Every day an avalanche of news hits us from all directions in all kinds of media. So what are the hottest topics people are currently talking about and commenting on? To give you an idea, here’s a selection of technology stories and updates from June 2024 to catch up on.
It’s official: SQL is now middle-aged
Has your SQL Server reached its sell-by date?
Why security in the cloud is … well … cloudy
The rising storm around Snowflake
What exactly does a Data Scientist do?
The battle of the game releases
It’s official: SQL is now middle-aged
Did you know that a person aged over 50 is officially called a quinquagenarian? If it was applied to database languages, we’d also be using the term for SQL which originated 50 years ago in a May 1974 research paper, ‘SEQUEL: A structured English query language’. It’s grown up a lot since then and it’s not showing any sign of stopping either, with the latest SQL Standard, SQL:2023, adding JSON and Property Graph Queries to the mix. Find out how it’s evolved over time in this 50th anniversary article from Forbes.
Has your SQL Server reached its sell-by date?
SQL may have reached the grand old age of 50, but when does old become too old? In SQL Server terms, it’s commonly regarded as when support ends. As of today, that’s bad news for nearly a third (32%) of SQL Server users. The finding from IT asset management platform, Lansweeper, surprised me as well. After scanning over a million SQL Server instances, it found that 19.8% were unsupported – and the 12% of SQL Server 2014 users would fall out of support on July 9. Read about what this means for businesses in this informative piece from The Register.
Why security in the cloud is … well … cloudy
We can’t seem to escape the cloud these days. Virtually every organization wants to gain the scalability, high availability and cost efficiencies it offers. That’s the upside. The downside is revealed in the 2024 Thales Cloud Security Study which has just been released. It shows that 44% of organizations have experienced a cloud data breach, less than 10% have encrypted over 80% of their cloud data, and 56% see secrets management as the top challenge. Read the headline findings from Thales, or download the report to discover what you can do to resolve the issues it raises.
The rising storm around Snowflake
Talking of cloud security, the cloud-based data storage and analytics service, Snowflake has been getting a lot of bad press in June. The Hacker News website revealed that: As many as 165 customers of Snowflake are said to have had their information potentially exposed as part of an ongoing campaign designed to facilitate data theft and extortion. Snowflake, meanwhile, is putting it down to the lack of use of multifactor authentication (MFA). TechCrunch provides a neat and measured summary of what’s going on in a featured article about what is being called the world’s largest data breach.
Just how reliable is AI?
It was the talk of the town … and it still is. AI is affecting most of us in some way, with data professionals feeling the heat the most. In Monte Carlo’s newly released 2024 State of Reliable AI Survey, 63% are feeling ‘A great deal’ of pressure to implement a Generative AI strategy or build Generative AI products. No surprise there, but while 91% say they’re actively building AI applications, two thirds admit to not completely trusting the data they’re built on. Less than half are also not implementing sufficient data quality practices to fill those gaps. If you’d like to know more about the AI data quality challenge, download the Monte Carlo report. It’s fascinating stuff.
Download the 2024 State of Reliable AI Survey from Monte Carlo
What exactly does a Data Scientist do?
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, data scientist positions will continue to be among the fastest-growing jobs in 2024, with 17,700 openings projected each year over the next decade. But what do they do and what skills do they need? 365 Data Science has released the most comprehensive analysis of the data science job market I’ve seen. This is a long and detailed piece of analysis that highlights the skills employers are looking for and where the market is heading in 2024. If you’re interested in data science, or you know someone who is, this is a valuable resource.
The battle of the Chatbots
Chatbots are now widely accepted and lots of people use them to help write code and text and create images. But with so many players out there, which one is the best? I’ve tried them all and right now Copilot for Microsoft 365 is my favorite, although the image generation tool isn’t always as good as DALL-E. For a more comprehensive and detailed review of ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini, read ZDNet’s latest innovation article. It presents the strengths of each Chatbot and gives reasons why you would choose one over the other.
The battle of the game releases
It’s time for some downtime. Once you’ve closed down ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot or Gemini, where do you turn? Find out in GameSpot’s review of the biggest game releases this month. Think Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, The First Descendant, Zenless Zone Zero, Anger Foot, EA Sports College Football 25 and more, along with the release dates of dozens of others. Whatever kind of games you like, whichever your favorite platform or device, discover what battles await you.
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