About PSQL
PSQL is a reliable, low-maintenance, high-performance database management system (DBMS). Thousands of companies around the world license PSQL and distribute it as the underlying data storage program for their data-intensive software products. These companies see no reason to build their own DBMS or license from a competitor once they experience the ease-of-use, reliability, and value offered by PSQL.
No matter whether you received PSQL with another product or purchased it yourself, this section explains a little about the product and why it is right for you.
Competitive Advantages
PSQL provides a number of advantages over other products available on the market. Here are just a few:
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Lowest total cost of ownership. An independent study conducted by Aberdeen Group concluded that no major database product can match PSQL's low total cost of ownership. How do we do it? See the next bullet.
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No Database Administrator (DBA) required. You can look in the newspaper any day of the week and see classified ads for Oracle, Sybase, or SQL Server database administrators, with sky-high salaries. PSQL offers the unique Zero Database Administrator, or Z-DBA™, architecture. Its easy-to-use tools, bulletproof installation, and set-it-and-forget-it simplicity make it the perfect workhorse for desktop, workgroup, and departmental applications.
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Scalable from the desktop to the Web. PSQL is available in two editions: the Ultra-light™ Workgroup database engine supports single-user configurations up to small workgroup configurations. The Server engine comes with a six-user license and scales to hundreds of concurrent users, including intranet and extranet applications. Upgrading to another configuration requires no changes to the supported application, just plug and play with the new database engine.
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Cross-platform support. Unlike some competitors, PSQL does not lock you in to a single platform. PSQL databases are binary-compatible and supported across Microsoft Windows and several varieties of Linux. No matter where your data is or where it is going to be, PSQL is there for you.
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Big database features at a small price. PSQL offers full security, encryption, management and monitoring tools, and a host of other features you would expect to see in more expensive DBMS products.
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Legendary stability and reliability. There’s no doubt why the Windows desktop accounting market uses PSQL as the underlying database of choice. When you’ve got to manage important data, you go for the database engine that won’t let you down.
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Multiple access methods. Your application vendor can use the Btrieve API for blazing performance on bulk data operations, while offering the richness of ODBC, OLE-DB, pure Java, and JDBC interfaces for data reporting, security, analysis, and standard compatibility. No other database management system offers all these access methods.
Transactional (Direct Data) Access or Relational Access
PSQL offers an architecture that is totally unique in the database management market. Our product allows you to access the exact same data through the MicroKernel Engine and through the Relational Engine.
The transactional database engine, called the MicroKernel Engine, interacts directly with the data and does not require fixed data schema to access the data. It uses key-value store to store and access the data. Calls to the MicroKernel Engine are made programmatically with Btrieve API rather than through the use of a query language; therefore, PSQL does not have to parse the request. This places the MicroKernel Engine in the category of NoSQL databases. Low-level API calls and memory caching of data reduce the time required to manipulate data. See The PSQL MicroKernel Engine.
The second database engine, the Relational Engine, operates in a manner similar to other relational database engines, that is, through the support of Structured Query Language queries. The Relational Engine parses SQL queries and sends them to the MicroKernel Engine to run. See The PSQL Relational Engine.