Liam McLennan
Principal Software Engineer working on Seq
Brisbane, Australia
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Liam is a developer working on Seq - the best structured logging observability tool. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer of an online media and travel company with 300,000 members.
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Topics
Column-oriented Database Internals
Analytics over traditional row-oriented relational databases does not scale. For read-heavy workloads that require aggregating huge numbers of rows column-oriented databases deliver massive performance improvements. While row-oriented relational database technology has been remarkably stable since the 1970s, column storage is a relatively new invention with ongoing innovation and improvement through systems like ClickHouse, DuckDB, Vertica, BigQuery, Redshift and SAP HANA.
This presentation introduces the design ideas that make column stores so powerful, such as cache-friendly access patterns, vectorized execution and advanced compression schemes. We will demystify the internal machinery of column stores, including columnar storage layout, sophisticated encoding schemes, and column-oriented query execution.
You’ll leave this talk with a clear understanding of where column-stores shine, how they differ from relational databases, and why modern analytics platforms are built on these principles. Whether you’re a practitioner curious about database internals or just looking to understand the tech powering today’s big data systems, this presentation will give you an approachable, hands-on introduction to the world of column-oriented databases.
Turning great individuals into a great team
A great technology organisation starts with great people, but that is not enough. They need help to unite under a common vision, and a framework for deciding what to do, and what not to do. This presentation explains how to transform a group of smart, talented individuals into a high-performance team.
January 2017 I became the Chief Technology Officer of an online media and travel company and was immediately confronted by an impossible situation. The product team was being bombarded with initiatives to deliver, all of which needed to be delivered immediately. A team ten times the size could not have done it. The required set of initiatives changed on a weekly basis, compounding the problem. The product team had been doing their best to meet the demands of the organisation, thus they had accumulated a portfolio of poorly thought out, half-executed solutions
This presentation is about how to create a technology strategy, map the strategy to execution, and release successful products. It includes topics such as: the importance of having a technology strategy, how to work with your CEO or stakeholders to define a product strategy and prioritize initiatives, and how to manage a product delivery team to focus on creating value over being busy.
Databases Are Amazing
This session demonstrates a bunch of great ideas that make databases work, with examples from a small database written in TypeScript.
Most of us use databases regularly, but have you ever wondered how they work? Despite being the foundation of fifty years of technological progress databases are a black box to most people who use them, and that's sad, because they are awesome. Non-stop academic and industrial progress, from System R to Clickhouse, has made database systems outstanding monuments to the engineering excellence our field is capable of, but rarely achieves.
As the magical school bus shrunk us down for strange and wonderful journeys through the human body, so this presentation will be an action-packed, day-in-the-life blast through database query execution, including simplified, but real demonstrations of query parsing, planning and execution.
Ever wanted to know how an index actually works? What's the difference between row-oriented and column-oriented storage? How does schema vs schema-less affect database performance? Come learn why databases deserve your love and respect.
Liam McLennan
Principal Software Engineer working on Seq
Brisbane, Australia
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