PostgreSQL is available in a new version and it contains a bunch of new pioneering features.

“PostgreSQL 9.1 provides some of the most advanced enterprise capabilities of any open source database, and is backed by a vibrant and innovative community with proven customer success.” (see press news)

Overview

The following list contains an overview of new features to be found in the present release.

• Synchronous Replication: enable high-availability with consistency across multiple servers
• Per-Column Collations: support linguistically-correct sorting per database, table or column.
• Unlogged Tables: greatly improves performance for ephemeral data
• K-Nearest-Neighbor Indexing: index on “distance” for faster location and text-search queries
• Serializable Snapshot Isolation: keeps concurrent transactions consistent without blocking, using “true serializability”
• Writeable Common Table Expressions: execute complex multi-stage data updates in a single query
• Security-Enhanced Postgres: deploy military-grade security and Mandatory Access Control
• Foreign Data Wrappers: attach and query other databases from PostgreSQL
• Extensions: easily create, load, and manage new database features

To get more information regarding the new features and extensions, please take a look at the release notes.

Related Links:

• PostgreSQL press release
• PostgreSQL Release notes