This may come as a complete shock based on the title of my website… but I have come to the conclusion that all DBA’s should be eliminated from all companies hierarchies. WHAT? Yep I do not think any company should employ a “DBA” ever again.

Before the mob comes and beats me up for heresy, Let me explain. The term and more specifically the job title “Database Administrator” is way to broad. More so then most titles in my opinion. In fact I feel it is an ancient description that does a disservice to most modern database professionals. I have seen titled DBA’s responsible for entire infrastructure stacks, and I have seen DBA’s who only know how to run SQL and perform backups. It hardly seems fair that all these folks end up lumped in together. I think we need better definitions and a somewhat common vocabulary to truly tell what sorts of tasks and responsibilities people have.

One of the services we (Sun/MySQL) offer is a Performance Tuning and Optimization consulting package. These consulting engagements generally take several different forms as each client has a specific need that must be resolved. But there is a commonality between all of these assignments, they all require some amount of bottleneck detection as well as benchmarking. The topic of benchmarking and bottleneck detection is huge, and has a very broad audience. I really can not do it justice in a single post or two. In fact we are actually planning to give a Webinar in March ( more details will be forth coming ) talking about how we go about finding bottlenecks while out at client sites, and even in an hour I can barely scratch the surface.

What I thought I would share are a few of the easier cases of finding and fixing a bottleneck I have encountered. I am still amazed that more people have not performed similar steps to eliminate …

Belgian consultancy company Element 61 has just posted an opinion piece under the disguise of a review on open source ETL.

What a load of utter nonsens.  Try reading this:

Instead of using SQL statements to transform data, an Open Source ETL tool gives the developer a standard set of functions, error handling rules and database connections. The integration of all these different components is done by the Open Source ETL tool provider. The straightforward transformations can be implemented very quickly, without the hassle of writing queries, connecting to data sources or writing your own error handling process. When there are complex transformations to make, Open Source ETL tools will often not offer out-of-the-box solutions.

Well Mr Jan Claes, we’re perfectly capable of handling …

In a unique display of mass hysteria, one blogger after the other and even slashdot (no, I’m not going to link) managed to take the completely innocent message that certain new enterprise features might get released as closed source only and turn it into an ongoing bad press onslaught about “MySQL closing down source code”.

Why don’t you all give MySQL a break here please?  The rule is always the same for everybody: the one that writes the code gets to pick the license.  Listen, I 100% believe in open source and I consider myself to be a big advocate, but commercial open source companies like MySQL (and Pentaho) are commercial entities.  At lease try to put yourself in their position for a second.  For example, if a customer asks you to NOT to release a piece of software they paid for, you don’t release it, it’s that simple.

In the end, what MySQL is doing is simple: they are experimenting with a …

The messages going back and forth on the “close sourcing” or paying to make use of some “plugins” /addons within MySQL are flying still! And in my opinion this is getting way out of hand. < DISCLAIMER >I work for Sun/MySQL as a senior consultant but claim no special knowledge or agenda here. The comments here are simply my opinions. </ DISCLAIMER> I can not help but look at all the hubbub and laugh a little bit. The vast majority of what I have read seems way off base (more of a he/she posted this, fifth hand retelling instead of from official channels). But there is a lot of FUD floating around, and I keep seeing more and more legit news sources picking up on this “massive change to licensing”, which In my opinion it really is a non-story… because there is no massive change.

What is the issue?

In Spotting the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, Frank Mash writes about a specific person who is spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about MySQL.

Now, this always gets me, especially with MySQL. For how long will MySQL be the bastard stepchild of the database world? Because really, it’s been a full-fledged DBMS for at least 5 years. 10 years ago there were no transactions, but….that was 10 years ago! 10 years ago everyone made $100,000 per year, took 3 hour lunch breaks, played foosball in the office, coveting their IT stock and sat in massage chairs with Apple Cinema displays.

How much have *you* changed in 10 years? Your digital world? 10 years ago we paid for text messages by the character, which is why we came up with rlly abbr …

Note. The following is my own opinion. Yes, I mention my employer. But keep in mind that I'm just writing my own opinion about my employer.

Have you read this?
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/06/30/esr_interview.html




People who do what the GPL tries to prevent (e.g., closed source forks of open source projects) wind up injuring only themselves


Eric, I don't think you understand what the GNU GPL represents. It protects us from corporations absorbing the project into itself. If MySQL the software was licensed under the BSD license, MySQL the company would have no reason to contribute back to the original source.

After a while, MySQL the …