Disclaimer - views expressed in this blog (and this entry) are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of MySQL AB

Ever since I wrote my blog entry about Google Gears and the query tool for the browser embedded offline Google Gears database service, I have been wondering how MySQL might fit in here.

A little less than a week ago, I opened a zoomerang survey about database stored procedures. In this post, I’m presenting the results.

In just a few days, the survey was visited 232 times, and no less than 155 people completed the survey! (There was a very small (2) number of people that answered some, but not all the items, and these are excluded from the results proper.)

I didn’t really know what to expect, but I did not expect as much as this! So, I’m quite pleased, and I want to thank everybody that took the time to complete the survey. Thank You very, very much, I appreciate your efforts a lot!

The topic of database stored procedures does not cease to divide the community of database application developers and DBAs. There are many articles around, expressing various opinions about this subject. But what do you think?

Please let me know and take this survey. The survey contains 5 multiple choice questions, and will take about 1 to 5 minutes to complete.

Guy Kawasaki has ten questions with Mårten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB. I’ve met Mårten before and he impressed me greatly with his understanding of databases and open source. As a teaser for the interview, here’s one of his thoughts about the question of MySQL ceasing to exist:

The big questions is what happens if a closed source company fails. I think users are going to increasingly demand that their vendors open source their products.

Reworked notes from Scott Ambler’s MySQL UC 2006 presentation on database agility.

If the quality of your data is important, are you testing it?

If your business (or your understanding of your business) changed, could you change your database schemas quickly and easily?

The 2006 MySQL User Conference was this week. As part of his research, Tim O’Reilly asked several Web 2.0-related companies how they use databases. If you haven’t seen the posts on O’Reilly Radar, they’re Web 2.0 and Databases Part 1: Second Life, Database War Stories #2: bloglines and memeorandum, Database War Stories #3: Flickr, Database War Stories #4: NASA World Wind, and Database War Stories #5: craigslist.

There’s a lot for purists to hate, but given the choice between making it work and making it perfect, I’ll choose the former every time, then do my best to refactor toward the latter. (More on database agility next week.)

I am not sure that the soothing discourse of vendors about “easy administration” goes the right way. When I read in Oracle’s “2 Day DBA” guide

Prior knowledge or experience with managing databases is not required. The only requirement is a basic knowledge of computers.

I can just wonder. Everything would no doubt be perfect if we were living in a world where things just keep rolling the way they are, where volumes increase just slowly, where no one does any mistake and where DBMS products have no bug. Unfortunately, in a world where databases are often the nexus of information systems and where Murphy’s law rules, database administration often requires a bit more knowledge than being able to locate Ctrl, Alt and Del on the keyboard.
Good skills are as required as ever - and possibly more than ever. Automation only affects the boring, routine part of the job. But IT departments will suffer if the DBA (or, for that matter, any IT staff) image is destroyed.
Working as a DBA used to be an enviable career, for University graduates as much as for self-taught IT professionals. Welcome to the days where basic computer skills will decide of a career as a DBA or as a hamburger-flipper.