Ryan Booz
Developer Advocate at Redgate
State College, Pennsylvania, United States
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Ryan is an Advocate at Redgate focusing on PostgreSQL. Ryan has been working as a PostgreSQL advocate, developer, DBA and product manager for more than 20 years, primarily working with time-series data on PostgreSQL and the Microsoft Data Platform.
Ryan is a long-time DBA, starting with MySQL and Postgres in the late 90s. He spent more than 15 years working with SQL Server before returning to PostgreSQL full-time in 2018. He’s at the top of his game when he's learning something new about the data platform or teaching others about the technology he loves.
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PostgreSQL Query Optimizations and Where to Find Them: A Beginners Guide
Creating consistently fast, efficient queries and applications requires effort. Regardless of improvements to hardware, query planning, data storage, and all things AI, users generally only care about one metric; how fast queries respond. And although it may surprise you in 2024, improving problem queries still requires human intervention in many cases. Knowing where to begin and some of the first tools you can reach for is key when you’re called on to help.
In this session, we’ll open up the beginners toolbox and look at the primary settings, indexes, tools, features, and SQL tips to explore first. Starting with the basics of EXPLAIN plans, ad hoc settings to improve specific queries, indexes, partitioning, and a few SQL tips, you’ll walk away with a number of ideas to explore as you run up against unexpected issues in the day-to-day life of your PostgreSQL application.
PostgreSQL Range Types: from [Beginning to End)
Datatype support in PostgreSQL is second to none in major relational databases. Among other powerful and unique datatypes like arrays, geometric, and UUID, Range types provide developers with the ability to model real-world data while still leveraging the power of indexes, special operators, and more.
Introduced in PostgreSQL 9.2, range types allow developers to define data models that more naturally declare intent without complicated constraints across multiple columns. And, starting with PostgreSQL 14, multirange types added even more useful functionality to this already powerful data type.
In this talk we’ll review the history of range types in PostgreSQL, demonstrate how to create and populate data, briefly discuss indexing strategies, and more. By the end of session, you’ll understand how to use range types for fun and profit in your current or upcoming PostgreSQL projects.
Transforming Data with the Power of PostgreSQL and SQL
With the power of PostgreSQL, modern data transformation can happen inside the database rather than with external tools. This is known as the extract, load, and transform (ELT) pattern using built-in functions and SQL features to work with data regardless of the form. Once the data is loaded, knowing how to utilize Common Table Expressions (CTEs), recursive CTEs, and CROSS JOINs can significantly improve your data transformation tasks.
In this session, I’ll explain and demonstrate how each of these features can be used together to build powerful queries that utilize additional PostgreSQL features and functions. Transforming JSON, text, and even emoji into sources of data-driven insights.
By the end of this session, you will understand how to approach data challenges differently, using the power of PostgreSQL and SQL to work more effectively.
PostgreSQL Introduction for the SQL Server Developer or DBA
PostgreSQL is one of the fastest growing databases in the world. Every major cloud provider has one-click installations or full-blown serverless options that support PostgreSQL. With open source licensing and time-tested stability, there’s a reason many businesses are using PostgreSQL for new projects, while at the same time, analyzing the ROI of converting existing applications. In fact, Amazon Web Services released Bablefish in 2021, an extension that allows SQL Server applications to transparently use PostgreSQL.
All of this adds up to the increased likelihood that you will be asked to develop an application using PostgreSQL in the next few years.
In this pre-conference session, I’ll introduce you to PostgreSQL from the perspective of a former SQL Server developer that struggled through the transition. I’ll help you make the most of what you already know as a SQL Server user and teach you how to navigate the differences successfully.
In this session we’ll cover:
- An introduction to PostgreSQL, including some of the high-level differences from SQL Server
- Installation
- Tools for connecting and running queries
- Configuration
- A deep-dive on SQL through hands-on exercises
- Adding functionality through extensions
- Indexing
- Query tuning
- Stored procedures
- Functions and triggers
- Community
Learning a new database technology doesn’t have to be scary. By the end of this pre-conference workshop, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence to use your database skills in a new way. Whether at work or with a new hobby project, you’ll be ready to dive in and lead the team when PostgreSQL is the database being used.
We All Deserve Arrays: The Undervalued PostgreSQL Superpower
Arrays are an essential part of software development. Among modern databases, however, only PostgreSQL has dedicated datatypes, functions, and indexes built to efficiently work with arrays. In fact, I think arrays are a hidden superpower of PostgreSQL, fully utilized as a data type, usable in pl/pgSQL, and essential for a myriad of built-in functions to process data more efficiently.
In this session I’ll discuss the array datatype in PostgreSQL along with things to consider before using it in a schema model. After laying the foundation for how arrays can be created, queried, and modified, I’ll demonstrate a handful of functions that can be used to process strings, JSON, numerics… and even Wordle emoji’s! The session will finish by demonstrating how using arrays in dynamic SQL can create more efficient multi-value inserts in some circumstances.
By the end of this session, you will understand how arrays work in PostgreSQL and how powerful they can be as a datatype, logic variable, and in processing other data.
For Your Eyes Only: Roles, Privileges, and Security in PostgreSQL
Security is an essential, yet often misunderstood, part of effectively managing a PostgreSQL cluster. As the popularity and adoption of PostgreSQL continues to grow, the interaction of roles, privileges, and object ownership is a recurring theme of confusion in forums and mailing lists.
In this session, I’ll start by defining the Principle of Least Privileges and how this philosophy influences roles and privileges in PostgreSQL. Next, I’ll demonstrate the importance of object ownership in PostgreSQL, how group and user roles can work in unison to effectively manage permissions, multiple ways to manage default privileges, and which privileges should always be modified in any new PostgreSQL database. Finally, I’ll discuss how recent releases are laying a foundation for more flexible and robust security management in the years ahead.
By the end of this session, you will understand how roles work in PostgreSQL, how they impact your daily work, and how to effectively communicate security best practices with others on your team. You’ll leave with a solid information to start creating roles that effectively manage access to your cluster and data.
Intro to PostgreSQL: What to Know When You're Called In To Help!
PostgreSQL has risen to be the dominant choice for new projects and cost-saving migrations in an increasingly cloud-first, price-conscious world. Additionally, all three major cloud providers have invested heavily in PostgreSQL and their own forks, signaling a continued shift in the DBMS market. This increases the likelihood that you will be asked to manage an alternative RDBMS like PostgreSQL in the next 3-5 years.
In this session, I'll briefly introduce the history of PostgreSQL and what has allowed it to shine in this modern age. Next, we'll look at 10 areas of PostgreSQL including community, tooling, configuration, data types, and SQL differences. As a former SQL Server developer, I'll demonstrate how to transfer the knowledge you already have to how PostgreSQL works so that you can succeed faster on your next project.
By the end of the session, you will have enough information to connect to PostgreSQL with free tooling, modify common SQL to run correctly, get information about the state of the database, and help with basic query tuning.
Database DevOps: Options for database change management
Whether you are the DBA for an Agile, Sprint-based team, or a developer with DBA responsibilities, you may feel like the development bottleneck at every turn. Managing migrations with your ORM of choice is easy but often error-prone and hard to manage as the project grows. Or worse yet, maybe your schema and change management is a folder full of poorly commented SQL scripts saved to a shared folder or local drive.
Surely there's a better, SQL-centric way to manage databases as code, validate changes, and deploy updates - right? Yes, there is!
This talk will explore what database DevOps is and how open-source and paid tools like Flyway can help you manage database schema and code changes while incorporating agile CI/CD practices.
By the end of the session, you'll be ready to tame your rogue application databases, managing changes and migrations with ease, and become the envy of the development team.
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