Big data streams are coming in quite a few industries and I'm certain we'll see more. Wal-Mart started pusing the adoption of RFID for its supply chain, shipping companies have been tracking vehicles for yearss, and now the US Department of Agrigulture is requiring tracking of cows and other livestock.
Whether that's a good idea or not, other industries, as mentioned here, are using RFID to track the movement of large numbers of discrete items that get moved from place to place.
And that means lots of data!
And we know what that means. Bigger databases, more complex queries and applications that will be needed to deal with the data, and more work for DBAs and developers. I can see my "shortest path" algorithms from college coming back to haunt me here. I can see someone asking me how to better pack things together, more them more efficiently, or implement some other optmimization routine.
Dealing with large amount of data that can be generated from sensors such as RFID will pose some new challenges to the SQL Server platform, and they should provide some very interesting work for us in the coming years. Especially the data mining and business intelligence people who may be called on to somehow use this data to help the business function better.
If you're looking for a new challenge in your database career, you might want to check out industries that deal with lots of physical items and have a need to track them. With the new spatial support in SQL Server 2008, you just might stumble on that's more fun than you imagined.
Steve Jones
PS: If you're thinking of attending the PASS Summit 2008 in November, and you should, be sure that you use the "SSC6" registration code when you register. We'll have a great opening night party you can attend and you get $100 off your registration cost. Until June 30, you save an additional $800 off the full price with early registration.
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 26.5MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 21.5MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 4.4MB
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.