It has been a while since I embarked on writing another book on PostgreSQL. I have come a long way and I am proud to have made it to the third release of Mastering PostgreSQL, which is now covering all the cool features present PostgreSQL 11.

PostgreSQL is one of the world's most advanced open source database systems, and it has many features that are widely used by developers and system administrators alike. To begin with PostgreSQL 11, many new features have been added to PostgreSQL which contribute greatly to the success of this exceptional open source product.

This book will cover and discuss many of these cool features in great detail. 

In this chapter, you will be introduced to PostgreSQL and the cool new features available in PostgreSQL 11 and beyond. All of the relevant new functionalities will be covered in detail. Given the sheer number of changes made to the code and given the size of the PostgreSQL project, this list of features is, of course, far from complete, so I have tried to focus on the most important aspects, relevant to most people.

The features outlined in this chapter will be split into the following categories:

• What is new in PostgreSQL 11?
• SQL and developer related
• Backup, recovery, and replication
• Performance-related topics