply with these specifications), even if engineered to allow for failures, you simply don’t take the chance. For other things, you can embrace failure and improve the product through feedback by running them in a globally trafficked, high impact environment.

Whatever the circumstances, I’m excited by the pending PostgreSQL 8.4 release. Perhaps Robert will give the same presentation to OmniTI at one of our weekly development sessions so that we know what the hell is going on.

Make sure you check out Robert’s talk:

Another year, another PostgreSQL release, and once again this release packed full of new features that will help you whether you develop apps inside or outside the database, or you just need to keep them running. This talk will give an overview of the new features available in 8.4, and give you pointers to talks during the rest of the conference you’ll want to focus on to get the most out of 8.4.