By Arpit GautamAlthough SQL was developed in the 70s, it is still one of the most in-demand technical skills required by various small & large tech companies. Even today, most of the data systems are interfaced with the help of SQL.
Many drag & drop tools have come and so did new query paradigms but SQL has remained rock solid all through these years. Even the most modern database technologies need to be compliant with SQL policies.
Now, you might be thinking that SQL is an outdated technology. Absolutely not!
SQL has evolved over the years and that is the very reason why it remains relevant even today.
Read on to know about a few amazing trends of SQL & Big Data where you’ll get to know about the dependence of a majority of databases on open source & a few innovative technologies to watch out for.
4 Exciting Trends Big Data & SQL for 2021
Open Source continues to remain the most popular Database
Some of the most popular open-source database management systems comprise MySQL & Postgres that are continually being used by developers.
Apart from these, you’ll also come across MSSQL & Oracle but these are paid database management systems.
So, what are the open-source database systems more popular?
Leading surveys have pointed out the fact that many developers prefer MySQL for development. According to Stack overflow, MSSQL was recently surpassed by none other than Postgres as the 2nd most popular database.
This preference for open-source platforms isn’t new. But most organizations are dropping Microsoft & Oracle for the free variants. This points to the fact that companies are more interested in cloud capabilities instead of a license.
SQL isn’t just for Analysts & Data engineers in Data-driven Companies
Most technology & data-oriented organizations are driven by data. Many product managers & analysts who work in such companies are taking out time to understand SQL.
Why? Out of Necessity!
If you want to understand & interact with data then you need to know about SQL because SQL is regarded as the language of data.
Want to know about the amount of time your customer spends on your application or product? Instead of waiting for an analyst learn to run a query.
Nowadays, even running queries has become easier because of cloud-based data. Simply leverage an integrated SaaS SQL editor (wasn’t available earlier) to seamlessly run queries and get results.
So, to put it simply, we will be witnessing a future where not just big companies but even small to medium tech startups along with product managers & analystswill be leveraging SQL & analytics to make data-driven decisions.
Such analytics, big data &Ai trends will certainly enable the big data industry to witness innovations at a faster rate.
Data Analytics & SQL are becoming more Collaborative
As discussed in the 2nd point, extracting insights from data is becoming easier & more productive. This points to the fact that more & more people are getting involved in analytics, creating queries & metrics.
What does this mean?
SQL & Analytics are getting more collaborative.
While this trend started with Google sheets, it has extended to a myriad of SaaS products such as Figma (collaborative design)&PopSQL (Collaborative SQL).
Interesting fact: PopSQL empowers your teams to collaborate & track work on queries through version control & folders.
Version control lets you revert to what the query was at a previous state. So, you don’t have to worry about other analysts or users changing your query on the report. In addition to that, you can also share queries, fork them, visualize data & update them with ease.
Cloud-based Open Databases are getting popular
While open-source database management systems like Postgres are the preferred choice for organizations, the fact remains that it was not developed with complexities & cloud infrastructure in mind. This prompts the development teams to allot additional time towards developing complex cloud infrastructure so that applications being used across the world could be managed.
However, alternative open-source solutions like YugabyteDB came to the fore!
To put it simply, YugabyteDB is a customized form of RocksDBthat facilitates high density of data & low-latency access. It also offers a NoSQL database with ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation & Durability).
These are 4 trends in Big Data & SQL to be excited about in 2021.
