After installing a PostgreSQL database to be used by our 10.3 version of ArcGIS Server and Desktop, I was looking for the PostgreSQL client libraries to install on my Windows machine.  And guess what?  There were none!

In the installs I could see the usual ones for Oracle and SQL Server, but nothing for PostgreSQL for Windows.  How am I going to use ArcCatalog to create a new Enterprise Geodatabase in PostgreSQL?

Digging around on the internet revealed that it was not needed anymore.  As explained in the ArcGIS 10.3 documentation, ArcGIS 10.3 Desktop, Server, and Engine now contain the necessary PostgreSQL client libraries.  You can now connect directly from ArcCatalog to a PostgreSQL database from ArcGIS 10.3 without having to install those pesky client libraries!

Think about that for a moment.  If you have to install ArcGIS Desktop on a bunch of user workstations, you don’t have to install the PostgreSQL client libraries as well.  It will just work.  That saves a lot of time for sure.

And think about this one … if ESRI is making sure PostgreSQL databases will work out of the ArcGIS box, what direction are they leaning toward for future Enterprise Geodatabase implementation?  They did not choose Oracle or SQL Server.  Think about that.