What To Learn In 2017?

Year 2017 is going to be a good year for database enthusiast and everyone reading this post, it is going to better than 2016 and the year before. Like everyone else, I set new year's resolutions for learning and getting better at what brings bread and butter to my table. My last year's goal was to write at least 4 blog posts a month. In total, I published 44 articles (you can read them all here!!) and missed my goal by 4 articles. When looking back (Thank you Archive Section!!), I wasn't consistent on  a delivery date, time and the number of post each month.

Some months, I was doing 2 blog posts while in other months, I was doing 6 blog posts. This inconsistent behavior in blog shipping time and date caused confusion to our reader as when to expect a new post. This years, I will have same goal like last year but with a hard code delivery date and time of Wednesday @ 10:AM CST and there are  no exceptions to this.To accomplish this goal, all articles will be written few weeks before which then will be scheduled to publish on Wednesday @ 10:00 am.

Also this year, the topics will be much different from past few years in a great way. We will have more articles on Linux, Shell Script, Mongo db,  database best practices, Oracle, PL/SQL, Interviews, News, Stats and technologies frequently used with Database.

To provide more valuable content and reach out to more audience, I recently graduate from a three week online course from John Sonmez, the Founder of Simple Programmer and author of  “Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual.”  The Yellow Certified logo on the right of my page is the result of my certification from this course. Mr. John has helped tons of developers and IT folks around the world. He offers free 3 weeks course to anyone who wants to start a blog. I found his course extremely helpful and very powerful to any blogger.

This free blogging course was designed after his own experiences when building the brand of his site simple programmer. Today, simple programmer has over 10,000 unique visitors a day. This course teaches you from basic of blog installation to marketing in just three weeks. If you would like to know how to:

1. Install Word Press
2. Select blog topics
3. Build a brand
4. Be consistent & not give up
5. And reach more traffics.

Then John's free blogging course is for you and anyone who is thinking of blogging or has been blogging for few year and wants to take their blog to a whole new level. This course is absolutely free, no credit card required, no trail period, no catch. Join today!

Enough of John, back to what I was going write... I will start a new year with a #1 question that I was asked.  What database system do you recommend learning? There is no straight answer to this question as no one can predict the market and future or database that will occupy more market shares in future. I will try my best to point you to the right direction which shall not disappoint you. The answer totally depends on your database experience level.

Fresh Graduate: To get into database the first step is pick a relational database from the below list, install it and start learning SQL and the database system of your choice. If you picked Oracle, the DBMS concept your learn with Oracle applies to all other relational databases out there. Learn it well and learn it from an the expert if you are looking to get a training. Without the intermediate working knowledge, I won't start learning a non relational database like MongoDB or NoSQL based DBMS. This will do more harm then good.

Veteran DBA/Developer: Now is the time to get out of our comfort zone and start learning non-commercial database system if you have experience in commercial DBMS or vice versa. Most companies are into $$$ saving mode and are switching from expensive licencing model to free DBMS system like MySQL, PostgreSQL just to a name few. If you are into Open Source, it is the time of the year to check out the commercial DBMS system. Switching from commercial RDBMS  to Open Source is relatively fast and easy.

Don't go anywhere, I have one more suggestion for veterans. Big Data, No SQL or non-relational database  might scare the hell out of RDBMS DBA and developers and I am no exception to this This is the time to pick one and start hammering hard on them. Most companies these days have hybrid systems in place. Knowing both relational and non relational will put you on the top of 2 %  DBA and developer. Having skills in both relational and non-relational will bring more interviews, job offers, clients, consulting opportunities and more peace.

Now, the second part of the question is: Which database to pick from those commercial/non commercial to No SQL? This is very hard tell because not all companies may have the DBMS system I recommend. Just because, I work with Oracle a lot doesn't mean, I should be suggesting it to everyone. Stats and research data should be used to decide not just someone's opinion without any data to back their opinion. Based on the stats provided by DB-Engines, an Australian company, below is  the ranking of most popular DBMS  for the month of December 2016 however, I have seen similar pattern in the last 11 months and picking one from the list will not disappoint you.

Commercial:

1. Oracle
2. Microsoft SQL Server
3. DB2
4. Microsoft Access
5. Teradata

Open Source:

1. MySQL
2. PostgreSQL
3. MongoDB
4. Cassandra
5. Redis

Curious, how the ranking is done? DB-Engines is an Australian consultation company that publishes database ranking every month. Their ranking algorithm uses following parameters.

1. Number of mentions of the system on websites, 
2. General interest in the system. 
3. Frequency of technical discussions about the system.
4. Number of job offers, in which the system is mentioned. 
5. Number of profiles in professional networks, in which the system is mentioned.
6. Relevance in social networks. 

Note DB-Engines ranking does not measure the number of downloads and installations of the system within companies or by an individual.

Beside my writing schedule and pattern, my 2017 new year's resolution is to get my hands dirty with Mongo db and Hadoop. What is yours? I hope, this article helped you pick the database system to learn  and a good resource on blogging course. I wish you all the best for 2017 and looking forward to come up with more database articles, tutorials, tips for you all.

Cheers! Happy New Year 2017!!