Software Engineering Daily · Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Despite significant changes in the database industry over 50 years, the fundamental principles remain consistent, according to Salish Krishna Murty. He refers to this as 'database dogma,' emphasizing two core tenets: never losing data and always providing exact results. Murty notes that even with the emergence of AI and new system types, these foundational principles are crucial.
“Fundamentally, I joke that but databases you have one job. Don't lose the data that's being stored. Give the exact results that you're asking for. And this stay true for remarkable amount of time, right? For all these 50 years of databases.”
“Database dogma is really being focused on, specify what you want, having a declarative notion of what you want and the system goes and figures out how best to do it.”
“System makes sure like I said, don't lose the data, small detail, and produce exact results that you can rely on.”