Databases like Oracle can be costly, inaccessible, outdated, and offer limited cloud support. For innovative businesses wanting flexibility in the cloud, Enterprise Postgres is open-source and the fourth most used database in the world, offering a seamless transition from legacy applications to hybrid or cloud environments.

However, any form of migration is costly and complex, requiring applications compatible with the new database and the company’s service levels. As you consider migrating from a legacy database, what should you know about Postgres’ capabilities?

Integrating Oracle Applications With a Postgres Database

Organizations are pivoting to address evolving customer concerns and technological advancements. For instance, some companies require flexibility in a hybrid environment with cloud-like features in their on-prem data centers. Yet these initiatives are hampered by antiquated software, vendor contract agreements, and prices. A new database comprises only 10-15% of the total cost of migration, with legacy applications, staff training, consulting fees, cloud transitions, and breach of contract charges constituting the remainder. How can you transition to a best-in-class solution while minimizing risk and costs?

Postgres offers extensibility to integrate additional capabilities, functions, and applications in a single database. With Advanced Postgres, this extensibility allows you to incorporate various Oracle applications seamlessly into a Postgres database, maintaining the structure of your original tech stack while offering resiliency and flexibility. Upgrading your capabilities while minimizing a full migration can reduce your costs by 80%.

How To Prepare for Cloud Migration When Transitioning To Postgres

When transitioning to a new database, data migrations remain a pressing concern. Large data sets are often stored in multiple warehouses, creating inefficiencies and losses. Postgres can integrate with any cloud environment, allowing you to scale and store workloads across multiple regions, creating data consistency and eliminating loss. Migrating from a data center to the cloud requires careful consideration of use cases, objectives, and providers. Here’s what you should know about transitioning to the cloud:

Before moving to the cloud, you must perform a readiness assessment. This extends beyond data management and involves preparing your applications, assets, and workloads without disrupting business operations during the transition. Some foundational steps include determining your users’ locations and evaluating regulations, governance, and risk compliance. Cloud readiness also requires prioritizing business initiatives by establishing and redefining operational characteristics. Tom Rieger, the Principal Solution Engineer at EDB, lists the criteria organizations should consider when assessing cloud readiness, “What is the most important thing the cloud has to do for you first? Is it to save money? Is it resiliency? Is it security… or is it performance?” Identifying a primary use case for the cloud allows you to structure additional initiatives around your objectives.

Another key factor in your decision is understanding your chosen database’s capabilities. For instance, Postgres provides transparent data encryption governed entirely by the database, whereas cloud data encryption requires consistent management at the disk level. By assessing the components and offerings of both the cloud and your database, you can determine where to place your functions.

Addressing the Challenges of Migrating From Oracle To Postgres

Many complications exist when migrating from legacy Oracle databases. One challenge occurs when users from various locations encounter security regulations when attempting to access or relocate data. Postgres has integrated globally allocated data, where each user is assigned a serial number with a unique key for authorized access. Another conflict involves software end-of-life, where outdated applications shut down after migration, compromising the new database environment. Active-active replication in Postgres allows rolling upgrades in the cloud or on-prem to scale gradually without risking database security.

Whether migrating to Postgres from a data center or the cloud, the transition should occur incrementally, beginning with a database transfer before executing innovation in the cloud.


With digital transformation on the rise and cloud migration becoming more prevalent, many organizations are moving their legacy applications to database management systems. While there are many platforms to choose from, Enterprise DB Postgres provides end-to-end solutions for cloud migration and comprehensive data management.

So, what are the benefits of Postgres over other database solutions, and how can you facilitate an effective transition to the system?

Postgres vs Oracle: Performance and Platform Capabilities

When selecting a database management system, Oracle remains top of mind for many businesses due to its best-in-class workload and data monitoring capabilities. Postgres provides most of the same functions; yet the system is free and open-source, whereas Oracle is a proprietary database with restrictions surrounding data usage and transfer.

So, how does this fundamental difference impact each database’s features?

One of the leading goals in digital transformation is database compatibility, which is often facilitated by cloud migration. Oracle automates this process, but its licensed cloud infrastructure limits operations to a single environment, hindering migration from legacy systems. Conversely, Postgres offers portability to accommodate your legacy system in any cloud environment. As a result, Stacy Scoggins, Field CTO at Enterprise DB, says that Postgres has “20 to 25% better performance than the options that come from the other [systems].”

Tips and Considerations for Migrating to Postgres

While Postgres is compatible with some legacy systems, others contain unsuitable data sets, which presents migration challenges. Case in point, one company attempted to execute a migration to Postgres from an outdated application on a Db2 database stack. This migration failed halfway through the process since the application was only compatible with the database stack. The company recognized that a successful migration would require restructuring the entire application and transferring it to a cloud-based environment. However, this presented logistical challenges surrounding integration and scalability.

What should you consider before migrating to Postgres?

Before initiating migration efforts, Karkavel Jegadeesan, Chief Technology Officer at Platform 3 Solutions, says to “start by analyzing the application. Spend the time…knowing what your services are, how your database is used, [understand] your stored procedures, and the usage of those procedures.” Evaluating each database component allows you to develop an informed strategy to streamline the migration process.

Testing Database Validity to Facilitate a Successful Postgres Migration

To ensure your legacy database is appropriate for Postgres’ capabilities, it’s essential to validate your database. This is integral to a successful Postgres migration and must occur before the start of the transition. There are several methodologies you can leverage to measure your database’s validity. First, you can compare your current database with Postgres by conducting application tests and analyzing the results for consistency. A similar test is data hashing, which involves compiling algorithms to assess your components’ functionality and compare data sets.

Whichever method you choose, it’s beneficial to facilitate the process using automation.

Postgres aims to help teams build applications, protect data integrity, and manage data more efficiently. Although its core platform has been around for more than 30 years, the system is evolving to meet users’ needs. Postgres is now expanding from an open-source relational database to an enterprise-class platform.

But what are the benefits of Postgres, and how can you optimize the platform to fit your business needs?

How to Migrate Smoothly

Migrating from one platform to another can be tricky. During the transition to a new database like Postgres, you want to maintain functionality while keeping costs and migration time to a minimum.

But migration isn’t all about the technical aspects. According to Julian Moffett, who moved his company from Oracle to Postgres, technical challenges are just 10% of the problem. You also have to get your application team on board and demonstrate the business case for a system transition.

So what benefits can you present to get your team on board and work toward a seamless migration? One of the major advantages of Postgres is scalability. Data growth has been a concern on the Oracle platform because the environment is getting too big and costs are rising. With Postgres, you can scale without the high costs. Additionally, Postgres provides high availability, extensibility, and security features.

To Build or to Buy?

Is it better to build your own system, or buy a pre-packaged module?

Ultimately, it comes down to your specific business and its needs. For one of Gunjan Goel’s clients, the process of designing a new target platform and building from the ground up took almost 10 months. However, they figured out what data structures they could put on the cloud, what they could keep on-prem, and how data performance could be enhanced as they moved onto their target platform. Once they got their new structure up and running, they were able to see performance improvement, which surpassed the time, energy, and cost of building out their platform. Plus, opting to build allowed them to differentiate their platform.

Of course, there are pros and cons to each option, but Gunjan suggests that companies combine the build and the buy and expand their platform with an open-source mindset. You don’t have to lock yourself into a pre-set product, but it’s helpful to use pre-built options to jumpstart your systems. Once the pre-built systems are in place, you can build on top of it and expand with your own designs.

Performance Improvement in Postgres

Postgres isn’t just a database — it’s an entire ecosystem. So, when you successfully build out your platform by optimizing tools, you’ll see improved performance throughout your database and processes.

The different tools within Postgres work together to provide a reliable and stable platform, ensuring that critical components like automation, data backup, and data monitoring are supported (and efficient). But how does the investment compare to other platforms like Oracle, and is it really worth it?

Companies that have made the switch have found that Postgres fosters higher availability, less downtime, monitoring solutions, and tools for improved team productivity. With Postgres, you can also have greater flexibility within your database and customize your platform to fit your business needs, which, in turn, improves the overall performance of your company.

Although Postgres may have an investment upfront, many companies are finding that it outweighs the cost of a database that just isn’t working for you anymore. And as the platform’s capabilities continue to develop at a rapid rate, companies are seeing just how valuable Postgres is in the future of digital architecture.

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