PGDay.IT 2018

Linux Professional Institute:: Media Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Thu, 24 May 2018 01:05:00 +0000

A warm welcome to Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Italia!

Media Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

LPI, Linux Professional Institute (LPI) promotes and certifies the skills necessary for the use of Linux and Open Source technologies in the professional field, with independent, global and high-quality exams program.

LPI is the global certification and career support standard for Open Source professionals. With more than 500,000 tests administered LPI is the largest independent certification in the Linux and Open Source world. Certified professionals in 181 countries, conducted exams in 9 languages; has over 400 partners in training.

Founded in Toronto, Canada in 1999 as an international non-profit organization, the LPI, Linux Professional Institute is a leader in Linux professional certifications, thanks to the quality of its programs, partners, sponsorships, IT industry support and support for the Open Source community.

LPI is also a founding member of the Linux Desktop Consortium and a member of the Linux Foundation.

From January 2008 a team is dedicated to the growth of LPI in Italy. This group, through the website, the toll-free number 800-910354 and participation in events, carries out the promotion and support for those who intend to use their Linux skills professionally, focusing in particular to large companies and public administrations.

Italy’s delay in the adoption of Open Source technologies in the Public Administration and companies makes the spread of the Linux certification slower than in other countries. This, and because they firmly believe that the Linux Professional Institute certification, must be first and foremost a tool available to those working with Open Source technologies, they will be pleased to receive suggestions and proposals for collaboration from all those who intend to support this project.

2ndQuadrant Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:58:00 +0000

Welcome back! 2ndQuadrant Partner PGDay.IT 2018

A historic partner who cannot miss events dedicated to PostgreSQL such as PGDay.IT, 2ndQuadrant has renewed its support for the 2018 edition of the Italian event dedicated to PostgreSQL (PGDay. IT).

Thanks for joining us again!

We asked Umair Shaid, 2ndQuadrant’s Head of Marketing and Products, for a comment about why he thought appropriate for 2ndQuadrant to be a Partner of the PGDay.IT 2018. This is his answer:

In his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey suggests managing time based on two dimensions: importance and urgency. Four quadrants emerge from this classification. The second quadrant identifies important but not urgent activities, typically represented by opportunities and investments in the future. This mind set leads to “vision, perspective, balance, discipline, control and few crises” – i.e. you focus on your long-term vision and your ability to execute short to medium term goals is also impeccable.

The mission of 2ndQuadrant is, in fact, to invest in the future and growth of PostgreSQL, with the aim of making it the best DBMS in the world. For this reason, and more, we want to show our support at every event and conference dedicated to PostgreSQL through important partnerships.

About 2ndQuadrant

2ndQuadrant is a team of diligent PostgreSQL experts. Their support engineers have over 100 years of combined code contributions to the PostgreSQL project, making them the only company to contribute enterprise features to all of the last 13 releases.

This is paired with 17+ years of hands-on experience through client engagements to allow them to integrate customized solutions with their customers - making 2ndQuadrant the Gold Standard for PostgreSQL products & services.

Emerasoft con EDB Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:56:00 +0000

Welcome Emerasoft! New Partner of PGDay.IT 2018

Emerasoft in partnership with EDB for the first time in support of the Italian community dedicated to PostgreSQL and at the promotion of PGDay.IT 2018.

Thanks for joining us! We hope this is just the beginning of a long collaboration.

We asked Cristiano Motta, Board Member & BU Director, the reason why Emerasoft decided to accompany us in this new adventure becoming Diamond Partner of PGDay.IT 2018. Here it is the answer:

Since its inception, Emerasoft Group has been scouting and supporting the best Open Source technologies for the future. Today, we consider PostgreSql the long-term leading Open Source RDBMS solution and together with EnterpriseDB we offer the Enterprise-level solution for PostgreSql. After several projects, Emerasoft and EntepriseDB together decided to become supporters of PGDay italy

About Emerasoft

Founded in 2005 Emerasoft is formed by a team with specialized skills in various sectors of the IT business. Our different experiences reflect in our ability to face heterogeneous and complex problems in a professional and efficient way.

The ability to produce and select state-of-the-art technologies and establish continuous collaboration agreements in the exploration of frontier areas of application development, stimulate and challenge us to continue a path of excellence and quality.

Our commitment is in the constant search of the best solution for the customer, guaranteeing excellence in the quality of services and offered products. We promise to carry out our work with constancy and passion.

Mission: We are committed to the research and use of agile methodologies and tools able to foster the growth of new and more effective Business and Development models at reduced costs and investments.”

Umberto Nicoletti

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:05:00 +0000

Umberto Nicoletti speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “Fun (and profit) with ZFS and Postgres”, Umberto Nicoletti will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Umberto, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I started using Postgres in important contexts having to support opennms, which still uses PostgreSQL as databases. In Proemion we use Postgres as a database for our telematics solution.

Umberto, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

I had the talk already ready and it seemed like a context where it could be interesting to propose it again. I’d like to meet other people who use Postgres on ZFS.

Umberto, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Data integrity, performance, ecosystem.

About Umberto Nicoletti

I am a reliable, empathic Senior engineer. I will make sure stuff gets done and will actively conjure to creating a pleasant work experience for everybody. Will help you ship your code, quickly, reliably, often. RHCSA, AWS CSA certified.

Talk: Fun (and profit) with ZFS and Postgres

Riva room: 11,05 am - Language: Italian - Complexity: Intermediate

ZFS is a filesystem, originally developed for Solaris, that finally brings advanced filesystem features (compression, snapshots, and checksums, among others) to Linux. I selected the ZFS-on-Linux port as the key component of an internal tool created with the purpose of better supporting the team in all those scenarios where a replica of the production Postgres database might be required: testing query optimizations, database migrations, etc. While it was a lot of fun for me to work on it, the tool proved, most importantly, to be extremely useful to the whole team. The presentation dives into the technical details of the tool, introduces ZFS key features, why one would want to use it, and then explores some other interesting ZFS use cases.

More information and updates about Umberto Nicoletti are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @AFactotum

Gianni Ciolli

Tue, 22 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Gianni Ciolli speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With workshop “PostgreSQL Persistence” and the talks “Why Logical Replication?”, Gianni Ciolli will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Gianni, how did you approach PostgreSQL

When I was working as a university researcher, PostgreSQL had an excellent reputation. I got to learn more about it later, thanks to my colleagues in 2ndQuadrant.

Gianni, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

It is a great conference, one of the oldest in its kind, and I am also keen to support ITPUG, given my past activities.

Gianni, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Reliable, Fast, Versatile.

About Gianni Ciolli

Gianni Ciolli is Head of Professional Services at 2ndQuadrant and is a PostgreSQL consultant, trainer and speaker at various IT conferences around the world, including the European PostgreSQL conferences and the PGDay Italy and UK.

He started working in Free and Open Source Software 20 years ago and is an active member in various communities (Prato Linux User Group, Italian PostgreSQL Users Group).

Previously he worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Florence. He is an author of the PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, Packt Publishing (Birmingham).

Talk: Why Logical Replication?

Riva room: 4,05 pm - Language: English - Complexity: Intermediate

In this talk we discuss the state of the art of Logical Replication for PostgreSQL. While we begin by comparing it with Physical Replication, the core part of this presentation is to examine a few specific use cases, including selective replication and no-downtime software upgrades. Throughout the talk we will also comment on pitfalls and limitations, as they arise in various use cases.

Workshop: PostgreSQL Persistence

June 28th - time 2 pm - Language: Italian and English

In this workshop we demonstrate several aspects of data persistence in PostgreSQL, in terms of architecture, database configuration and application behaviour.

More information and updates about Gianni Ciolli are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @GianniCiolli

Ivan Novick

Mon, 21 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Ivan Novick speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “Greenplum Database: Evolving advances analytics on Postgres”, Ivan Novick will be at PGDay.IT 2018 edition.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Ivan, how did you approach PostgreSQL

For me PostgreSQL is a way to store and analyze structured and semi-structured data. SQL is a language that is natural for exploring and analyzing sets of well curated and organized data and open source is what makes SQL available to the world.

Ivan, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

To support the community in Italy. Pivotal (my employer) has a number of database customers in Italy and I would like to help grow the open source database and analytics community around PostgreSQL in Italy. Happy to help support it and also to learn new things myself.

Ivan, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Data Integrity, Analytics, Performance!

About Ivan Novick

I joined Greenplum in November 2009 as a 100 person startup. The company was acquired by EMC in July 2010 and became an independent division of EMC Corporation. In 2013 Pivotal was and Greenplum Database became a product made and supported by Pivotal. From 2014 to now, leading the Greenplum Database product as the primary product manager. Working closely with our customers and R&D team guide the overall product direction and market strategy. Continuing effort to improve the product, continual agile releases, increase market share and make our customers successful. Driving GPDB to become the mainstream and 1 choice in the data warehouse market.

From 2013 to 2014 was a Senior Engineering Manager of one of the core R&D teams building and developing the Greenplum Database (GPDB). Team projects include cluster management software, backup and restore, extensibility, programming interfaces, and connectivity with partner products. Utilize agile practices to ensure high quality and rapid development of new functionality and features. Also involved in product strategy, customer consulting, triaging incoming defect reports and feature requests, and optimizing software development processes.

From 2009 to 2013, was lead software engineer that developed from scratch several components of the system management stack of the Data Computing Appliance. The software written was used by hundreds of large scale enterprise customers in production with minimal bugs being reported in the field. Filed 2 US Patents related to the Data Computing Appliance software stack. Prior to beginning work on the Data Computing Appliance, was primary developer of the Greenplum Command Center, implemented gpconfig tool, and led the performance analysis team for GPDB.

Talk: Greenplum Database: Evolving advances analytics on Postgres

Benacus room: 4,50 pm - Language: English - Complexity: Expert

Greenplum brings massively parallel processing to the world of PostgreSQL to enable analysis of Petabyte scale data using a standard PostgreSQL interface. This talk will explain how Greenplum enables massively parallel processing and how the future roadmap and integration with Kubernees will enable Greenplum to scale to new heights.

More information and updates about Ivan Novick are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @NovickGreenplum - Linkedin: Ivan Novick

PG_Shuttle

Mon, 21 May 2018 00:57:00 +0000

PG_Shuttle: the "express" for PGDay.IT 2018

Being aware that the small town of Lazise was a “risky” choice as the location for the PGDay.IT, before confirming our selection, we verified the possibility of organizing a pick-up service to make it easier for all to join in and participate in the PGDay.IT 2018.

And, then, “PG_Shuttle” was born!

The service is free and easy to get. Available only for PGDay.IT participants, the only requirement is to fill in the appropriate form with name, surname, place, and time of arrival and departure.

The required data, in addition to the name and surname, are the place and time of arrival.

These are the days and time slots covered by the “PG_Shuttle” to reach the venue of the PGDay.IT 2018:

June 27th from 5pm to 9pm.
June 28th from 5pm to 9pm.
June 29th from 7am to 10am

It will also be possible to use the service at the end of the event, provided that you have made the booking. Around 6pm / 6.30pm, “PG_Shuttle” will wait for you outside the PGDay.IT 2018 venue to bring you back to your destination: Verona Airport, Verona Train Station, and Milan/Bergamo Orio al Serio Airport.

For those who are accompanied by their families, a minimum contribution of € 5.00 is requested for each person not enrolled in PGDay.IT 2018.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Gabriele Bartolini

Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Gabriele Bartolini speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

“Declarative data partitioning with PostgreSQL” is the title of the talk that Gabriele Bartolini will be giving at PGDay.IT 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know more about our speakers and ask them three basic questions.

Gabriele, how did you approach PostgreSQL?

It was at the end of 90s when I was a webmaster at the City Council of Prato, writing CGI applications in C. After a short but intense experience with MySQL, thanks to University studies and the perseverance of my friend Marco Nenciarini, I converted myself to PostgreSQL and never looked back.

Gabriele, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

The Italian PGDay is always something special for me, not only because I have been actively involved in it since the first edition (and I believe my contributions were very important back then), but also for the health atmosphere of an Open Source Community.

Gabriele, could you try and define PostgreSQL with three adjectives?

Fast, Solid, Flexible.

About Gabriele Bartolini

A long time open-source programmer and entrepreneur, Gabriele has a degree in Statistics from the University of Florence. Gabriele is the Head of Global Support at 2ndQuadrant and managing director of the Italian office as well as an active member of the international PostgreSQL community and local ITPUG.

His commitment is to consistently contribute to the growth of 2ndQuadrant and it’s members through nurturing a lean and devops culture. Gabriele lives in Prato, a small but vibrant city located in the northern part of Tuscany, Italy.

His second home is Melbourne, Australia, where he studied at Monash University and worked in the ICT sector. His hobbies include “calcio” (football or soccer, depending on which part of the world you come from) and playing his Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. But his major passion is called: Elisabeth - his sweet 2-years old daughter!

Talk: Declarative data partitioning with PostgreSQL

Riva room: 3 pm - Language: English - Complexity: Intermediate

Horizontal partitioning is one of the most successful database modeling techniques for the scalability of a PostgreSQL database. After a historical excursus on the workaround already available from PostgreSQL 8.1 and based on inheritance, we will go through declarative partitioning introduced in PostgreSQL 10, with a peep of what’s waiting for us in PostgreSQL 11.

More information and updates about Gabriele Bartolini are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @GBartolini - Linkedin: Gabriele Bartolini

Artur Caliendo Prado

Sun, 20 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Artur Caliendo Prado speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “How PostGIS changed the insurance market in Brazil”, Artur Caliendo Prado will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Artur, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I was the second developer hired by the company I work for and, at that early stage, we had lots of decisions to make. One of them was which database to use and our choices narrowed down to either MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Both would work fine, but PostgreSQL proved to be more robust and ideal for what we wanted. It would be easier for the teams that were going to work with it and the performance was good.

We didn’t plan for it at the time, but, as a plus, we gained the best geolocation plugin ever by choosing PostgreSQL: PostGIS. It opened a new field to work on that changed the intelligence behind our products.

Artur, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

Geolocation was so important to us that I have been trying for a while to talk about it at conferences. Mostly, I have been looking at Ruby on Rails conferences, because that’s the programming language and framework we use, but at some point, I realized that it was strongly related to PostgreSQL and that I could present a PostGIS case in a conference like PGDay.

I found it on the Internet and sent the proposal to speak, and now I am really glad my proposal was accepted. There is also something very special about this conference: I am Brazilian, but my family has roots it Italy and it will be a huge honor for me to go back to my grandfather’s country and present something that can be useful to other people there.

Artur, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Reliable, robust and powerful.

About Artur Caliendo Prado

Artur is a developer, a speaker and a writer. He has 8 years of experience with Ruby on Rails and 5 with C#. He worked in the largest magazine publisher in Brazil, building high-performance websites like Exame.com, with 90 million page views per month and 6 million unique visitors. In 2004 he won the 3rd place in the Brazilian stage of Microsoft Imagine Cup. He is currently working at Youse, a startup that aims to change the insurance market with a strong focus on innovation and technology.

Talk: How PostGIS changed the insurance market in Brazil

Riva room: 2,15 pm - Language: English - Complexity: Beginner

We can offer a one-size-fits-all product, or we can truly understand our users and offer something valuable and customized to their needs. Geolocation is the key to learn what is going on around them to make better, user-centric decisions.

More information and updates about Artur Caliendo Prado are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @artur_caliendo - Linkedin: Artur Caliendo Prado

Riccardo Magliocchetti

Sat, 19 May 2018 00:05:00 +0000

Riccardo Magliocchetti speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “Visualizza i tuoi dati con Superset”, Riccardo Magliocchetti will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Riccardo, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I approached PostgreSQL for work. The company that I worked for adopted PostgreSQL as a database to develop web applications.

Riccardo, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

I decided to participate in PGDay.IT because it seems to me an excellent opportunity to share with the Italian community of PostgreSQL. I hope that my presentation on Superset is useful for some and at the same time I hope to learn new things from the other attendees.

Riccardo, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Robust, it has always behaved reliably and predictably

Flexible, in addition to the functionality of SQL relational database, there are many extensions to extend its functionality. For example, to work with geographic data, do full text search, etc.

Always updated, each release is enriched with interesting features. For example, all the new functions for the management of JSONB

About Riccardo Magliocchetti

Riccardo is a pythonista, a free software developer and a moviegoer.

Talk: Visualizza i tuoi dati con Superset

Benacus room: 3 pm - Language: Italian - Complexity: Intermediate

We have written them in a PostgreSQL database to keep our data safe. But to analyze them? Superset! Superset is an open source platform that allows you to create dynamic views of data without writing a line of code. We will see what are the features and capabilities of Superset and how we can use it to explore and display data from a database.

More information and updates about Riccardo Magliocchetti are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @rmistaken - GitHub: xrmx

Olakunle Olaniyi

Sat, 19 May 2018 00:05:00 +0000

Olakunle Olaniyi speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “A New Way to avoid trigger based logging in PostgreSQL”, Olakunle Olaniyi will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Olakunle, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I was initially a database developer/administrator with primary focus on MySQL and MSSQL databases until I encounter PostgreSQL in 2011 for an open source project deployment. I have been hooked ever since - because it simply works and offers a whole new world of possibilities and flexibilities. Since then, I have grown in my usage of Postgres both in development and administration.

Olakunle, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

I have been following the different PGDAY in different countries and particularly attracted to PGDAY IT because it has over the years attracted great audience and speakers alike. So having the opportunity to participate in this day is for me a great honor. Plus I’d like to share my knowledge about my hacks in PostgreSQL as well as learn from the audience by having their feedback.

Olakunle, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Simple, but elegant!

About Olakunle Olaniyi

Olakunle Olaniyi is a Database Administrator with great interests in database technologies (old and new). He’s got experience in different database systems but die hard junky of PostgreSQL. Besides databases, he also passes some of his time developing in python.

Talk: A New Way to avoid trigger based logging in PostgreSQL

Riva room: 10 am - Language: English - Complexity: Intermediate

Logging events in databases has been around for ages and we have been more than used to the traditional way of doing so using triggers. In this talk, I’d be glad to show how database logging trascends beyond using triggers and turn to the not so new Logical decoding in PostgreSQL. Thanks to Logical Decoding, log tables can now be moved to a different database servers where cheaper hardware could be deployed for not so critical log tables. Beyond just logging , Logical Decoding also allows for all other exciting usage like Data warhousing ETL processes , data pipelines, queuing and the rest.

More information and updates about Olakunle Olaniyi are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @mikkywright

Slavcho Trnkovski

Fri, 18 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Slavcho Trnkovski speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “PostgreSQL High Availability using repmgr and pgbouncer”, Slavcho Trnkovski will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Slavcho, how did you approach PostgreSQL

The company I work for has many projects with different database engines. Few years ago we decided that we want to move not only the new but also some of the old projects to PostgreSQL. All of the “features” we were using in Oracle are feasible in PostgreSQL as well (and more). Since then I started using PostgreSQL as DBA (setup, backup/restore, monitoring, HA setup).

Slavcho, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

I like “small” conferences where you can have more direct contact with the presenters and the audience, and you can easily exchange experience with others. I think PGDay.IT is one such event. Another reason, 2 years ago I attended “5432…MeetUs” conference and I liked it a lot, most of the presenters there are related to PGDay.IT as well.

Slavcho, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is the most advanced open-source, highly extensible, scalable relational database management system.

About Slavcho Trnkovski

Slavcho Trnkovski has been working with database technologies for 10 years. He has been working with Oracle since the beginning of his career and in last 3 years he has been using PostgreSQL as well. As a DBA he is responsible for administering PostgreSQL in the company. This includes installation and configuration of PostgreSQL database, establishing backup and restore procedures, preparing High Availability solutions, etc…

Talk: PostgreSQL High Availability using repmgr and pgbouncer

Benacus room: 11,50 am - Language: English - Complexity: Intermediate

In the company I work for we have implemented PostgreSQL High Availability using repmgr and pgbouncer. We have additionally prepared some custom scripts to avoid split brain situations. We are using puppet (foreman) for installing and configuring PostgreSQL, the same is used for configuring High Availability (with few manual steps). I would like to give a presentation about the setup we’re doing for this High Availability solution.

More information and updates about speaker_name are available on his social media channels:

Linkedin: Slavcho Trnkovski

Oleksii Kliukin

Fri, 18 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Oleksii Kliukin speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “PostgreSQL Database-as-a-Service with Kubernetes”, Oleksii Kliukin will be at PGDay.IT edition 2018.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Oleksii, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I had a brief encounter with PostgreSQL 7.3 in my short stint as a system administrator. Afterwards I switched my role to become a C developer and started working on the PostgreSQL binary replication system, at that time based on PostgreSQL 7.4 (and long before we’ve got streaming replication in the PostgreSQL core).

That was a challenge, but also a lot of fun; I am very grateful for that opportunity, as it let me discover the most amazing side of PostgreSQL: people behind it.

Oleksii, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

In March 2018 I’ve been visiting Melbourne, Australia and had a pleasure to speak to the Melbourne PostgreSQL user group meetup, organised by Andrea Cucciniello and Gabriele Bartolini. They kindly pointed me to the PGDay.IT event and luckily there was still some time left before the deadline to submit my talk.

Oleksii, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

How about ‘Open, Performant, Trustworthy’?

About Oleksii Kliukin

Oleksii is a Database Engineer at Zalando, managing a vast amount of data Zalando stores in PostgreSQL databases and building tools to make this process easier. He is an occasional PostgreSQL contributor, and co-organiser of the Berlin PostgerSQL meetup group.

Talk: PostgreSQL Database-as-a-Service with Kubernetes

Benacus room: 4,05 pm - Language: English - Complexity: Intermediate

Kubernetes is emerging as a standard open-source platform to quickly roll out containerised applications, automatically manage resources and provide universal abstractions for the hardware/cloud layer, but …

Can we take advantage of it for deploying and running PostgreSQL databases?

The answer is yes, and we at Zalando have developed open-source tools to help you with that task.

In this talk I will explain how we embraced Kubernetes at Zalando to run our staging and production databases, avoiding commercial solutions lock-in and saving costs. I will describe the benefits and pitfalls of running production databases on Kubernetes and, finally, show open-source tools we have built for application developers to deploy and manage PostgreSQL clusters by writing short manifests describing a few essential properties of the result.

More information and updates about Oleksii Kliukin are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @hintbits

Lazise, why?

Thu, 17 May 2018 00:57:00 +0000

Why we choose Lazise?

Our first thought was to allow the attendees of PGDay.IT to join the conference with their families.

In Lazise the participants will be able to follow the PGDay.IT and be close to their loved ones. In fact, they can enjoy the wonders that Lazise offers and have a chance to visit the Gardaland theme park, reachable with a short walk from the venue of the PGDay.IT.

To make easier for all the participants to reach Lazise, “pg_shuttle” will be available from the Verona station and airport, as well as from the Milan/Bergamo Orio al Serio airport, after regular reservation. A little reminder: “pg_shuttle” is free for all the attendees of PGDay.IT.

If you are interested in finding out what Lazise can offer, we have reported some interesting information below.

Enjoy the reading!

Lazise is justifiably proud of its past since it was one of the first towns in Italy to be granted independence by Emperor Otto II more than a thousand years ago in 983. Testifying to its splendid medieval past, there are magnificent castle and fortified walls encircling the old town center crammed with shops, restaurants, and bars.

In its small port, you can find the Customs House from which Venice controlled lake Garda’s trade for centuries. It was near here that Venice’s fleet was anchored: to prevent the fleet from falling into enemy hands, the commander ordered the ships to be sunk and they are still resting at the bottom of the lake.

However, today it exists solely as a picturesque town for tourists. There is the 12th Century Church of San Nicolo which can be seen in the gallery pictures of the harbor area. For a while, it was used as a cinema, but now it’s back to its original purpose. The Scaliger Castle dates back to the 12th and 13th Centuries and is only visitable from the outside as it is still in private ownership and somebody actually still lives there!

You can rent a boat at the harbor or take a ferry to another town around the Lake, but there is plenty to see and explore at Lazise. It is also just a short drive or bus ride to the Theme Parks.

At Pacengo, a tranquil lakeside town in the Lazise area, there are also the submerged remains of a large, prehistoric village of pile-dwellings. And this area, since ancient time, was a crossroads for travelers and merchants alike: the famous “amber-road” passed through here. Lazise put at the tourist’s disposal of forty comfortable hotels, ten well-equipped camping-sites, as well as sporting facilities of all kinds, concerts and excellent cuisine.

Beaches

Garda is a lake and does not have proper sandy beaches, but it does have hand-made pebble beaches all around the lake, but there is only a very small sandy area in Lazise. The nearest large beaches being near Bardolino and Garda Town (North) and Pacengo (South).

Excursions

The Lake Garda paddle steamers regularly visit Lazise from which you can visit virtually any town on the lake. There is also a faster catamaran service. The nearest cities are Salo and Gardone both on the West shore of the lake, both of which are very nice. But don’t miss Sirmione as a place to visit. Closer to hand are Bardolino and Garda both of which are incredibly picturesque in their own right and provide even better shopping than Lazise.

Theme Parks

Love them or hate them, there are two large theme parks nearby accessed by complimentary buses, and both are very good. It is a theme park based on rides and Movieland is a combination of rides and shows. Gardaland has its own themed hotel which is very nice and near to the Gardaland theme park (but not in the same immediate area) and Movieland (also known as Canevaworld and Movie Studios Park) has its own Aqua Paradise Park, Rock, and Roll cafe and Medieval Banquet.

Culinary specialties

Fresh fish from the lake, extra-virgin olive-oil and wines (the Bardolino wine is produced here, as well the Bianco di Custoza and Lugana not far from here) are the basis of the riviera’s typical cuisine. Lazise boasts many restaurants - its tench risotto and grilled fish dishes are famous.

Shopping

Shopping in the many boutiques, wine and art craft shops lining the medieval streets is fun. Wine and olive oil can be bought and even tasted directly from the producer’s presses and cellars. Further afield for shopping is Riva (North) and Desenzano (South West), both of which are surprisingly large towns. Away from the Lake, Verona is unmissable and can be easily visited by car or bus. About two hours East is Venice and two hours West is Milan, both easily accessible by inexpensive trains from Peschiera (10 minutes South).

Cultural events

The Venetian customs house and the Scaligeri castle host prestigious concerts, such as the renowned “Lazise notte classica” (classical and opera music). Lazise hosts the international Bee-keeper’s Exhibition every two years.

Art

The small Romanesque church of San Niccolò behind the Custom House and next to the port contain 14th-century frescos: its façade features a niche, containing a fresco of Our Lady (13th century) and there are many beautiful country-houses at Lazise, Colà, and Pacengo.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Denis Gasparin

Mon, 14 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Denis Gasparin speaker at PGDay.IT 2018.

With the talks “PostgreSQL Tips & Tricks” and “Machine Learning with PostGreSQL”, Denis Gasparin will be at PGDay.IT 2018 edition.

For this edition of PGDay.IT we decided to get to know our Speakers a little more, by asking three simple questions.

Denis, how did you approach PostgreSQL

I approached PostgreSQL in 2001 when, having to choose a DBMS for a new project, I was looking for a database server supporting referential integrity and the ability to execute DDL in transaction. I did choose PostgreSQL 7.1 and since then I used PostgreSQL on all the projects I have developed.

Denis, why did you decide to participate at PGDay.IT?

I attended the Italian PGDay since the first edition. Since 2014 I partecipated as a speaker, the first time with a lightning talk (I invite everyone to prepare at least one!) and then with several talks on the use of PostgreSQL.

Denis, could you tell us three adjectives to define and recommend PostgreSQL?

Simple, safe and scalable … without forgetting its fantastic community!

About Denis Gasparin

Computer Engineer since 2001 with extensive experience in PostgreSQL both systemic and programming and web development (PHP and Javascript in particular).

The open source world has contributed over the years to developing parts of the PHP / PDO driver for PostgreSQL and started the PgRepUp project for PostgreSQL replication and upgrade using PgLogical.

Talk: PostgreSQL Tips & Tricks

Benacus room: 10,00 am - Language: Ialiano - Complexity: Beginner

PostgreSQL, in addition to being a complete and reliable database, reserves many surprises and ‘hidden’ features that we will discover in this talk.

In particular we’ll discover:

• some “unconventional” data types

• extravagant queries

• psql for brave elephants

• precious indices

• unique extensions

Intrigued? Do not miss this talk, you will be surprised at what our Elephant can do!

Talk: Machine Learning with PostgreSQL

Riva room: ore 16,50 pm - Language: Ialiano - Complexity: Intermediate

Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and many others offer software and libraries for Machine Learning.

And what PostgreSQL can do?

The talk will cover MADLib installation and some usage examples for natural language analysis.

More information and updates about Denis Gasparin are available on his social media channels:

Twitter: @rtshome - GitHub: rtshome - Linkedin: Denis Gasparin

CFP and CFW closed

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:57:00 +0000

Yesterday the Call for Papers and the Call for Workshops closed.

Now it is time for our Technical Commission to start working.

The schedule of PGDay.IT 2018 will be published on March 31st, 2018.

In addition to the program of PGDay.IT 2018, on March 31st will be published also the Workshop Day program and the related fee to participate.

Concurrently with the publication of the schedule of PGDay.IT 2018, Early Bird tickets (€ 47.00) will be stopped, and the Ordinary tickets (€ 59.00) will be available.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Python Italia: Media Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:57:00 +0000

Welcome back Python Italia APS. Media Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

Python Italia APS is a national association that aims to help and support the diffusion and use of the Python programming language on Italian territory.

The Python community in Italy initially was so numerous and spread that was split in two communities. Finally, after several years, the two communities reunited in a single one, all about our beloved language and Django.

As a result, the group of madmen who decided to found the Python Italia APS association managed to organize in their free time several national PyCon events and in 2009 they managed to bring their BDFL GvR to Florence.

Besides the national events, the activity of the association branches into local initiatives of various dimensions and nature.

Peak event: PyCon Italia.

PyCon Italia is the national conference that gathers professionals, researchers and enthusiasts of the most beautiful programming language there is. In the splendid setting of Florence, PyCon is a weekend to learn, compare and discover.

For more than 20 years, Python has been used successfully as a programming language, in industry and in scientific research, for a variety of applications. The boundaries between users and developers have been overcome thanks to the use of a simple language, which allows to develop solutions to complex problems without having much programming experience.

GrUSP: Media Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 00:55:00 +0000

Welcome back GrUSP. Media Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

Founded in 2003 as an association dedicated to the PHP world only, GrUSP has become the reference point in Italy for good practices in the world of web development. They organize informal events, conferences and meetings involving Italian and international professionals.

The GrUSP has grown over the years to reach over 1000 members, becoming in fact one of the largest European user groups of PHP; in addition to organizing events, in recent years it has started a real dissemination campaign in the area coordinating the creation of local PHP User Group (PUG) managed by the most active members.

The association has also completed several activities related to language, such as the translation of technical manuals, the drafting of books and the support of other Italian initiatives related to web development.

Every year the GrUSP organizes several events of an international nature, phpDay.it, jsDay.it, Kerning.it, reactJsDay.it and others that involve enthusiasts, professionals and companies in the sector coming from every corner of Italy and Europe, and also from overseas. These events represent an annual opportunity to exchange knowledge, the birth of new collaborations and opportunities for comparison.

Pivotal: Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 00:50:00 +0000

First! First! First! Pivotal Diamond Partner PGDay.IT 2018

We are very proud to announce Pivotal as a Diamond Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

Pivotal is the first company to become a Partner of PGDay.IT, has opted for a Diamond Partnership (First level) and this is also the first time that Pivotal is collaborating with us at ITPUG. Three times First! Fantastic!

We hope this is just the beginning of a long collaboration.

We asked Cesar Rojas, Head of Marketing, the reason why Pivotal decided to accompany us in this new adventure becoming a Diamond Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

Here it is the answer:

PostgreSQL is the best open source operational (OLTP) database on the planet but many PostgreSQL users are forced to work with proprietary analytical databases (e.g. Oracle or Teradata) for their data warehousing and big data workloads.

We are reaching out to the community with a better analytics alternative. The Greenplum Database is an open source, 100% based on PostgreSQL, an analytical platform that offers a proven path of migration from expensive and proprietary alternatives to the Postgres ecosystem.

Who Pivotal

Pivotal is the maker of Pivotal Greenplum, the world’s first fully-featured, multi-cloud, massively parallel processing (MPP) data analytics platform based on the open source Greenplum Database and PostgreSQL.

Pivotal Greenplum provides comprehensive and integrated analytics on multi-structured data. Powered by the world’s most advanced cost-based query optimizer, Pivotal Greenplum delivers unmatched analytical query performance on massive volumes of data.

Apogeo: Media Partner PGDay.IT 2018

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:45:00 +0000

Welcome back Apogeo. Media Partner of PGDay.IT 2018.

Apogeo is a publishing house founded in 1989. Since the beginning It is characterized by a production of technical-informatics manuals, always identifying trends in the ICT sector and bringing them to the public through books, ebooks and the website Apogeonline. A particular interest has always been dedicated to the world of open-source software. Apogeo is part of Gruppo Feltrinelli S.p.A since 2001.

APOGEONLINE it’s their official website, but do not expect a traditional showcase of books. Apogeonline is a publisher inside a publisher. A free daily webzine on digital technology and culture: a space for in-depth analysis, dialogue and comparison since 1998.

All information on their publications are available in the area dedicated to catalog. The ebook section is dedicated to electronic book lovers.

Call for Papers and Call for Workshops Deadline Postponed

Thu, 01 Mar 2018 00:45:00 +0000

The Organising Committee has postponed the deadline for submitting a talk proposal or a workshop on “PGDay.IT”, the PostgreSQL Italian National event that will held in Lazise on June 28th and 29th, 2018.

The new deadline is: March 18th, 2018

It’s the last opportunity to submit your talk or workshop proposal, do not miss it!

Submit here your talk proposal or your workshop proposal

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Call for Partners is OPEN!

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Deadline: June 10th, 2018

PGDay.IT is an event run by the ITPUG community, put on by the ITPUG community, funded by the ITPUG community.

But the hard work and commitment of volunteers are not enough to make PGDay.IT great and able to welcome so many attendees interested in PostgreSQL.

We are looking for amazing Partners to help us make this event unforgettable!

Sponsoring a PGDay.IT is a great way to support and give back to the Italian PostgreSQL community: by sponsoring the event, you’ll have the opportunity to expose your company to around 200 PostgreSQL users, enthusiasts, and professionals, and you will be part of the success of a wonderful PGDay.IT.

PGDay.IT 2018 will take place over two days:

June 28th, 2018: a Workshop Day, with practical sessions of 4 hours or 2,5 hours for specific topics selected by the Technical Commission among the various proposals received;
June 29th, 2018: one day full of talks with presentations by enthusiasts and professionals speakers coming from PostgreSQL world. The talks will be selected by the Technical Commission among the various proposals received. There will be 8 talks in Italian and 8 talks in English, in addition to the opening keynote. At the end of the day the lightning talks: a session open to everyone with a 5 minute talk.

If you are interested in a partnership, take a look at the different types of sponsorship available..

Broze Package: 300,00€

Logo on the website
Tickets included: 1
Tickets discount: 5%

Silver Package: 700,00€

Logo on the website
Logo on printed materials
Tickets included: 2
Tickets discount: 7,5%

Gold Package: 1.050,00€

Logo on the website
Logo on printed materials
A4 Flyer in bag: max. 1
Tickets included: 3
Tickets discount: 10%

Platinum Package: 1.450,00€

Logo on the website
Logo on printed materials
A4 Flyer in bag: max. 2
Desk reserved
Tickets included: 4
Tickets discount: 12,5%

Diamond Package: 1.950,00€

Logo on the website
Logo on printed materials
A4 Flyer in bag: max. 2
Desk reserved
Gadget in bag: max. 1
List of attendees
Tickets included: 5
Tickets discount: 15%

Important: the deadline for the partnerships is June 10th, 2018, as it will be the last useful date for printing all the paper materials.

There are no limits! The more the merrier!

For more details, the Partner brochure is available online.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Call for Workshops is OPEN!

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 04:00:00 +0000

New deadline: Marzo 18, 2018

We encourage and invite interested parties to submit a proposal for organising a Workshop.

The Workshops will be held in Lazise on Lake Garda on June 28th, the day before of PGDay.IT 2018

Who should apply as Workshop organisers?

PostgreSQL users
Companies that rely PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL hackers or PostgreSQL Tool Developers
Anyone who wants to share important facts or issues about PostgreSQL or connected to PostgreSQL.

If you belong to one of these groups, you are invited to submit a workshop proposal (or proposals). The designated technical committee will evaluate the proposals and select the workshops. It could be yours!

Topics and Arguments - What Do We Expect?

First of all, we suggest to candidates to look at topics desired by the attendees of the last edition (from the feedback form filled out). These are the topics:

High Availability
Disaster Recovery
Performance Tuning and Optimization
Troubleshooting
Writing PostgreSQL extensions
PostgreSQL database design best practices
PostgreSQL application development
GIS applications
Logical Replication
Using PostgreSQL extensions

For general topics you can consider the same of talks proposals

Please submit your workshop proposal here).

Deadline: February 28th, 2018 postponed to March 18th

Important: There is no guarantee that your proposal will be included in the workshops schedule.

The Technical Committee will select the most interesting proposals received and will inform the candidates no later than March 15th, 2018.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

Call for Papers is OPEN!

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 04:00:00 +0000

New deadline: Marzo 18, 2018

PGDay.IT 2018 will be held in Lazise on Lake Garda on June 29th. If you want to be part of this event as a speaker … please, knock and the door will be opened!

Who should apply as speaker for PGDay.IT 2018?

PostgreSQL users
Companies that rely PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL hackers or PostgreSQL Tool Developers
Anyone who wants to share important facts or issues about PostgreSQL

If you belong to one of these groups, you are invited to submit a talk proposal (or proposals). The designated technical committee will evaluate the proposals and select the talk for the event. It could be yours!

Topics and Arguments - What Do We Expect?

First of all, we suggest to candidates speakers to look at topics desired by the attendees of the last edition (from the feedback form filled out). These are the topics:

Disaster Recovery
Replication and High Availability
Query optimisation
Server tuning
Troubleshooting
GIS, PostGIS and Location-based services
Business cases
Security
Postgres XL
Partitioning
Security
Data Protection Regulation
New PostgreSQL features
Migrations from Oracle
Development with PostgreSQL

Our team has also identified a number of interesting topics to talk about. If you have an idea not present in the list below, go ahead and share it with us.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL
PostGIS
Migration from other databases

OS Languages

Programming Languages
Continuous Integration
Integration with other software

Environments

Hardware and Benchmarking
Linux Containers
Cloud
Operating Systems

Instruments

Monitoring Systems
Virtualization Tools
Configuration Managers

Not just code

Case Studies
Devops
Open Source Business model
Researching and School teaching with PostgreSQL

Please submit your proposal here.

Deadline: February 28th, 2018 postponed to March 18th

Important: There is no guarantee that your proposal will be included in the event schedule.

The Technical Committee will select the most interesting proposals received and will inform the candidates no later than March 15th, 2018.

Questions? Please send an email with your questions or comments to pgday@itpug.org

We are back!

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 04:00:00 +0000

PGDay.IT 2018 opens the doors.

We are full of enthusiasm because the last edition has been fantastic! Almost 200 enthusiastic attendees, interesting talks, great speakers, fantastic partners and a beautiful location. Attendees’ feedbacks have been incredible!

We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Thanks to everybody: attendees, speakers, staff, partners and we hope to meet you again during this new edition of PGDay.IT.

PGDay.IT 2018 will be held in Lazise on Lake Garda on June 29th.

The location chosen is Hotel Parchi del Garda. It is located between the towns of Peschiera del Garda and Lazise, just 900 metres away from the lake’s shore.

Our advice for you: take your time, keep the weekend to discover Lake Garda.

For those who are worried about how to reach the location: “PG_shuttle” solves this matter!

We have organised a free pick up at Verona airport, Verona train station and Bergamo airport. Just fill the form to book your “PG_shuttle”.

How is the conference structured?

A keynote, eight talks in Italian, eight talks in English and the lightning talks at the end of the day.

There is something new: Workshops - June 28th! Four hours dedicated to specific topics chosen among the proposals that we will receive. The Call for workshops is open!

Focus points:

Attendees: we expect so many … a lot of people!
Topics: More than 16 hours dedicated entirely to PostgreSQL, lots of talks with high technical content and social moments not to be missed.
When: PGDay.IT June 29th, 2018 - Workshops June 28th, 2018.
Speakers: The Call for Papers is open and we expect many interesting proposals. One might be yours! We are also working to ensure the presence of “Rockstars” of the PostgreSQL Ecosystem and supporters of the Open Source world.
Workshop: The Call for Workshop is open. Four pratictical hours dedicate to specific topics
Location: Hotel Parchi del Garda is a gorgeous destination thanks to its location in the centre of a land full of opportunities! Just steps away from the beautiful shores of Lake Garda, in the middle of renowned theme parks and in the heart of a territory rich in history, tradition and good food.

How can you miss it?

More details about the selected speakers and the schedule will be published on the PGDay.IT 2018 blog and shared through our social channels. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin so you will not miss any updates on PGDay.IT 2018.