5-Year Anniversary Show – See how it all started…
Stephen Wynkoop and producer Josh Harrison on the show today – with a look back at 5 years of SSWUG TV. Bloopers, how it was done, some funny moments and even a fact-check. This one is one not to miss!
[Watch the Show]
Featured Article(s)
Data Quality Starts with Proper Data Types (Part 1)
The database administrator (DBA) must choose the data type and length of each column wisely. It is almost always best to choose the data type that most closely matches the domain of correct values for the column. Different DBMSs support different data types, so this article will focus on the data types available in DB2 for z/OS.
Microsoft Goes After Big Data
Microsoft announced a strategy to increase their presence in the Big Data game in addition to the popular Relational data storage and data mining platform. They are embracing the need to mine unstructured data quickly as a precursor to structured storage.
Like the Aster Data/Teradata solution, Microsoft has built a Hadoop to SQL Server connector allowing access to/from relational databases to the Hadoop Map Reduce capabilities. They may even have future contributions to the Open Source Apache Hadoop project.
There are a lot of other efforts that were released at the PASS summit regarding short and long term strategies on the part of Microsoft to integrate with non-structured Big Data platforms. You can read a good summary of the PASS announcements at http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/10/microsoft-makes-its-move-with-hadoop-on-azure-and-windows-server.ars.
As a strategy this makes a great deal of sense. Companies that mine big data are finding its value in the ability to ask questions about ideas that are at best theoretical. They can dig into large volumes of data to begin to prove or disprove theories. When enough evidence is established for a more formal study of a theory, the data is often brought into a more structured environment allowing more thorough evaluation and stricter models and formulas.
This makes a great deal of sense to incorporate both platforms into a comprehensive set of tools for mining data. Supporting both models of data mining results in a very powerful capability for companies with Big Data.
Care to share your thoughts on this new strategy from Micorosft? Send your comments to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
Featured White Paper(s)
SQL Server 2008 on Stratus ftServer Systems
Written by Stratus Technologies
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on a Stratus fault… (read more)