Why Uber Engineering Switched from Postgres to MySQL — Uber Engineering explains the technical reasoning behind its switch in database technologies from Postgres to MySQL - an uncommon direction to migrate in.

'Amazon RDS SQL Server Just Changed Everything.' — You can now take native SQL Server database backups from your RDS instances and store them in an Amazon S3 bucket.

Democratizing Databases — With a new tool, any competent spreadsheet user can construct custom database interfaces.

The importance of loose coupling in REST API design — You should never develop a REST API for any specific application. The best approach is to build a REST API platform that can be used and reused in a flexible manner for general-purpose application development.

Real-World Redis Tips — Use a connection pooler, give your clients names, set an appropriate key eviction policy, and more.

It’s The Data, Stupid: Why Database Admins Are More Important Than Ever — Specialized databases, cloud, and DevOps expand, not eliminate, role of the DBA.

Apache Spark 2.0 Released — Spark 2.0 focuses on significantly improved SQL support and the unification of the DataFrame and Dataset APIs. The next-gen Tungsten engine also compiles queries to make Spark 2.0 up to 10x faster than 1.x. Release notes here.