Adventures in the Land of CloudDB/NoSQL/NoAcid

Last year, some of my friends from Quest Software attended Hadoop World in New York. In 2009, I never would've guessed that Quest would be there with products, community initiatives, as a major sponsor and with presenters? There were just under 1,000 attendees who weren’t the typical devheads and geekasaurs you'd normally see at very techie events like Code Camps, SQL Saturdays, Cloud Camps and or even other NoSQL events such as the Cassandra Summit. We're talkin' enterprise customers with active Hadoop projects underway. Some observations from the show that may be of interest to … [Read more...]

DBTA: The NoSQL Movement- Hype or Hope?

If you spend any time at all reading IT trade journals and websites, you've no doubt heard about the NoSQL movement.  In a nutshell, NoSQL databases (also called post-relational databases) are a variety of loosely grouped means of storing data without requiring the SQL language.  Of course, we've had non-relational databases far longer than we've had actual relational databases.  Anyone who's used products like IBM's Lotus Notes can point to a popular non-relational database.  However, part and parcel of the NoSQL movement is the idea that the data repositories can horizontally scale with … [Read more...]

DBTA: Forecasting SQL Server in 2010

After the misery  that was 2009, most of the SQL Server users I talk to are happy that 2010 started in languid fashion. Not that there isn't a lot of work to do; on the contrary, there's more work than ever. However, the long hours and multiple projects of 2009, compounded by freezes in all levels of spending, raised the general stress level to unhealthy heights. With the new year, stress levels dropped significantly, and many IT leaders see signs of improving prospects. What does that bode for 2010? I have a couple of predictions, though I doubt they'll surprise many people. [READ … [Read more...]

DBTA: The Shape of Database Licensing Costs to Come

One fall semester many years ago, I was a university freshman.  Actually, I was anything but "fresh." I was dumb enough to think that 8 a.m. was a wonderful time to attend Economics 101. After staying up until the wee hours most every night, the "dismal science" took on more than one meaning as I set my clock just early enough to get to class on time.  Along with 30 other very naïve classmates, I staggered into class and did my bleary-eyed best to focus on the lessons at hand.  There were lots of Greek compound words and lots of graphs. I learned, for example, that the word economics … [Read more...]

DBTA: Microsoft’s Trajectory for SQL Server Becomes Clear with PowerPivot

I was once asked what I thought Microsoft's overall product trajectory for SQL Server was, in light of Oracle's rather obvious trajectory of acquiring multiple application vendors who will, in turn, deploy more and more of their applications to the Oracle database platform.  To be honest, I had a little difficulty perceiving a clear and concise strategy statement for the sort of work going on in Redmond.  I could see a lot of great features being developed.  And I knew the SQL Server development team had developed a lot of new "plumbing" with each new release - features like Service Broker and … [Read more...]

DBTA: The Big Keep Getting Bigger

In this season of recession and financial meltdowns, a common question seems to be, "How big is ‘too big to fail'?" Titans of the financial industry made big bets with lots of risk and, when they didn't pan out, American society overall has to pay the price.  But, that aside, the very scale of our financial system, by just about every metric, has reached amazing heights, be that number of financial transactions per second, number of traders, number of funds traded, amount of money changing hands—you name it. [READ MORE] … [Read more...]

DBTA:A Look at Upcoming Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2

At a rather muted Microsoft TechEd in Los Angeles in May, the crowds were diminished and the educational content was slimmed down. In the past, SQL Server sessions were so abundant that you'd have trouble choosing which of several you might want to attend. This year, the state of the economy was reflected in many ways, including the one, or, in just a few cases, two sessions per time slot allotted SQL Server professionals. Despite the low ebb, the Microsoft SQL Server team made an exciting announcement about the upcoming availability of the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP (Community Technology … [Read more...]

The State of the Internet Operating System

Tim O'Reilly has written a two part post on his thoughts on the internet operating system. If you're not familiar with Tim, you should be. Part one is here. Part two is here. … [Read more...]

Political Calculus – PASS Nominations

Pardon me, sir. Do I have a dog in this fight? After my term of service on the PASS board of directors ended in December of 2009, I fully intended to stay far, far out of the way.  It's an intention that I've largely been able to fulfill,excluding the odd conversation with an occasional board member or committee chair looking for a little impartial advice when weighing some consideration or other. If you keep up with going's on within PASS, then you'll know that there's been some hullabaloo lately.  Please reference paragraph 1 again at this point to understand that I don't really … [Read more...]

Google Wave is Dead. Long Live the Wave!

While enduring an endless series of flight delays and disgruntled passengers in the Baltimore airport that was my own personal travel hell on the evening of Thursday, August 5th, I came across this interesting and important article: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/google-kills-wave-its-collaboration-tool/?ref=technology Even if you don't read the article, you can see from the URL that Google has decided to put an end to the collaboration experiment known as Wave.  Wave will be available through the end of the year and most of its major components are now available as open … [Read more...]