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\u2019s a selection of technology stories and updates from June 2024 to catch up on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s official: SQL is now middle-aged<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Has your SQL Server reached its sell-by date?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Why security in the cloud is \u2026 well \u2026 cloudy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The rising storm around Snowflake<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Just how reliable is AI?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n What exactly does a Data Scientist do?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The battle of the Chatbots<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The battle of the game releases<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Did you know that a person aged over 50 is officially called a quinquagenarian? If it was applied to database languages, we\u2019d also be using the term for SQL which originated 50 years ago in a May 1974 research paper, \u2018SEQUEL: A structured English query language\u2019. It\u2019s grown up a lot since then and it\u2019s 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\u2019s evolved over time in this 50th<\/sup> anniversary article from Forbes.<\/p>\n Read the article<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SQL may have reached the grand old age of 50, but when does old become too old? In SQL Server terms, it\u2019s commonly regarded as when support ends. As of today, that\u2019s 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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n Read the article<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n We can\u2019t seem to escape the cloud these days. Virtually every organization wants to gain the scalability, high availability and cost efficiencies it offers. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Read the article<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Download the report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/em>. Snowflake, meanwhile, is putting it down to the lack of use of multifactor authentication (MFA). TechCrunch provides a neat and measured summary of what\u2019s going on in a featured article about what is being called the world\u2019s largest data breach.<\/p>\n Read the article<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n It was the talk of the town \u2026 and it still is. AI is affecting most of us in some way, with data professionals feeling the heat the most. In Monte Carlo\u2019s newly released 2024 State of Reliable AI Survey, 63% are feeling \u2018A great deal\u2019 of pressure to implement a Generative AI strategy or build Generative AI products. No surprise there, but while 91% say they\u2019re actively building AI applications, two thirds admit to not completely trusting the data they\u2019re built on. Less than half are also not implementing sufficient data quality practices to fill those gaps. If you\u2019d like to know more about the AI data quality challenge, download the Monte Carlo report. It\u2019s fascinating stuff.<\/p>\n Download the 2024 State of Reliable AI Survey from Monte Carlo<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019ve 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\u2019re interested in data science, or you know someone who is, this is a valuable resource.<\/p>\n Study the analysis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019ve tried them all and right now Copilot for Microsoft 365 is my favorite, although the image generation tool isn\u2019t always as good as DALL-E. For a more comprehensive and detailed review of ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini, read ZDNet\u2019s latest innovation article. It presents the strengths of each Chatbot and gives reasons why you would choose one over the other.<\/p>\n Read the article<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s time for some downtime. Once you\u2019ve closed down ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot or Gemini, where do you turn? Find out in GameSpot\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/a>It\u2019s official: SQL is now middle-aged<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Has your SQL Server reached its sell-by date?<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Why security in the cloud is \u2026 well \u2026 cloudy<\/h2>\n
<\/a>The rising storm around Snowflake<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Just how reliable is AI?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/a>What exactly does a Data Scientist do?<\/h2>\n
The battle of the Chatbots<\/h2>\n
<\/a>The battle of the game releases<\/h3>\n