Or, better say, I have not blogged for so long…
What happened? Well, it has been a crazy year, probably the busiest year in my whole working life.
When you are in your late twenties/early thirties, you can dedicate all your energy to something, work, hobby, charity, sport, study, you name it. You work hard, and every now and then you have time to lie down and recharge your batteries. In one or two days, if you can sleep 9/10 hours per day, all the tiredness you have accumulated goes away. I have felt that feeling, but in your late forties, there is no such thing anymore.
When you are forty and you have a family, your priorities change. You try to accommodate work, family and friends. You remove most, if not all, of the time you dedicate to yourself. You have less rest, usually not enough to recharge. The 9/10 hours you used to recharge and be up and running, ready for a new week, they become barely 6/7 hours, if you are lucky… and you feel like your head is in a constant foggy atmosphere that does not allow you to think straight. You do, but you must use more energy and it takes more time simply to get things done.
So, this is what happened to me. But I was used to that. Even in the weird days of the post-acquisition, when many people could not really do much business-wise, I felt pretty busy.
Nevertheless, I managed to enjoy this fantastic year at SkySQL. 2011 has superseded 2005 (the year I joined MySQL AB), as the best year of my entire working life. Thanks to SkySQL, thanks to all my great colleagues, to all the partners, users and customers. And thanks to my family and friends, who are supporting me so much.
What are the plans for the future? In long term, it is hard to say, but the short term plan seems really exciting, more than ever, better than 2011. I can see so many new opportunities to use MySQL and MySQL-related products and to be involved in very cool projects. MySQL is not the only wild kid in the block anymore: PostgreSQL and the NoSQL armada are rightly claiming their space and users are adopting old and new technologies. This is good news, it repositions our technology right were it should be, leaving PostgreSQL, HBase, Cassandra and others doing what they do better.
Our technology - i.e. MySQL and the MySQL Ecosystem - is evolving and improving. There is a growing demand for database systems, there is space for everybody. There is space for new projects and for integrations with the current and new infrastructures.
SkySQL will be more and more focused on new solutions and on new architectures. The reference architecture is key for these new solutions. I will blog more about in in the near future and clarify the reference architecture is and what is not. We will offer legacy systems, we will support the standard, vanilla version of MySQL, the servers that Oracle and Percona can now provide. But we will offer more, much more. There is a whole new set of highly available systems - see my talks at various meetups in the US this week - there is a new way to integrate MySQL with other databases, and a new way to create huge data warehouses systems and compete head to head with Vertica or Greenplum, not to mention the quite outdated technologies in 11g. There is a huge demand of migration from legacy systems into the cloud, with MySQL.
Here is the promise - an End-Of-Year resolution, or an anticipated New Year resolution. I will share more of this experiences and the excitement of applying the open source values and technologies where until now only expensive commercial solutions were allowed. Some of my posts will be generic and will fit in here, in my personal blog. Other posts will be more MySQL specific and will be published in MySQL4all.
The future looks bright, I hope many will enjoy the ride with me.
-ivan
Labels: MySQL, Reference Architecture, SkySQL
Sponsored by Canonical and SkySQL, MySQL Users are going to meet again
The last meetup was nine months ago, in the "old" Sun Briefing Centre, the last event that was hosted in King William Street before Sun/Oracle closed it to concentrate the London offices and meeting rooms in Moorgate.
On Tuesday 22 of March, we will be guests of Canonical, in their prestigious headquarters at the 27th floor of the Millbank Tower in London. My guess is that the breathtaking views of London and the Thames will distract us for a while, but hopefully we will have enough time to go through a pretty packed agenda.
The preliminary contents, as usual, are subject to change at the very last minute. Everybody can submit a topic, in any format - presentation, white board or simple speech - and we will devote at least 10 minutes to it, or as long as the audience is interested in discussing. Andrew Poodle and Mark Baker will be the chairmen, I am sure they will do a fantastic job.
For the moment, we have requests around MySQL 5.5, MariaDB and NDB/Cluster. In true MySQL meetup spirit, we will head to the Morphet Arms to continue with more specific discussions and opinions to share.
Here are all the details:
This is the registration page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=134352579966946&ref=mf
When: Tuesday 22 March - 18.30 - 21.30
Where: Canonical, 27th Floor, Millbank Tower
21 - 24 Millbank
London, United Kingdom
Afterwards: Morphet Arms - SW1P 4RW
A bit early for Christmas, or perhaps slightly delayed for Saint Lucia, MySQL 5.5 is finally GA. A fantastic present from Oracle for the whole MySQL Community, something that many wish unwrap and install as soon as possible.
Tomorrow, Thursday 16 December @ 9AM PT/12PM ET/1800 CET, we will present the first webinar around the offering of products and services from SkySQL. If you are interested, you can register here: http://www.skysql.com/en/news-and-events/webinars
We have not blogged much about what SkySQL can offer to the Community and to its customers, so I think this is the occasion to understand how we operate, what is our position with regards to the main forks and distributions of MySQL (including 5.5) and which technologies we use and recommend. I think (and hope) the webinar will clarify these aspects.
If you cannot attend, don't worry, you can always download the recording later from here: http://www.skysql.com/en/news-and-events/webinars/on-demand-webinars
…but you will miss the opportunity to ask some specific questions.
See you online tomorrow!
-ivan
Labels: SkySQL
After my departure from Oracle, I received lots of emails and messages, people who asked me where I will land. Thanks to everybody for the kind words and the great comments. By the way, more than a landing, I am going to take off… :)
On October 29th I joined Ulf Sandberg, Kaj Arno and Mick Carney at SkySQL. I will lead the Field Services team in Europe, i. e. my team will help users and customers in designing and implementing solutions around the MySQL technology. This will be my main role but, as you may expect, in small companies (small compared to large Corporates like IBM or Oracle), you must wear many hats.
My long term goals have not changed: I want to serve the MySQL Community of users, developers and, of course, the SkySQL customers. I want to provide the best possible advise, the best services and solutions. I will be specifically focused on these aspects:
Continue to support MySQL as the de facto standard for online applications
MySQL is great for online applications, but it is far from being perfect. MySQL 5.5 and MariaDB 5.2 show significant improvements in terms of performance and scalability, more statistics and admin features. We are still a bit behind schedule with real improvements, like the adoption of new storage engines - specifically PBXT and more NoSQL-like engines.
Scout and implement solutions that will make MySQL really suitable for the Enterprise and ubiquitous in new areas
In one of my old posts I have explained the difference between the mindset of an Enteprise-focused IT Manager versus an IT team devoted to the cause of open source. Part of the work to do is based on evangelisation, but there are some technical aspects to cover as well. MySQL needs some extra features to be "Entperprise-ready". "Enterprise features" are not just sophisticated features, or "all the features you may think of". They are features that are necessary to sustain Enterprise software and tools. The debate around which features are necessary is meaningless, since every Enterprise is different. There is a set of features that is quite mainstream. In particular, we need to improve:
- Documents and Multimedia objects handling
- Security
- Analytical functions and large data analysis
- Data sharing and integration
- Security
- Analytical functions and large data analysis
- Data sharing and integration
These improvements are not necessarily related to deep changes in the server core. Most of the can be implemented as plugins or at a connection level. Security plug-ins, Analytical storage engines, XML functions and connectors are still valid options that can well provide great features without affecting the core of the server.
Also, many tools for the Enterprise would simply facilitate the development and the administration of bespoken code or third party software. Tools like graphical set ups and monitoring for HA environments, replication or data migration, and so on would be incredibly helpful.
Promote and participate in new ideas that can make MySQL even better
If we have freedom to think, why not be open minded and think bigger? 1 out of 1,000 ideas may be a great idea! The amount of tools, engines, appliances, services, components and other products - commercial or open source - that have been developed in the last 3-4 years around MySQL is pretty amazing. Projects like Drizzle, storage engines like Infobright and Infinidb, appliances like Kickfire are great examples of these new products. Many others are incubated at the moment and they will bright soon. Some of these products can make MySQL a real success in many areas currently ruled by expensive and legacy solutions.
Make MySQL an affordable and inexpensive alternative to the other databases on the market
What is #1 reason to not use MySQL? Put it simply, it might not fit with the required solution. In the Enterprise market, it means that MySQL may not be certified to work with 3rd party products. In other areas it may be that other databases are the mainstream for certain projects. But IT solutions are really changing. Cloud computing is a reality and #1 database is, again, MySQL. SAAS solutions are the fastest growing products in IT and again, MySQL is becoming more and more the favourite database for a combination of robustness, reliability, performance, and obviously cost of ownership. At SkySQL, I believe I will have the opportunity to address these markets and to provide valid solutions for the Cloud and SAAS companies.
Maintain independence and objective views on the solutions available around MySQL
Despite the suspicion of some users, my ex team and I have always provided an objective view of the possible solutions around MySQL. When we were clearly not in the right place, we simply walked away, saving everybody's time. I want to maintain this level of independence and objectiveness and even more, at SkySQL I have the opportunity to experiment even more technologies and to be 100% agnostic, under any circumstance.
Contrary to what I posted few weeks ago, I will not close this blog. izoratti.blogspot.com is my personal blog and I am going to use it to post comments and ideas. The posts will be mainly related to MySQL, but sometimes I will diverge by sharing my personal experience on other topics. mysql4all.wordpress.com is the place where I will post technical evaluations and suggestions. I will get help from other people as well - the main objective is sharing useful information. I will also continue to work with the MySQL User Groups in UK and Italy, now more than before.
As usual, my postings will not be very frequent. I will let many other people write great articles and share valuable information on a regular basis. Every now and then, I will pop up on Planet.
See you soon!
-ivan
“We will not walk in fear of one another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men.”
-- Edward R. Murrow
When I thought about the content of this post, it came to my mind one of the movies where George Clooney is actor, director and writer. The movie is Good Night and Good Luck, a great snapshot of post-war American history and a great way, in my opinion, to analyse how a modern and democratic society has evolved since then.
On Thursday 30th of September, I resigned from Oracle. I left my role as Sales Engineering Manager in EMEA. I left my team, my colleagues and my friends but, as I said in a goodbye letter, I am taking with me all the friendship and the teaching of the 5 most beautiful years of my working life.
It would take too long to mention all the great moments I had at MySQL/Sun/Oracle - they are far way too many. And I would not name my colleagues either, it is fair to say that all my colleagues have been fantastic, with no exception. Kaj Arno recently posted a great message in his blog and I cannot agree more with his comments and analysis. MySQL, in all its forms, has been a fantastic place to work. And because it has been so fantastic, and in my opinion it still is, I found it is so difficult to leave. When one has experienced such a great time and passionate work, one hardly wants to move to something different. After many years involved in the sales of closed source products, I realised how exciting it is to work in a open source environment, I breathed this sense of openness and fairness. I embraced the culture and a more relaxed approach with users, customers and colleagues, and I did not want to go back to the days of closed source.
MySQL AB and the good old days days of the small company that owned MySQL, animated by the enthusiasm of its employees, customers and users, are over. It has been replaced by a far larger organisation, with more power and more resources, by many other company operating in the MySQL ecosystem and by a wider MySQL Community.
Oracle now has the ability and the resources to bring MySQL into new customers and new environments, in places where MySQL AB could not get in. This ability will serve the MySQL Community and users much better that the capacity of a single, small company. It will make MySQL even more ubiquitous, expanding in different customer-based. I can guess there are some skeptic readers frowning here. Let’s wait and see, time will tell.
If I am so optimistic about the future of MySQL at Oracle, why did I leave? I think that my personal attitude does not fit with large organisation. I believe that Oracle is a fantastic company to work for, but it is not the right place for me, at least not in the form and in the position I was.
What's next for me? I am clearing up and closing all my tasks at the moment. My mind was rumbling with ideas, some of them were crazy, some more conservative. Watch this space, it will be soon time for another post.
Good night, and good luck.
This is my last post on Blogger. I decided to move to WordPress and leave, at least for now, this blog.
I decided to move to WordPress because I found it more suitable for my needs.
So, from now on, you can read my posts re MySQL on mysql4all.wordpress.com.
My personal, non work related blog is izoratti.wordpress.com, but you may be disappointed, there is only a "Hello World!" post and I am planning to leave it like that for some time.
All the best to Blogger!
I cannot recall any significant moment of the conferences in 2002 and 2003 (simply because I was not there) but…
In 2005 we had MySQL 5. Peter Zaitsev was still working in the benchmark team for MySQL AB. His presentation on InnoDB performance and tuning was enlighting for many.
In 2006 we discovered the Pluggable Storage Engine API. Jim Starkey joined MySQL AB and we announced Falcon. [A brighter note,] I have been so lucky to meet Paul McCullagh the day before the Conference. Paul is one of the nicest and most brilliant persons I have ever met.
2007 was all around 5.1. We announced the roadmap for 6.0 and our online cross engine backup.
In 2008 we were Sun and for the first time Marten Mickos left his place on stage of the UC to Jonathan Schwartz.
In 2009 we had the Oracle announcement and the Percona Conference. You may describe the conference in many way, it certainly wasn't boring!
And now, 2010. Another User Conference with tremendous content. It's an incredible occasion to learn from the key players at MySQL and in the MySQL ecosystem.
I will present at the User Conference. For once, I am back to my roots, i.e. Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. DW projects filled my working life from 1994 until 2005.
Do not expect any elegant fragment of C code that may improve the performance of your DB 100x (or it may crash all your servers). You'll see just real life ideas and solutions on how to use MySQL in Data Warehousing and in a typical (is there one really?) Business Intelligence environment. And perhaps you have already implemented something similar, or something that suits you better, but hey, sharing is the main point here.
This presentation at the UC is just the beginning of a series. More to come, since this is a hot topic and users are asking more and more from MySQL in this sector. They want to use MySQL in BI in many, many ways. Some are simply looking for a reporting platform - you replicate your data and there you, you execute some reports. Others have more specific needs and they must transform their data into information, in a typical BI style. Some others are Enterprises with large data warehouses and they see MySQL as the perfect data mart engine. These topics and more in my presentation at the UC.
If you are part of the local London MySQL group and you can't travel to CA, don't worry, we will a series of meetups and they are likely to be recorded and presented in other cities as well.
In any case, I hope to see you at the UC. Check the message board for some Euro spots!
Labels: MySQL, MySQL UC, MySQL User Conference
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