Since I sang the praise of the 2024 Swiss PGDay, my people asked me to report from yet another small conference: the Swiss Database Synergy Day 2025, organized by the Swiss Oracle and PostgreSQL user groups.
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It may indeed be surprising to hear of such an event. But then, PostgreSQL people have held talks at the yearly conference of the German Oracle User Group. The Austrian Oracle User Group held an event dedicated to the interplay of Oracle and PostgreSQL. Furthermore, previous editions of the Austrian PGDay were co-sponsored by an Oracle support company. And this list only covers events in my part of the world.
In addition, there is this nice reminder that the Polish Oracle User Group has sent my boss after he had talked there a while ago:
Still, there is a difference between PostgreSQL people talking at an Oracle conference and a joint event. I can understand why PostgreSQL people are interested in Oracle conferences: after all, a lot of our business comes from Oracle users who have fallen out of love with their database. But what motivates the Oracle users? Are they just curious and open-minded? Do they think the future belongs to PostgreSQL? Or is it just their way of showing dissatisfaction with Oracle?
Then there is the ambivalent word “synergy” in “Database Synergy Day”. Fundamentally, “synergy” is something positive, but in today's business speak it usually refers to fusioning two companies or departments. Rather than increasing productivity, that means that the two entities spend a year fighting for dominance until one of them ends up on top. All the while, the productivity is near zero. I sincerely hope that I am not about to witness that kind of synergy...
Well, I'm going to find out.
It is customary to invite the speakers to a dinner as a “thank you” for their (unpaid) effort. This conference is no exception. As I said in my article on the Swiss PGDay 2024, a PostgreSQL feels a bit like a family reunion. That feeling is strongest during the speakers' dinner, where you meet all the “usual suspects”.
But this time, it would be different. Not only is my co-worker Pavlo missing (and a conference without Pavlo feels weird) but there would be all these Oracle people. Would they be different? Would they be fun? Well, they turned out to be nice guys. At first glance, perhaps a bit less anarchic than some of the PostgreSQL crowd, but that may just be my biased eye. Anyway, a few beers lubricated the tongues, and there was pleasant conversation everywhere. That is promising!
The event took place at la Mobilière in Bern, Switzerland. There was a small crowd of somewhat less than a hundred people present. Nice and cozy, where you can meet almost everybody and the noise level remains reasonable! (Fun fact: the name of the insurance company that hosted the event is actually “die Mobiliar”, which is the German version of “la Mobilière”. But the company's marketing people are afraid that English speakers would understand the name as “die, Mobi-liar”, which might disaffect them. Hence they insist on the French version.)
Bern is a very beautiful town (I am reluctant to use the word “city” here). Walking through the center, even a European jaded by frequent exposure to ancient architecture gets a distinctly medieval feeling. You can imagine a busy market day in Market Street, while somewhere nearby a poor soul is chained to the pillory. All that is crammed onto a peninsula surrounded by a serpentine of the Aare river. To me, Bern is the most beautiful Swiss town (sorry, Zürich), although the competition is fierce.
The keynote speech by Alain Fuhrer from the IT department of the Swiss Federal Police was already promising. He presented the fate of their project to move from Oracle to PostgreSQL, the difficulties they encountered, and why they eventually revised their strategy to let both database systems coexist. Honest, credible, naming good and bad aspects as they encountered them, without heaping blame on anybody.
The keynote opened a day of talks, some about Oracle, some about PostgreSQL, and some about both. The atmosphere was relaxed and respectful, and I didn't ever get a feeling of competition or contest. As usual, there were more and less interesting talks (in my personal opinion), and some were really enlightening. I find it very valuable to see the database world and PostgreSQL through the eyes of somebody with a different background and experience! And I like to get a reminder of what an Oracle DBA misses when she encounters PostgreSQL for the first time.
My own talk took place in a room that seemed destined for talking about PostgreSQL. On the rear wall, an art installation showed these PostgreSQL-blue letters:
Still, my talk was not only about PostgreSQL, as I explored the subtle differences between the transaction systems in PostgreSQL and Oracle (my article has part of what I talked about). My biggest worry was that the Oracle savants present would point out all kinds of mistakes in my presentation. But either they were kind enough to spare me or I was sufficiently vague not to say anything clearly wrong. At any rate, the audience received the talk graciously.
Another art installation in the room reflects how I feel right before giving a talk:
The Database Synergy Day ended with a social gathering with snacks and beer (“Apéro” in Swiss German), where the attendants could renew old family ties and forge new ones.
In a great talk about writing blogs by Claire Giordano I learned that you should never use non-descriptive headings like “Conclusion”.
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