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Ni Qiang continued: "Business expansion and technology development all require talents and continuous technological innovation. This is too difficult, mainly because of the lack of people."

"Wait!" Zhou Buqi interrupted him, "I remember that when Feitian Database was first launched, the effect was quite good."

Ni Qiang nodded, "It was very good, and it is very good now. It is very efficient to maintain the operation of the 'gold coin wallet system'. But the key is... let's put it this way, if you make a product to serve one person, you can provide exquisite service. Thoughtful; if you want to serve ten people, you can do it perfectly. However, if you want to serve a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand people, you can't do it with your own strength. You have to recruit more people who are sufficient. helper."

"Well, it's getting bigger and bigger."

"Yes, that's what it means. For Feitian Database... and many domestically developed high-end scientific research projects, there is still no one and there is a shortage of people."

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "In the name of Ziweixing, you can't even recruit?"

Ni Qiang pondered and said: "I joined the job relatively late. When Lao Yang led the team to develop the Feitian database, I did not participate. But I know the general situation. At that time, his project received your strong support, and you almost All senior talents in relevant domestic fields have been poached, especially Baidu, which has a distributed big data project and has been given it."

"yes."

Zhou Buqi smiled and remembered a series of tricks he had done in the early days of Ziweixing in order to find senior talents for the company.

Looking back now, it makes my blood boil.

Ni Qiang said: "The team led by Lao Yang at that time should be the most powerful team in the field of distributed, big data and database in China. Of course, the effect was indeed very good and the product was developed. But here is a team based on It’s about the input-output ratio of talent.”

"Um?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Ni Qiang continued: "Lao Yang organized a team of elite soldiers and generals back then, but he was not able to fully utilize the capabilities of these people. This is because Feitian Database was developed by himself, and the relevant talents were transferred from other directions. Come here. Originally, a T8 scientist may only be able to perform at a T6 level in the research of the Feitian database."

Zhou Buqi understood the truth and said, "It's true."

Ni Qiang said: "There is also the issue of scale. There is a huge difference between the experimental version and the application version. Just like large airplanes, there are two giants in the world, one is Boeing and the other is Airbus. If we want to launch a domestic It is difficult to build a large aircraft, but it can be done. But this must be an experimental version, a test version, and can only be tried under protected circumstances. There is still a long way to go to compete head-on with Boeing and Airbus for market share. The Feitian database is very effective, but this is just an early experimental version. If you want to make it truly commercial, you must either proactively reduce the scale and serve a specific direction, or you need more talent support and longer research."

"So the current mainstream direction of databases is Oracle database and Sun's MySQL open source framework."

"That's right."

"Isn't it similar to the smartphone industry? It's a confrontation between Apple, which operates independently, and Android, which is open source. The market has been divided, and it's impossible for Microsoft to enter this industry even if it wants to."

Ni Qiang said with a smile: "There are some similarities, just like when college students learn App development now, they actually use two languages, one is the language of the Apple system and the other is the language of the Android system. Symbian, Microsoft, BlackBerry’s operating system-related research talents are definitely not as many as those of Apple and Android. However, the database field is more extreme and it is more difficult to cross fields.”

After a pause, he continued: "It's actually not that difficult for an Android developer to switch to BlackBerry development. You can switch from Oracle to MySQL, but it's not the same order of magnitude, and you have to downgrade technically. If you switch When it comes to the self-developed Feitian database, the gap is even greater.”

“This will lead to a very low input-output ratio of talent!”

Zhou Buqi now understood a major dilemma of self-research in terms of cost.

In the current market, there are basically two types of senior database talents. One is researching the Oracle database framework, and the other is researching the open source MySQL framework.

Just like the relationship between Apple and Android in the smartphone market.

Smartphones have only been around for a few years, and the market is already very clear. Any college student knows that when learning programming, he or she must learn iOS or Android. No one would foolishly learn some outdated operating systems such as Symbian and BlackBerry. Development language.

The pattern of the database industry has long been determined, and university textbooks are completely geared towards cultivating talents in the direction of Oracle and MySQL.

Industry trends determine the selection of talents.

To engage in self-research means to break away from the mainstream and establish a sect. This is against the general trend of the entire world.

Then, even if talents are recruited, they must be used at a discount.

Originally, he had a T9 level in the field of MySQL, but after entering the unfamiliar environment of Feitian Database, he may only have T7 business capabilities.

Why should he change jobs?

Then there can only be a substantial salary increase.

In the past, his career in MySQL was at the T9 level, with an annual salary of 10 million; after joining Feitian Database, he was at the T7 level. Although his level was obviously lowered, he was offered a salary of 15 million.

If the investment is too high and the output is too little, it is not cost-effective.

At this time, both parties had arrived at the office of Ziweiyun's president, Dr. Zhou Feng, where he and Dr. Wang Jian were already waiting.

Ni Qiang just raised his hand to say hello to them, and then continued to talk about the topic just now, "If you spend more money to polish the product and turn it into an excellent product like Oracle Database, then that's fine. The key point is It can’t be done. It’s still a matter of talent. So many innovative self-research in high-precision fields were born in the United States, mainly because of talent.”

Zhou Feng and Wang Jian looked at each other, both a little surprised.

Just as he was about to ask something, Ni Qiang raised his hand and was interrupted, then said: "There are already a lot of talents in the domestic Internet field, and there is even no shortage of world-class talents. If there are first-class talents behind the Oracle database , there are also first-class talents behind Feitian Database. If we work harder and invest more money, it is really possible to catch up. The key is that there are not many talents. Again, working across technical lines requires technical downgrading. First-class talents are working on Oracle Database First-class talents are still first-class talents in the field of Feitian Database. First-class talents may be downgraded to third-rate talents in the field of Feitian Database. We spent a lot of money to poach a few world-class talents from the United States and let them join Feitian Database. It will be difficult to do so. If people don’t use their talents to the best of their ability and can’t produce great results, they won’t feel comfortable working.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, first-rate talents can make first-rate products, and third-rate talents can only make third-rate products. It is indeed not feasible for a group of third-rate talents to compete with the first-rate talent teams behind Oracle and MySQL." possible."

Ni Qiang continued: "In this field of high-precision technology, if you want to develop a new product to beat the existing first-class products on the market, there is only one possibility. It requires god-level talents, which is rare. Technological masters! They cross fields, downgrade their technology, and still have the level of first-class talents. Of course, they can develop first-class products. But there is no such high-ranking technical master in the country. Even if there is one , and it is impossible to recruit them to work in China.”

Zhou Feng heard what they were talking about clearly and said with a smile: "Yes, even if there are some special technical geniuses who can quickly get through the technical downgrade level, they are too few. If Feitian Database wants to be bigger and bigger, To be big, you need at least several thousand outstanding technical experts.”

This time, Zhou Buqi finally understood.

We also know why not long after Zhou Feng became the president of Ziweiyun, he ousted Yang Zhenkun and hired Ni Qiang to lead the database development business.

As expected, there are still specialties in the art industry.

In the face of hard-core technology, my own foresight is a bit insufficient.

Zhou Buqi lamented, "So, no matter how well Feitian Database is done, it can only be a product in a niche field, because we can't find more people to support this product for a larger market."

Zhou Feng said with a smile: "Yes, it's not that Feitian Database is bad... on the contrary, this product is very good, and even performs better than Oracle Database when executed in a distributed manner. The disadvantage is that it is difficult for us to scale up." It is difficult to rely on this product to compete with Oracle database and several databases in the MySQL open source framework in the market."

Ni Qiang said: "Cloud computing cannot be separated from cloud databases. Ziweiyun must have a cloud-native database of our own that has sufficient market competitiveness."

Zhou Buqi said: "So we have to bypass Feitian Database and develop a database that can truly compete with Oracle and MySQL in the market."

Ni Qiang breathed a long sigh of relief, "Yes, and it can only be a cloud database based on the MySQL open source framework. Even the databases of Silicon Valley giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all use the MySQL open source framework. It can be seen that There is no future in purely self-study.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Just like the operating system of a smartphone, if you want to develop an operating system now, you can only make some revisions and changes based on the open source framework of the Android system. Microsoft is not convinced and wants to If I build my own operating system, WM, I’m already half-dead.”

"That's right! That's what it means! Microsoft can't bypass the Android framework to make a mobile operating system, and Google can't bypass the MySQL framework to make a database. Microsoft can't, Google can't, no one can! This is not only a technical issue, but also related to the entire The world's industry trends are related to the ecological structure of the entire industry such as business, academia, education, technology, and industry cognition."

Ni Qiang felt that he finally explained this topic clearly.

It's really tiring to explain the truth to such a technical layman. It's not enough to explain it forcefully, he still doesn't understand, and you have to rack your brains to give examples to help him understand.

Fortunately, Boss Zhou seems to know a lot about smartphones and Android systems, which is more vivid.

After clearly explaining the reason why Ziweixing wants to bypass Feitian Database and re-develop a cloud database, we can proceed to the next topic smoothly.