Oracle/Java on Windows Azure and More Data Dev Tidbits

Data development news this week includes the availability of Oracle software and Java on Windows Azure, a service to quickly turn SQL Server stored procedures into RESTful APIs and a database-comparison tool's early support for SQL Server 2014.

First announced in a preview last June by Satya Nadella (who's been in the news himself a bit recently), the Windows Azure/Oracle collaboration was made official with a general availability announcement yesterday. Java developers can now work with Oracle's database and WebLogic Server on licensed virtual machine (VM) images.

Posted by David Ramel on 03/14/20140 comments

No Stopping Microsoft Haters

I feel for you, Scott Hanselman, I really do. I completely understand your wanting to address the irrational vitriol constantly directed toward Microsoft, especially by the developer community. But your blog post, "Microsoft killed my Pappy," won't alleviate anything. It just won't work. As the saying quoted by one commenter goes, "haters gonna hate."

Posted by David Ramel on 02/25/20140 comments

Visual Basic .NET Sees Popularity Hike

OK, raise your hands: Do you do your data programming in Visual Basic .NET? If I was a speaker at a development conference and asked that question, I'd expect to be squinting to see the results.

Yet this month's TIOBE Programming Community Index, which measures the popularity of programming languages, reports that Visual Basic .NET has cracked the top 10 for the first time ever, right between JavaScript and Transact-SQL (the latter of which, by the way, was recently named by TIOBE as "programming language of the year").

Posted by David Ramel on 02/21/20140 comments

Microsoft's Data Direction: the Cloud

A recent blog post from Microsoft's data guru titled "What Drives Microsoft's Data Platform Vision?" provided a clear answer: the cloud. Well, duh.

Posted by David Ramel on 02/07/20140 comments

Data Survey: Microsoft Fending Off Challengers, for Now

A new survey of database developers and other professionals shows Microsoft is maintaining its lead in the Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and data warehousing arenas, but faces challenges from newcomers in Big Data and other markets.

Conducted by Progress Software Corp., the "Progress DataDirect 2014 Data Connectivity Outlook" survey purported to reveal "the rising stars in the database constellation." Developers constituted the largest group of respondents (36 percent of 300 existing customers surveyed), followed by CXOs and other management types.

Posted by David Ramel on 02/03/20140 comments

What Languages Should You Learn in the New Web/Mobile World of 2014?

I've noted before how data-driven developers in general and SQL gurus in particular are pretty well set in terms of salary and job security. So I was curious how database skills fared in responses to a recent Slashdot.org question: "It's 2014--Which New Technologies Should I Learn?"

Posted by David Ramel on 01/24/20140 comments

Transact-SQL Named 'Programming Language of the Year' for 2013

Maybe it's not the sexiest programming language, but SQL continues to be relevant. In fact, TIOBE Software, which publishes a TIOBE Programming Community Index gauging the popularity of programming languages, named Transact-SQL the language of the year for 2013.

This "award" further emphasizes the importance of competency in SQL. I earlier wrote about how SQL gurus and other database-related programmers enjoyed excellent job security and how SQL Server developers were in high demand.

Posted by David Ramel on 01/16/20140 comments

SQL Continues to Crash the Big Data Party

Regardless of the future of the Microsoft ecosystem (and those latest quarterly numbers should slow the naysayers some), data developers can rest easy knowing their SQL Server skills are transferable in the New Data Order.

Posted by David Ramel on 11/07/20130 comments

SQL Server 2014 Takes Another Step Closer to Release

Microsoft today announced the availability of SQL Server 2014 CTP2, a near-final version highlighted by new in-memory capabilities formerly called Project Hekaton.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/16/20130 comments

WCF Data Services Catches Up to Entity Framework 6

Microsoft last week updated its latest WCF Data Services version so it will work with Entity Framework 6.

Rather than requiring the download of a new WCF DS version, the update to version 5.6.0 comes in the form of an out-of-band alpha1 NuGet package called, appropriately, WCF Data Services Entity Framework Provider.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/10/20130 comments

Dangers of Big Data

I was dropped by my previous auto insurance company for a couple of at-fault accidents on my wife's driving record.

Trouble was, she was not involved in those accidents in any way. They happened to somebody else and somehow got on her report from a data collection company used by the insurer. And, try as I might, I could not convince the insurance company of this. I provided the company with a note from my previous insurer confirming that those accidents were not hers. I even provided an official driving record from the state showing those weren't her accidents. It didn't make any difference to the insurance company (as much as I'd like to see the company burned to the ground in an agonizing bankruptcy, I won't name it, but it definitely wasn't on my side). The accidents were on the ChoicePoint report--that's all that mattered.

Posted by David Ramel on 09/19/20130 comments

Microsoft Hangs Tough with Cloud Data Developers

Microsoft may have been late to the cloud party, but its Windows Azure ranks near the top when it comes to popularity for data-related development, according to a new survey from Forrester.

Posted by David Ramel on 09/05/20130 comments