How DBAs Can Get Data Science Cred, Fast

Ever notice in soccer when a midfielder runs his or her legs off to get the ball to a striker who then taps it into the net and gets all the glory? Charlie Berger wants to help database administrators--the indefatigable midfielders of enterprise IT--get a little of that data science glory for themselves. They can do that, Berger says, by first realizing how important their data wrangling abilities and their SQL knowledge can be to the data science process. Then they can take it a step further by learning the basic data science practices and understanding how to wield the ample library of machine learning algorithms available to them right in the Oracle Database. "In my travels, I've discovered that it's easier to take the person who knows and likes SQL and teach them how to begin doing real machine learning in the database, than it is to take folks who do Python or R, and who know algorithms, and teach them to do machine learning inside the database," although both can benefit from the practice, says Berger, a senior director of product management for machine learning, AI and Cognitive Analytics at Oracle.