Citus Data Unforks PostgreSQL, Goes Open Source for Massively Scalable, Real-Time Analytics

Company Releases Citus 5.0 as Fully Open Source Database for Enterprise Analytics

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 24, 2016) - Citus Data, creators of solutions that horizontally scale out PostgreSQL for real-time big data, today announced it is open-sourcing its new database, Citus 5.0. Citus Data is democratizing relational databases by bringing a more accessible, secure and horizontally scalable PostgreSQL database environment to enterprise users. With this release, Citus 5.0 also becomes the only distributed database in the world that does not fork the underlying project. This enables its users to leverage PostgreSQL’s latest features and broad ecosystem as they stand today, in addition to staying ahead of database innovations as the PostgreSQL project continues evolving at its fastest pace.

Known by many as the world’s most advanced open source database, PostgreSQL has long been a trusted and powerful database for SQL developers and IT organizations, with recent features such as native JSON integration and UPSERT support. Yet, although PostgreSQL checks all the boxes for operational and analytic workloads on a single machine, scaling the SQL database beyond a single node requires considerable manual labor from developers and data architects. Citus 5.0 solves this problem for the next generation of data intensive, real-time applications.

The Citus extension to PostgreSQL transforms Postgres into a distributed database, allowing users to parallel process large datasets terabytes in size. Whether users are looking to build real time dashboards for their customers, or handle large volumes of sensor data from internet connected devices in real-time, Citus distributes the data and takes advantage of multiple types of executors. This allows users to easily scale, while remaining focused on providing value-based data to customers.

Citus 5.0

Citus 5.0 will be fully open-sourced for developers to scale their data analytics projects. Features include:

• Multiple Executors and Workloads: Applications are no longer one-size-fits-all with multiple workloads. Citus has multiple executors built-in for both real-time, multi-core analytics, as well as low-latency operational requests, adapting to the needs of modern real-time applications. This means that once data is held within Citus users can take advantage for multiple use cases, reducing the operational complexity of many different systems;
• Auto Sharding and Replication: Building scalable applications quickly is essential when facing the complex challenges of migrating data. Citus 5.0 is an ideal extension where users can interact with it in the same way they use open source PostgreSQL, with Citus resolving sharding, replication and machine failures automatically in a way that is transparent to the application. This enables faster time to production and simplifies analytics at big data scale.
• The Latest PostgreSQL Version, Unforked: As the trusted SQL database, PostgreSQL has been forked many times in the past. Forked versions diverge from the core project over time, with users no longer seeing the benefits of new code and new ecosystem tools, or getting locked in to proprietary data formats. With Citus 5.0, the latest PostgreSQL 9.5 features are at users’ fingertips, as will 9.6 features instantly be available upon release to the open source community.

Citus Enterprise Edition

While Citus 5.0 is publicly available today, for those users that need simplified cluster management, enhanced security features, and advanced analytics, the Citus Enterprise Edition is available for added features including:

• Tools for seamlessly re-balancing and scaling PostgreSQL instances;
• Granular access controls for improved security;
• Citus Real-Time Behavior Analytics library that allows advanced funnel and behavior analytics on event data;
• Enterprise subscription, including 24x7 support, emergency patches, and custom installation and configuration on premise or on any cloud.

Quotes

Ben Fathi, Head of Engineering at CloudFlare
"CloudFlare uses Citus to power analytics dashboards for millions of our customers, which is the equivalent to hundreds of terabytes of activity data. Citus helps CloudFlare scale our databases in a simple way, with minimal maintenance, so we can focus on our core business. Not forking the PostgreSQL codebase makes a big difference for our business. It gives CloudFlare compatibility with native PostgreSQL, while also fully leveraging our existing development and DevOps expertise."

Umur Cubukcu, CEO and Co-founder at Citus Data
"This announcement changes how distributed databases are developed and deployed: Not as standalone systems built from scratch, not as forks from a point in time version of a database, but through extending the ecosystem, community and power of one of the most battle-tested databases in the world, PostgreSQL. We’re thrilled to be offering Citus 5.0 free to the open source community."

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About PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity and extensibility. PostgreSQL is developed by a large international community composed of consulting companies, distributors, support providers, cloud companies, DBA Freelancers and researchers. Learn more at https://www.postgresql.org