I’m grateful to all my professional and personal networks for this year. It has been full of tears, sweat, and blood all over my face once again. Let’s not worry about that. I want to start with a big Thank You to all of you who made this year possible.
If I look back at what stood out in 2025, just before we hit 2026.
Oracle ACE Pro
I was thrilled to be nominated to the Oracle ACE Program as an ACE Pro in April. This recognition opened doors to launch a technical blog series on vector search and AI integration with MySQL.
Project Antalya at Altinity, Inc.
We announced native Iceberg catalog and Parquet support on S3 for ClickHouse. This pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with open lakehouse analytics.
MySQL MCP Server
Introduced a lightweight, secure MySQL MCP server bridging relational databases and LLMs. Practical AI integration starts with safety and observability.
FOSDEM & MySQL’s 30th Birthday
I have one of my busiest agendas in ten years. It includes the MySQL Devroom Committee, a talk, and an O’Reilly book signing for #mysqlcookbook4e. Additionally, there are 6 talks from Altinity.
O’Reilly Recognition
After 50+ hours of flights for conferences, I came home to O’Reilly’s all-time recognition for the MySQL Cookbook. It was a moment I won’t forget.
Sailing While Working
Once again, months at sea with salt, humidity, and wind were challenging. We handled tickets, RCAs, and meetings. We even recorded a podcast on ferry maneuvering. Born to sail, forced to work, making it work anyway.
I am immensely grateful to the #MySQL, #ClickHouse, and #opensource communities. Thank you to my co-authors Sveta Smirnova and Ibrar Ahmed. I also thank my nominator, Vinicius Grippa. I appreciate the Altinity team and every conference organizer who gave me a stage this year.
Recognition is an invitation to contribute more, not a finish line. Looking forward to more open-source collaboration in 2026.
If you’re passionate about open-source databases, MySQL, ClickHouse, or AI integration, or just want to connect, reach out.
Not knowing whether you need a mentor or not at the beginning.
People often assume that mentorship is something you outgrow. They imagine it as a ladder. It’s something you climb early in your career. Once you reach a certain level of success, you step off and stand on your own.
In reality, the opposite is true. The higher you go, the more critical mentorship becomes. I’ve learned this repeatedly throughout my career in open source, in leadership, and in life.
Success Doesn’t Eliminate Blind Spots
When you achieve success, you start to hear less honest feedback. People around you become careful with their words. Colleagues hesitate to challenge your ideas. Slowly, your perspective narrows. It happens not out of arrogance. It’s hard to see what no one reflects back at you.
That’s where a mentor makes all the difference. A good mentor isn’t impressed by your title or your achievements. They see you as the person behind the professional identity. They’ll challenge your assumptions and remind you that growth never stops, no matter how far you’ve come.
Learning Never Ends
The world around us moves too fast for anyone to claim mastery. Technologies evolve, leadership philosophies change, and the definition of success itself shifts over time.
Mentorship keeps you learning. It introduces you to new ways of thinking, new perspectives, and new generations. It forces you to stay curious, and curiosity is what keeps leaders relevant.
In my years working with global database communities, I’ve seen brilliant engineers become stagnant simply because they stopped seeking input. The best ones? They’re still asking questions, still open to being mentored.
Every Step Forward Is New Territory
No matter how experienced you are, every stage of career growth is unexplored terrain. Each new role, responsibility, or challenge introduces conditions you’ve never faced. There are new dynamics, new expectations, and sometimes, new vulnerabilities.
Mentors are the ones who’ve walked those paths already. They know where the turns are, where you stumble, and how to prepare for what’s coming next. They help you see beyond the horizon of your current comfort zone.
That foresight is the ability to anticipate the next chapter of your journey. It is one of the most valuable gifts mentorship offers. It opens your mind to possibilities you have never considered. It helps you approach the unknown with clarity rather than fear.
The Lonely Space at the Top
Leadership is often described as empowering, and it is, but it’s also lonely. You carry responsibilities that few others truly understand. You can’t always be vulnerable with your team or share the full weight of the decisions you make.
Having a mentor gives you a space to breathe. Someone who listens without judging, who helps you find balance when everything feels heavy. Sometimes, mentorship isn’t about advice at all. It’s about presence and perspective. It’s about being reminded that you’re not alone in figuring it out.
From Achievement to Legacy
There’s a point where success stops being about how much you achieve and starts being about what you enable. Mentorship helps you make that shift.
It turns experience into impact. It teaches you how to guide others. It shows you how to pass on lessons without ego. You learn how to translate hard-earned wisdom into something that outlives your career. Every time I’ve been mentored, I’ve become a better mentor myself. I think that is the real cycle of growth.
The Real Value of Mentorship
I’ve come to see mentorship not as a career stage, but as a lifelong relationship with learning. It keeps you honest. It keeps you grounded. And it ensures that success doesn’t harden into comfort.
If anything, mentorship is a mirror. It helps you stay true to your principles. It also connects you to your evolution and your humanity.
No matter how much experience I gain, I’ll always seek mentors. Because the moment I stop learning from others is the moment I stop growing.
This is why I still believe in mentorship even after a successful career. In conclusion, have I had a dedicated mentor in my career? The short answer is no, but I’ve had role models along the way. I’ve used them as my mentors and always asked them what would I do if I were them.
I’m incredibly honored to share some exciting news—I’ve been recognized as an Oracle ACE Pro by Oracle!
This recognition is deeply meaningful to me, not just as a personal milestone but as a reflection of the ongoing work I’ve poured into the database community for over three decades. It’s also a reminder of how powerful open collaboration, curiosity, and mentorship can be in shaping both a career and a community.
What Is the Oracle ACE Program?
For those unfamiliar, the Oracle ACE Program recognizes individuals who are not only technically skilled but also passionate about sharing their knowledge with the wider community. It celebrates those who contribute through blogging, speaking, writing, mentoring, and engaging in forums or user groups.
The program has multiple tiers: ACE Associate, Oracle ACE, ACE Pro, and ACE Director. Each level reflects a growing commitment to community contribution and leadership. Being named an Oracle ACE Pro places me among a diverse, global group of technologists who are actively shaping the future of Oracle technologies—and open-source ecosystems alongside them.
From MySQL to ACE: A Journey Rooted in Community
My journey with data began over three decades ago, and it’s taken me across continents, companies, and countless events. My early days were steeped in MySQL—performance tuning, operations, scaling architectures—and I quickly discovered that the greatest impact didn’t come from just solving problems, but from sharing the solutions.
Since then, my path has included global roles in consulting, support, and engineering leadership. I’ve had the opportunity to speak at international conferences, publish books like the MySQL Cookbook (4th Edition), and contribute to countless community efforts in the MySQL and opensource database ecosystems.
Recognition such as Most Influential in the Database Community (Redgate 100) and MySQL Rockstar have meant a lot—but being named an Oracle ACE Pro is especially meaningful. It represents a bridge between the worlds of open source and enterprise and affirms that collaboration across ecosystems is not only possible—it’s essential.
What This Recognition Means to Me
This isn’t just about a title or a badge. To me, becoming an Oracle ACE Pro is about continuing the mission—to share what I’ve learned, amplify others doing amazing work, and give back to the communities that have shaped my path.
I’ve always believed that technical excellence must go hand in hand with generosity. Whether it’s mentoring a young DBA, helping a team scale their architecture, or writing about real-world database design challenges, the point has never been visibility—it’s always been about value.
And that’s what this recognition reflects: not just what I’ve done, but what I hope to keep doing for the next generation of data professionals.
Looking Ahead
This milestone energizes me even more to keep contributing—not just within the Oracle ecosystem but across the open-source database space. I’ll continue speaking at events, writing, mentoring, and building resources that help engineers build better, faster, and more resilient systems.
I’m also excited about promoting hybrid data architectures combining MySQL, opensource, and cloud-native technologies. This is where the industry is heading, and I’m committed to helping folks navigate that evolving landscape with clarity and confidence.
Gratitude and Community
I want to thank Oracle for running a program that not only recognizes technical contributions, but also community-driven spirit. And a heartfelt thank you to the MySQL community, open-source contributors, and peers I’ve had the privilege of working alongside over the years.
You’ve all helped shape my thinking, my work, and my growth. I stand on the shoulders of a global community, and this milestone belongs to all of us.
Let’s Stay Connected
If you’re building something, learning something, or just curious about databases, I’d love to hear from you. Whether it’s MySQL performance, opensource design, or data architecture strategy, reach out. Let’s keep learning, building, and sharing—together.
And if you’re interested in becoming part of the Oracle ACE community, feel free to ping me. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned and help others navigate that journey.
A Note About What’s Coming
As part of my role and responsibilities as an Oracle ACE Pro, I’ll be launching a new series of technical blog posts in the coming months. These will explore cutting-edge topics including:
• AI/ML and LLMs (Large Language Models)
• Vector Search and database integration
• Real-world use cases at the intersection of AI and relational databases
These areas are rapidly evolving, and I’m excited to share practical, hands-on insights on how they tie into modern data architecture—especially within the Oracle and open-source ecosystems.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions I’ll be sharing in upcoming posts are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle or any other organization. Content will be independent, community-driven, and based on real-world experience.
Stay tuned—and if you have specific questions or topics you’d like to see covered, feel free to reach out!
Thanks for reading—and here’s to the next chapter in our database story.
In this edition of the blog post, I want to summarize my three decades (excluding my internships) of hustle in Information Technology. This is not only a tribute to my 30th anniversary in the field but also a show of appreciation for those with whom I’ve crossed paths—sharing knowledge, experiences, and moments of blood, sweat, and tears. Through this journey, I have worked to become a humble, smart, and resourceful person. I will continue to mentor and coach, share what I’ve learned, and help others achieve even greater success.
The majority of my background has been as a Database Administrator (DBA), although my academic foundation was in Electronics in high school and Software Development in college. As my career progressed, I naturally gravitated toward data management, making databases my core focus.
From the early days of navigating the evolving landscape of databases and technology to leading global teams and contributing to the open-source community, every challenge and milestone has shaped me. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of working with brilliant minds, tackling complex problems, and building solutions that have left a lasting impact.
Of course, the databases I’ve worked with have also connected me with their respective communities. In the early days, enterprise communities were tightly controlled—corporations dictated what could and couldn’t be shared. A decade ago, we started seeing individuals clarify that their views on social media were their own and not their employer’s. Back then, when working on a project, we operated in silence—no open discussions, no forums, just internal tickets to the database provider if an issue arose. I also predate the internet, social media, and the niche forums we have today, which has given me a unique perspective on how knowledge sharing has evolved.
My journey began as a Technical Support Engineer for Informix (acquired by IBM in 2000). From there, I transitioned into full-time DBA roles across various companies—both as a consultant and a full-time employee. There are too many to list, but the key takeaway is that technology forces adaptation. As Informix declined in popularity, I shifted to Oracle and SQL Server, which dominated most of my career until I transitioned to full-scale MySQL administration. That’s where real community engagement started (link).
Does It Take 10,000 Hours to Master a Skill?
It does—or at least that much time to fully digest the internals of what you’re working on. Whether it’s 10,000 hours, nautical miles, or kilometers, the exact metric doesn’t matter. What does matter is the time spent developing tribal knowledge—understanding shortfalls, known issues, edge cases, strengths, and weaknesses.
Along the way, we all make mistakes. We think we’ve learned our lessons, but the reality is that learning never stops. The most important lesson I’ve learned? Never give up. The moment you step back and quit, you risk an epic failure—one that may come at a cost you can’t afford. Persistence is everything.
As I mark this 30-year milestone, I remain committed to the tech community—mentoring, coaching, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with open-source databases. Here’s to the next chapter and many more years of learning, teaching, and growing together.
After the most memorable MySQL community event, #MySQLBelgianDays2024, and earning legendary recognition from the MySQL Community team, I have decided to share some thoughts about the importance of a community.
Previously in life
As a former enterprise DBA, I have been part of other communities strictly focused on monetary and entitlement of accomplishments. I had a chance to work on world-leading enterprises and had ability access to the most advanced technologies for both software and hardware. This journey was fun, fruitful, and rewarding for me.
In the latter half of my career, I entered the open-source community of MySQL by shifting my prior decade and a half of experience into it.
Entry to the open-source community
When I entered this community full-time, there were several controversial discussions and assumptions about Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL, the separation of MariaDB, etc. While some of those claims had some reality, most turned out to be baseless without knowing the intentions and future.
The importance of Percona Live events and the Oracle MySQL team’s contributions to this community, which several other open-source contributors surrounded, was my entry point. There was a significant influence from hyper-scalers, known as initially social media companies, followed by SAAS and cloud vendors.
I have watched, followed, and strictly learned from community leaders, including influencers like Peter Zaitsev. Although open-source communities feel and look like closed-circuit groups of geeks having fun, they are very open to newcomers. But remember, communities accept contributors, not watchers. What I mean by contributors is not just coming to a company-paid trip to the event once in a blue moon. Even if you attend an event as a visitor, you can still help by promoting and getting the word out through social media and other networks.
Where to start?
One can share ideas, code tools, and software and become a speaker. If you aren’t the type of person who can speak and present, you can help others by providing content and ideas and having them review them. Let me help you get there and recognitions will follow.
How do I start helping and becoming a part of the community?
Create a public repository of the tools and code you spend time on.
Start writing blogs about your experiences and sharing content.
Become a speaker or co-speaker with the same or similar subject.
Conduct webinars and post-speaking events for those who were not able to attend. Include feedback and corrections to your talk.
Create training content on recorded videos and training sites.
Coordinate or help with local meetups.
Help sponsoring events.
Encourage to send co-workers to events.
Introduce newcomers to community veterans.
Author or co-author books and booklets.
Act as an event committee member.
Help to answer questions via GitHub issues or Slack channels.
Always spread the word through social channels.
If you still can’t do any of those, help marketing colleagues carry boxes of swag and give away materials, and set up and clean up booths for the events. You can always help sales and pre-sales folks by connecting your network.
I have to credit Laine Campbell for introducing me to and allowing me to meet the most influential leaders of the MySQL community.
Many thanks to Peter Zaitsev for all the help, support, and openness in accepting me into the MySQL community.
I would also like to thank the past, current, and future MySQL Community team for their hard work. The rest of the list is too long to mention here, but they know who they are.
Congratulations to all previous MySQL Rockstars and 2023 winners.
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