--- title: "Can we do better than SQL?" publication: "DB Weekly" issue: 253 published_at: "2019-05-10" canonical_url: "https://dbweekly.com/issues/253" --- This week's database news #253 — May 10, 2019 [Read on the Web](https://dbweekly.com/issues/253) Database Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/h2kfa9hbskemcr1m3pcc.jpg)](https://edgedb.com/blog/we-can-do-better-than-sql/) [We Can Do Better Than SQL](https://edgedb.com/blog/we-can-do-better-than-sql/) — Last month [we featured EdgeDB](https://dbweekly.com/issues/249), an interesting new database that aims to break the relational/document-oriented schism with its own enhanced flavor of SQL. Here, they look at the history of SQL, its strengths and weaknesses, why they feel their variant is a true evolution, and how we should all be seeking to improve on SQL. Elvis Pranskevichus [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/b32ed650.png)](https://pganalyze.com/ebooks/monitoring-postgres-logs?utm_source=DBWeeklyPrimary) [eBook: The Most Important Events to Monitor in Your Postgres Logs](https://pganalyze.com/ebooks/monitoring-postgres-logs?utm_source=DBWeeklyPrimary) — In this pganalyze eBook, we are looking at the Top 6 Postgres log events for monitoring query performance and preventing downtime. pganalyze sponsor [A Preview of Azure SQL Database Serverless](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-serverless) — Last week we looked at how Microsoft is taking Azure SQL Database [to the ‘edge’](https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/02/microsoft-brings-azure-sql-database-to-the-edge-and-arm/), now it’s going serverless too and is clearly aimed at bursty/intermittent usage given the billing approach. Microsoft [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/skib3r1us3gg1pehtk4w.jpg)](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-serverless) How Azure Database Serverless approaches billing [Nokia Chairman Backs Machine Learning Startup Aiming to Make ML as Easy as SQL](https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/07/aito-ai/) — On the face of it, [Aito.ai’s](https://aito.ai/) fundraising is everyday news, the interesting part is [their technology](https://aito.ai/) uses either SQL or Elasticsearch’s query format as its interface. SQL truly is going everywhere. TechCrunch **⏩ IN BRIEF:** - Amazon DocumentDB (AWS's answer to MongoDB) now [supports per-second billing](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/05/amazon-documentdb-now-supports-per-second-billing/), though with a 10 minute minimum charge. - Google's [Cloud TPU Pods are now in beta](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/googles-scalable-supercomputers-for-machine-learning-cloud-tpu-pods-are-now-publicly-available-in-beta), giving you cloud access to 'supercomputer scale' machine learning. - AWS EC2 has a [new (I3en) I/O optimized instances](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-the-next-generation-i3en-of-i-o-optimized-ec2-instances/) aimed specifically at database and analytics workloads. - DigitalOcean's [managed PostgreSQL service](https://blog.digitalocean.com/managed-databases-is-generally-available-spaces-comes-to-frankfurt/) is now generally available. When I checked the preview, it also included the TimescaleDB extension (amongst [many others](https://gist.github.com/peterc/e4f7a288ed0eb7e4ffe2d8383a086306)) which may be of interest to you. - Citus Data, recently acquired by Microsoft, has rolled their tech into [a new scaling feature for Azure Database for PostgreSQL](https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2019/05/06/introducing-hyperscale-citus-on-azure-database-for-postgres/) called _Hyperscale (Citus)_. - Azure SQL Data Warehouse [continues to get better](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/azure-sql-data-warehouse-releases-new-capabilities-for-performance-and-security/), with a variety of advancements such as workload prioritization, dynamic data masking, and support for querying JSON data. 💻 Jobs [Find A DB Job Through Vettery](https://www.vettery.com/tech?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=cooper-dbweekly&utm_term=tech&utm_content=grouped&utm_campaign=ad-88878) — Vettery specializes in tech roles and is completely free for job seekers. Vettery 📒 Tutorials and Opinions [How SoundCloud Can Reindex One Billion Documents in One Hour](https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/how-to-reindex-1-billion-documents-in-1-hour-at-soundcloud) — SoundCloud are heavy users of Elasticsearch and here they tell the tale of the tweaks they made to be able to reindex their entire catalog in an hour. SoundCloud [SQL Inner and Outer Joins](https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2019/sql-inner-and-outer-joins/) — A brief tour of SQL joins, focusing on the differences between inner and outer joins. Eli Bendersky [Building with Patterns on MongoDB](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-a-summary) — The summary of a four month series of posts about different document-oriented database data modeling patterns. It’s by and about MongoDB but the principles covered will carry across to other document-oriented NoSQL systems. Daniel Coupal and Ken W. Alger [Getting Up and Running with Aurora Serverless](https://lobster1234.github.io/2019/04/22/serverless-aurora-rds/) — If you want a fast, MySQL or Postgres compatible database on AWS, Aurora is a great choice, but if you want it _on demand_, Aurora Serverless takes it that one step further. This is a reasonable tour of the fundamentals. Manish Pandit [Repeatable MongoDB Performance Tests: How CPU Options Are Best Disabled](https://engineering.mongodb.com/post/repeatable-performance-tests-cpu-options-are-best-disabled) — A great post from the _MongoDB Engineering Journal_ looking at recent efforts to improve the repeatability of MongoDB performance tests being run on EC2 instances. In short, there are a variety of CPU options that can make tests ‘noisier’, so turn them off if you want to do direct comparisons. Henrik Ingo 🛠 Code and Tools [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/dvzd7uey9m9tf6fnnbap.jpg)](https://ohhappy.dev/sql-cards) [SQL Cards: A Set of Cards to Help You Learn or Teach SQL](https://ohhappy.dev/sql-cards) — The presentation on this is top notch. You get a PDF you can print out to make the cards for yourself. Julien Bgn [MongoDB’s Official Brew Tap Now Open And Flowing](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodbs-official-brew-tap-now-open-and-flowing?jmp=cpress&utm_campaign=WW_CP_newsletter_sponsorship&utm_content=20190510&utm_medium=display&utm_source=dbweekly) — We now have our own official MongoDB Tap on Brew which makes it simpler than ever to install the latest MongoDB. MongoDB sponsor [`pg_auto_failover`: Automated Failover and High-availability in Postgres](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/opensource/2019/05/06/introducing-pg_auto_failover-postgresql-open-source-extension-automated-failover-high-availability/) — [pg_auto_failover](https://github.com/citusdata/pg_auto_failover) aims to provide simple, automated failover built on streaming replication, with no external dependencies. Lukas Fittl (Microsoft) [sql.js: SQLite Compiled to JavaScript (and Webassembly)](https://github.com/kripken/sql.js) — Naturally experimental, 1.0 just dropped with Webassembly support and based upon the latest SQLite version (3.28.0). Want to play? [Here’s a live demo.](http://kripken.github.io/sql.js/examples/GUI/) Alon Zakai [rqlite 4.5.0: Using SQLite as a Distributed Database](https://github.com/rqlite/rqlite) — A distributed relational database, which uses SQLite as its storage engine. rqlite MongoDB user? 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