In attendance at this week’s #PerconaLive event in Santa Clara, CA was Carl W. Olofson of the International Data Corporation (IDC) where he serves as the Research Vice President over Application Development and Deployment. Co-hosts of SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE, Jeff Frick and John Furrier, welcomed Olofson to share his insight on the future of MySQL, especially in light of the impending Big Data revolution.

Citing the coining of the term ‘Data First’ earlier in the week on theCUBE, Furrier asked how the MySQL market will transition itself into the data first mentality of putting data at the center of development? “We are finding that there was a time not too long ago where people thought there was one way only to manage data,” Olofson began. “The data revolution has shown us there are different ways to deal with different types of data. Relational databases will have a growing role going forward but there is no ‘one size fits all’ for going forward.”

Adding to that idea, Frick noted how it seems there is a technical explosion moving in every direction. “It used to be single use case,” Frick said. “Cloud has shaken it up. Compute. Data. It’s a perfect storm coming together allowing us to do what we couldn’t before. From a buyer’s perspective, it has to be hard to keep on top of it all, no?”

Watch the interview in its entirety here:

Additionally, according to Furrier, the new talent coming up is aiding in the rapid change we are witnessing. “The developer community is rising at the same time you are seeing business addressing the need for managing data,” he said.

The proliferation of relatively new technologies will, according to Olofson, eventually lead to a constellation of data management that will be ultimately be governed by metadata. “If they do a query or search or even ask a question and look for an answer, there are so many types of data and management that you have to understand, currently, the data well enough to know how to look for it.”

Using the television shows based around the Star Trek franchise as an example, Olofson envisions a time in the not-too-distant future where normal human language can be spoken to a computer interface with a response returned in the same normal human language. That technology, currently in its infancy, is found on Apple and Samsung phones and is in the pioneering stages of development with IBM’s Watson Supercomputer.

Olofson addressed the work at IBM saying, “They are doing great work. Advances in DB2 are really impressive. Their work with Watson is leading us to having that cognitive system.” He continues by cautioning that data management is not about one single factor. “It isn’t about being able to balance your books or keep track of a cart on a Cloud-based application. Relational databases, in many instances, will be key.”

Addressing the import of the #PerconaLive event, Olofson noted that open source environments have been responsible for an impressive amount of open innovation. “We see that here. All kinds of technologies that are aligned with MySQL are popping up,” he said. We are seeing MySQL is becoming a standard, even with nonSQL.”

Concluding the interview, Olofson said, “Without overstating the case, the MySQL movement is still revolutionary and is still young. It’s important to drive people to it and get them excited about it. MySQL is doing the jobs people need done.”