The Database Column in 2008: Building on initial success
With 2007 now in the books, all of us affiliated with the Database Column blog want to thank you for your readership and thoughtful commentary. We launched the blog late last year with the goal of generating discussion around cutting-edge database issues, with interest driven by the posts of many of movers and shakers in the database community.
We knew going into this venture that we had to be cognizant about the Vertica and column store influence of the blog, and some readers have provided feedback about their perception of the blog. Rest assured that while all of the main contributors are affiliated with Vertica, we spend a lot of time trying to ensure that the blog does not become a marketing mouthpiece for the company.
Readership: Keep checking back and spread the word
The number of weekly readers for the Database Column blog continues to increase, and we hope that the original, thoughtful content provided by the experts at the blog will continue to attract more readers. More readers means more interactive discussion (feedback and subsequent posts), inspires the contributors to write more, and we hope elevates the overall level of community discussion about database technology. If you know of someone who might be interested in the content here, or you know of other good database-related sites, send them the URL or write a comment.
Feedback: Thanks, and a call for more
On the subject of feedback, we have been excited by the readership's interest in the posts and we appreciate those that have taken the extra time to publish comments. We encourage feedback -- even critical feedback -- and hope the trend continues. We try and respond to many of these comments, and, in fact, some of the comments have inspired full posts in the following weeks.
One important change we have made is how we handle comments to the Database Column. We experimented with a few different mechanisms for allowing you to comment. Some of the methods required registration -- a process that was not always easy or not fully functioning. As a result of these early issues, from now on, we no longer require registration to post a comment. However, we will review each comment before it goes live. We receive hundreds of blog spam messages in a week, so this revised process should enable you to easily comment and avoid an avalanche of spam.
Content: Upcoming posts and a call for topics
There are many topics in the publishing queue, but we want to make sure we are covering topics that matter to readers. What can you expect from us? Upcoming posts will include (these are working titles): "Storing and querying RDF," "What column stores are not good for," and the first in a series of open conversations with Curt Monash on the viability of a one-size-fits-all database approach. That said, we encourage you to send us your questions, comments, and ideas for new topics. We scan all comments for possible topics and we will look at the comments for this post.
Thanks again for your interest and contributions. Best wishes for a prosperous 2008!
- The Database Column Editors & Contributors
We knew going into this venture that we had to be cognizant about the Vertica and column store influence of the blog, and some readers have provided feedback about their perception of the blog. Rest assured that while all of the main contributors are affiliated with Vertica, we spend a lot of time trying to ensure that the blog does not become a marketing mouthpiece for the company.
Readership: Keep checking back and spread the word
The number of weekly readers for the Database Column blog continues to increase, and we hope that the original, thoughtful content provided by the experts at the blog will continue to attract more readers. More readers means more interactive discussion (feedback and subsequent posts), inspires the contributors to write more, and we hope elevates the overall level of community discussion about database technology. If you know of someone who might be interested in the content here, or you know of other good database-related sites, send them the URL or write a comment.
Feedback: Thanks, and a call for more
On the subject of feedback, we have been excited by the readership's interest in the posts and we appreciate those that have taken the extra time to publish comments. We encourage feedback -- even critical feedback -- and hope the trend continues. We try and respond to many of these comments, and, in fact, some of the comments have inspired full posts in the following weeks.
One important change we have made is how we handle comments to the Database Column. We experimented with a few different mechanisms for allowing you to comment. Some of the methods required registration -- a process that was not always easy or not fully functioning. As a result of these early issues, from now on, we no longer require registration to post a comment. However, we will review each comment before it goes live. We receive hundreds of blog spam messages in a week, so this revised process should enable you to easily comment and avoid an avalanche of spam.
Content: Upcoming posts and a call for topics
There are many topics in the publishing queue, but we want to make sure we are covering topics that matter to readers. What can you expect from us? Upcoming posts will include (these are working titles): "Storing and querying RDF," "What column stores are not good for," and the first in a series of open conversations with Curt Monash on the viability of a one-size-fits-all database approach. That said, we encourage you to send us your questions, comments, and ideas for new topics. We scan all comments for possible topics and we will look at the comments for this post.
Thanks again for your interest and contributions. Best wishes for a prosperous 2008!
- The Database Column Editors & Contributors
One thing I'd like to see discussed here is an analysis of the distributed database scene, that has grown hot recently. Several of these DB's have come on the scene recently, and I think it would be helpful to understand them better, what their pros & cons are, etc. Some of the DB's I'm referring to:
* Google BigTable
* Hadoop HBase
* Amazon Dynamo
* Amazon SimpleDB
* CouchDB
* ThruDB
etc.
I've greatly enjoyed your blog so far. One thing I'd love to see more of is deeper coverage of the types of optimization techniques column stores can offer. And from a higher-level perspective, maybe some examples of high-profile companies that use a column store database and how it's helped them scale.
Keep up the great work!
Just out of pure curiosity, I would be interested in Michael Stonebraker's opinion on the current state of the PostgreSQL project.
I have deployed & utilized Sybase IQ since 1995. I am curious to understand the differences between Sybase IQ (column based Data Warehouse with built in compression) as compared to the new column based database (Vertica 2.0) that Michael Stonebraker's is advocating.