Stonebraker

The latest ACM Queue has an interesting interview with Michael Stonebraker about the future of databases. Stonebraker was an important figure in the early development of relational database systems, and now he’s agitating for a move away from the relational model. Coincidentally, I’m giving a presentation on Stonebraker’s latest paper (pdf) in the DB seminar this semester.

Update: Stonebraker’s certainly been getting a lot of press. See his post in The Database Column and an blurb on Slashdot. I found myself agreeing with some of the comments on Slashdot suggesting that while Stonebraker may provide ample evidence for changing database system architecture, that’s not necessarily the same as abandoning the relational model. I’ll continue to follow his work, but I’m also going to order the definitive guide to relational database theory, just in case.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.