• Introduction
• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 2) – Predictability

This is the first detail post in a series I am doing focusing on the issues that exist today with the Relational Database.  This first post is on the deployment model.  It could be argued that this isn’t directly related to the “relational database” but rather is an implementation model problem.  I disagree with this as many characteristics of the relational database lead to the deployment model …

• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 1 ) –The Deployment Model
• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 2) – Predictability

The relational database has been the core mechanism for structured data storage and retrieval for the past 30 years.  My career so far has focused around the relational database, whether it be from a development, administrator or investment perspective.  In all this time the RDB has been the best generic option available for developers …

Abstract - As described by Walter Heck, MySQL database size can be visualized using Google Charts. With a minor code improvement the URL for the chart can be obtained twice as fast. With some more modification, the number of lines can be cut down resulting in a function that is half as long.

Hi!It's been a while since I posted - I admit I'm struggling for a bit to balance time and attention to the day job, writing a book, preparing my talks for the MySQL user's conference and of course family life.

A month ago or so I …

Recently, a lot of new non-relational databases have cropped up both inside and outside the cloud. One key message this sends is, "if you want vast, on-demand scalability, you need a non-relational database".

If that is true, then is this a sign that the once mighty relational database finally has a chink in its armor? Is this a sign that relational databases have had their day and will decline over time? In this post, we'll look at the current trend of moving away from relational databases in certain situations and what this means for the future of the relational database.[more]

Jos, my co-author for the "Building Pentaho Solutions" book just pointed me to a recent article by Jeff Prenevost entitled "The Problem with History".AbstractJeff's topic, loading a hybrid Type 1 / Type 2 slowly changing dimension table is related to data warehousing but maybe of interest outside of that context as well.

As it turns out, the particular problem described by Jeff is non-trivial, but can be solved quite elegantly in a single SQL statment. This may be a compelling alternative to the multi-step, …

You may not realize it, but the data analytics market is buzzing. There are new vendors emerging, new products popping up, new deals being done, and several new strategies being pursued. Vendors are predominately chasing big data, with battles lines being drawn by solution providers that cater to between roughly 100 TB and 10 PB data sets. The battle was inevitable because the world is producing data at a phenomenal rate, and we have an increasing need to analyze them within shorter time frames. In this post we analyze one of these vendors, Kickfire.

Yet while the big names in town are capturing the headlines, in reality only a small percentage of businesses today need to be able to analyze petabytes of data. Today, the rest of us are more likely to deal with analytic data sets in the 50 GB to 3 TB range.

Kickfire is interesting because it has decided to let the other vendors fight it out for the massive data …

Wohoo!

I just got word that the proposals I submitted for FOSDEM are appoved! I was going to go to FOSDEM no matter what, and when I saw Lenz Grimmer's call for participation, I decided to give it a go.

I'll be doing two talks:

• 
  
• MySQL Plugins - Learn about this exciting MySQL 5.1 feature
  
• Starring Sakila - A datawarhousing and Business Intelligence mini-tutorial using the Sakila sample database
  

Having the opportunity to do these talks adds to the fun, and I feel honored for being given the chance. Thank you!

This year, Fosdem looks very promising for the MySQL crowd. Lenz himself is …

Ok - this has been stewing for some time now, and I think now is the right time to announce that I am working together with Jos van Dongen from Tholis Consulting to create a book for Wiley with the tentative title "Building Pentaho Solutions".

My personal aim is to make this book the primary point of reference for DBAs and Application Developers that are familiar with Open Source products like MySQL and PostgreSQL but have no prior BI skills, as well as BI professionals that are familiar with closed source BI products like Microsoft BI and Business Objects that want to learn how to get things done with Pentaho.

The book will cover all distinct components and sub-products that make up the …

So it’s that time of year again when everyone puts out their predictions for the year ahead.  I think predictions are a bit of a waste of time because to be interesting predictions have to be big, but a year really isn’t all that long so actual changes over the course of 2009 are likely to be just small progressions.  So instead I have been thinking about the top issues that we face heading into 2009 and here is my Top 10 list for issues in Data Management.  In this post I avoid offering solutions to these issues, while I have several ideas on solutions these can be the subject of subsequent posts.

10 - Limits on Scalability

While scalability is on my list it is at number 10 because against popular belief, scalability is only an issue for a very small number of data based applications.  Almost all data based applications in use today can be scaled without major issue by increasing the underlying …

Hi!

Recently I wrote about how glad I was to see two of my proposals for the upcoming MySQL Conference approved.

I am absolutely thrilled to see my third proposal has been approved as well: "Starring Sakila: data warehousing explained, illustrated and subtitled". I'm very proud to announce that I'm doing this talk together with Matt Casters, chief data integration of Pentaho and creator of the popular ETL/Data Integration suite Kettle (a.k.a Pentaho data integration).

During this 45-minute seminar, Matt and I will take the …