--- title: "The first alpha of EdgeDB, an interesting new database system" publication: "DB Weekly" issue: 249 published_at: "2019-04-12" canonical_url: "https://dbweekly.com/issues/249" --- This week's database news #249 — April 12, 2019 [Read on the Web](https://dbweekly.com/issues/249) _Note: We've also got some Google Cloud Next announcements at the end of this issue._ Database Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/zr3bhtbah5vbugmouhj5.jpg)](https://edgedb.com/blog/edgedb-1-0-alpha-1/) [EdgeDB 1.0 Alpha 1: A Database Attempting to Bridge the NoSQL/SQL Divide](https://edgedb.com/blog/edgedb-1-0-alpha-1/) — Originally [announced a year ago](https://edgedb.com/blog/edgedb-a-new-beginning/), EdgeDB is an open-source object-relational database that bakes in support for working with semi-structured data in an attempt at bringing the simplicity of NoSQL to the relational world. PostgreSQL is used under the hood with Edge’s own SQL-esque query language (EdgeQL) compiled to SQL behind the scenes, and this post is a great introduction to EdgeQL and how it works from a developer’s perspective. Yury Selivanov and Elvis Pranskevichus [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/65bd4ec7.jpg)](https://www.strongdm.com/) [Stop Managing 100’s of DB Credentials and Keys](https://www.strongdm.com/) — Extend your SSO to manage database and server access with strongDM. Every server. Every database _(yes, even Druid)_. Any environment. [See how it works](https://www.strongdm.com/). strongDM sponsor [Which AWS Technology Should You Use for Your Open Source Database?](https://thenewstack.io/which-aws-technology-should-you-use-for-your-open-source-database/) — Databases are a key part of deploying apps to the cloud and AWS (in)famously has a _lot_ of options in this regard. Here are some of the reasons you might choose between the various options. The New Stack [The Difference Between SQL's `JOIN .. ON` Clause and the `WHERE` Clause](https://blog.jooq.org/2019/04/09/the-difference-between-sqls-join-on-clause-and-the-where-clause/) — Are `ON` and `WHERE` really the same thing? _“They are when you run an inner join. But they are not when you run an outer join.”_ Lukas Eder [Scylla Cloud: The Fastest NoSQL Database as a Managed Service](https://www.scylladb.com/2019/04/09/introducing-scylla-cloud/) — ScyllaDB is a real-time, big data database heavily influenced by Apache Cassandra. This cloud version is AWS only for now, but Azure and GCP are to follow. ScyllaDB [Cloud Native, 'Chaos-Tolerant' FaunaDB Adds Support for SQL, GraphQL, and CQL](https://www.zdnet.com/article/cloud-native-chaos-tolerant-faunadb-adds-support-for-sql-graphql-cql/) — [FaunaDB](https://fauna.com/), created by a former, early Twitter employee, is a sort of ‘all-in-one’ database for polyglot persistence. George Anadiotis (ZDNet) [pganalyze eBook: How to Get a 3x Performance Improvement on Your Postgres Database](https://pganalyze.com/ebooks/optimizing-postgres-query-performance?utm_source=DBWeeklySecondary) — Learn our best practices for optimizing Postgres query performance for customers like Atlassian and how to reduce data loaded from disk by 500x. pganalyze sponsor [How To Improve The Performance of `COUNT(*)`](https://www.cybertec-postgresql.com/en/count-made-fast/) — Using `count(*)` is often quite slow in Postgres. This article explores a variety of options to make counting rows faster using approximations and other tricks. Laurenz Albe [rediSQL: Redis Module Providing an SQL Database Inside Redis](https://github.com/RedBeardLab/rediSQL) — We first linked the alpha version two years ago but it’s just hit 1.0 :-) Simone Mosciatti 💻 Jobs [Full Stack, Mobile & Infrastructure Engineers](https://we.are.expensify.com/apply) — Joining our team means you will be working in our fast paced environment and you are fearless of our next big challenge. Expensify [Find A DB Job Through Vettery](https://www.vettery.com/tech?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=cooper-dbweekly&utm_term=tech&utm_content=grouped&utm_campaign=ad-88878) — Vettery specializes in tech roles and is completely free for job seekers. Create a profile to get started. Vettery The Google Cloud Next ’19 Announcements Corner [Google to Offer Several Popular Open Source Databases as Managed Services](https://thenewstack.io/google-offers-7-popular-open-source-data-projects-as-managed-services/) — Google is adopting a collaborative approach with the projects’ creators but offering unified billing for customers. Systems from companies like MongoDB, Elastic, Neo4j and Redis Labs will be in the initial mix. The New Stack [Google Cloud Unveils Slew of New Data Management and Analytics Services](https://www.datanami.com/2019/04/10/google-cloud-unveils-slew-of-new-data-management-and-analytics-services/) — The biggest release was _Cloud Data Fusion_, a fully managed ‘data integration service’ complete with over 100 connectors and open source ‘transformations’ for ingesting data, transforming or blending it, and then using BigQuery to analyze it. Datanami [Google Makes The Power of BigQuery Available in Sheets](https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/10/google-makes-the-power-of-bigquery-available-in-sheets/) — BigQuery, Google’s fully managed analytics data warehouse, can now be used from Sheets, the web-based spreadsheet tool. I think we’ll continue to see more integrations of this type in the next few years. Google’s [own post from January](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/connecting-bigquery-and-google-sheets-to-help-with-hefty-data-analysis) has more details. TechCrunch _This isn't sponsored or anything, we just fancied having some fun :-)_ A **[Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/)** publication. [Change your email address](https://dbweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*) or[Stop getting this newsletter](https://dbweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*) © Cooper Press Ltd · Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom