Postgres Database Consulting

A detailed comparison: Postgres vs. Amazon Redshift

There is an ongoing debate about whether PostgreSQL and Amazon Redshift is the same and that debate eventually leads to one confusion ‘Which one is better?’. Let us bring an end to this fuss today, they both indeed belong to the same hood as Amazon Redshift is based on PostgreSQL8.0.2. and that is the reason why people who switch from Postgres Database consulting to Redshift feel a certain familiarity and comfort about the transition. However, it is also true that there have been a multiple number of differences that everyone should be aware ofbefore choosing the right one. 

Let’s begin by reading a few facts about Amazon Redshift

Amazon Redshift has debuted in the year 2012 as the first cloud data and since then it has been considered as the world’s most popular solution for keeping the explicit amounts of data into the storage. It is a completely managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse amenity in the cloud. There are indeed several ways to handle clusters. But then, it is pretty hard to manage an optimized Amazon Redshift cluster initially; especially when it creates issues. For example, after a certain point of time queries starts taking a lot of time, not only that but the size of data becomes unmanageable as well. Therefore, Redshift database troubleshooting could be a real nightmareat the initial stage. To manage database performance tuning and troubleshooting, give a read to the blogs posted on  nadeemasrar.com, Nadeem Asrar writes blogs on the latest database technologies and trends in the industry; you might also get some possible solutions on his site as troubleshooting those issues are not really a big deal.

As mentioned earlier, there are certain architectural differences between PostgreSQL and Redshift;

Let’s dive in to have a brief idea about those differences:

• PostgreSQL is known as the traditional row-oriented relational database which is amazing for processing transactional data. Whereas, Redshift is simply a columnar database which is better suited for analytics. 

• When it comes to PostgreSQL a single database connection cannot be utilized more than just one CPU. But Redshift is architected in such a way that it can process across multiple nodes. 

• Redshift doesn’t support any sort of indexes. Instead, each table has a sort key which regulates how the rows are ordered when the data is loaded. Whereas, PostgreSQL lacks distribution keys and distribution styles. 

• The architectural changes which Amazon has made to Redshift are way better in comparison to PostgreSQL as Redshift has the potential to handle large volumes of data for analytical queries. But PostgreSQL offers data warehouse for smaller volumes of data however, it doesn’t have the ability to match the performance of Redshift’s column. 

We hope that this article has been able to provide you with perspectives on vital parameters that matter. Now you might also have picked up on the fact that Redshift is best suited for larger data operations and Postgres may seem like the best choice for you if your data requirements aren’t really extensive. Choose the right Database trends in PostgreSQL, mysql, redshift; depending on your unique set of business need.