Database Times - why we need it

I'm Colin Charles, and I've been interested in the database world professionally for over nineteen years; I've been involved in the open source software world ever since I first installed Linux, about twenty-eight years ago.

I was lucky to be an early employee at MySQL, when the only open source databases in the world that mattered then besides it was PostgreSQL, and SQLite. I saw it get sold to Sun Microsystems, which then got consumed by Oracle, and seen the stewardship blossom. I also co-founded MariaDB Server (and saw the company merge with SkySQL), and while I didn't see it thru to a de-SPAC, I have seen the rather tumultuous year plus it has had, and I can only feel for my ex-colleagues.

The MySQL sale for USD$1 billion in 2008 really sparked a huge wave of investment in the database market, and we have seen the likes of MongoDB and Elastic list on stock exchanges. We've tracked many trends: NoSQL, Big Data, Document, NewSQL, Analytic and more. Back in 2011, Matt Aslett, then of the 451 Group published a hugely influential map of the database landscape, but we've yet to see anything with that impact since. We've had many try to make it in the market, many pivots especially around licensing, we've seen cloud vendors play actively in this space, much to the chagrin of database vendors, and a whole lot more.

Blogging used to be popular, with Planet's being the best way to keep up with what was going on in the database world that you cared about. Here we are in 2024, and you'll find it is hard to keep up with everything in one place, as discussions now happen on mailing lists, issue trackers, Slack and Discord channels, Facebook groups, LinkedIn posts, Mastodon, Bluesky, and even X (Twitter). It used to be that conferences were the place you go to find information, but we've seen waning attendances at some industry events; so while nothing beats face-to-face networking, it would be pretty paltry to go to an event and see about 268 people in attendance (or worse, travel a long distance to find no more than 20 people as your audience). When I had the pleasure of being the Chair of the MySQL Conference & Expo, organized by O'Reilly, we never dipped below 2,000 attendees, and we considered that to be a win for everyone alike - speakers, attendees and sponsors.

Enough about me, and a quick history lesson, but let me tell you why you are here. You're a busy professional database administrator (DBA), DevOps professional or developer who also has to manage or utilize the database. Or you're the CTO deciding if you should go with one database solution, or have something complementary to what you have today. You want to be presented with information that is unbiased, and more importantly analysed. As databases are something that live for a long period of time, you want to ensure that the choice you pick is a viable one, five or ten years down the line (long beyond VC fund timelines). You want to know that solutions are industry-standard, and you're not trying something pie in the sky, since consultants like to recommend, and developers like the shiny new object! But you also want to know if that bleeding edge technology is right for you.

So the value proposition is this:

1. you get deeply researched, and thoughtful pieces with substantial analysis, once per week, focused solely on the database market; this can be a mixture of deep dives into a feature of a certain database, interviews, or analysis of a business.
2. a once per week newsletter roundup of the most important things you might want to pay attention to.
3. a once per month release of white papers, and scorecards of databases, features and their implementation depth, et al.
4. access to a members-only chatroom powered by ONCE/Campfire, so it works in a web browser, and you also have a Progressive Web App (PWA) on mobile.

As time goes by, I fully expect to have reports, screencasts, webinars, field notes, forums, and more, so you're not just subscribing to thoughtful research, you're getting a full-fledged membership that only increases in value. I want to tell you the stories that are untold, because great technology use also happens outside of the United States, so why not hear from your colleagues in Japan, South Korea or the Netherlands? The aim will always be jargon free (or explained clearly) and to always be concise. This is the membership for practitioners.

I've been a long time subscriber to things like Stratechery, read the Linux Weekly News (LWN) frequently, and have also seen verticals like MacSparky for all things Apple. I've yet to see something comprehensive in the database world, so this is also to scratch an itch.

There is so much exciting happening in the database landscape, since we are not just storing data on premise, we are storing them in the cloud, and we have seen plenty of applications built on the likes of Supabase and the like. We have also seen some like 37Signals learn all they need to from the cloud, to move back on-prem. There is plenty of activity in the database space.

Try a yearly membership for less than 75 cents per day!