What I'm Reading: Google Cloud, Snowflake, Sustainability, Universal Databases
My quick takes on everything from the biggest bombshell of 2022 to most popular platforms.
Hi everyone! I got a new iPhone 14 Pro Max mainly because I wanted a newer, better camera than comes with the older iPhone model I’ve been using for a few years. So hopefully you will notice improved photography with some of my posts. I took this picture yesterday with the new phone on my morning run.
In the past, my “what I’m reading” posts have been popular, so I will continue to share these every once in a while. With that in mind, here are some recent articles that I found interesting and worthwhile.
What I’m Reading
Lest we get carried away into thinking that the database market is always about innovation and growth, Andy Pavlo reminds us that there may be bumps in the road. An associate professor of “database-ology” in Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department and co-founder of database startup OtterTune, Pavlo provides a blunt assessment of the database industry’s ups and downs in 2022. In his year-end recap, Pavlo offers his take on the slowdown in VC funding for database startups; he calls blockchain databases “a stupid idea”; and he says that, while Google Cloud’s new AlloyDB database is “the biggest bombshell” of the year, he’s still not sure what is novel about it. And there’s more, including Pavlo’s take on Snowflake, MySQL HeatWave, and Larry Ellison.
Read Andy Pavlo’s blog post: “Databases in 2022: Year in Review”
In a slowing economy, how does data strategy change? SiliconAngle’s Dave Vellante offers some interesting observations in his latest analysis, which is based on roundtable conversations and other ear-to-the-ground sources. Vellante notes that cloud migration remains a high priority, contrary to anecdotal reports that IT execs are moving their data workloads back in-house (a.k.a. “repatriation”). He also notes that real-time data is growing phenomenon, but that getting enough value from data is still a challenge for most organizations.
Read Dave Vellante’s article: “CIOs Are in a Holding Pattern, But Ready to Strike at Data Modernization”
Related to my recent article on Google Cloud’s commitment to “climate-conscious” data centers, there’s growing coverage of the issues around data management and sustainability—or think of it simply as data sustainability. A key point I made is that “data management requires water management.” So, it’s fascinating that people are talking about energy consumption per terabyte of data, as in this Diginomica article. Here’s the money quote: “There’s a Watts-per-Terabyte number of every single device that is sitting in your data center.”
Read the Diginomica article: “Sustainability in a World of Data, What Is Being Done and What Is Not”
Congratulations to Snowflake for being named DBMS of the Year in 2022 by DB-Engines, and to runners up Google Cloud BigQuery (#2) and PostgreSQL (#3). For Snowflake, this is an encore performance, having received the same honor in 2021. How did Snowflake do it? It’s got nothing to do with functionality, performance, scale, or cost of ownership. The DB-Engines annual award goes to the vendor whose platform “gained more popularity” in DB-Engines ranking during the year compared to the 400+ other DBMSes it tracks. That’s a nice feather in Snowflake’s cap; however, it should be noted that that neither Snowflake nor BigQuery have yet made it into DB-Engines’ overall Top 10 ranking on a week-to-week basis. So, while they may have gained popularity, they are not yet among the Top 10 most popular. In general, I’m not a big fan of the DB-Engines methodology, which is more quantitative than qualitative.
Read the DB-Engines blog post: “Snowflake Is DBMS of the Year 2022, Defending the Title from Last Year”
I have written about “universal databases” that handle both transactions and analytics for years, going back to Informix’s Universal Server circa 1996. There was a revival of the universal database concept in 2022, with Snowflake’s newly introduced Unistore and Hybrid Tables; Oracle’s MySQL HeatWave; and Google Cloud’s new AlloyDB. SingleStore is a leader in this space, and TileDB is moving in. All of which serves as background for Google Cloud VP Andi Gutmans’ prediction that this trend will continue to gain momentum—both with one-size-fits-all universal databases, as well as with replication and query federation capabilities that serve a similar purpose.
Read the Google Cloud blog post: “Barriers Between Transactional and Analytical Workloads Will Fall Away”
Forgot, like the image from your new phone
This is the roundup I didn’t know I was waiting for, John. Always like your work and insights, this collection resonates even more than usual