The relational database is still the right tool for the job for many modern workloads, no matter what new whiz-bang, proprietary, purpose-built databases have just launched..Is the relational database always the right tool?.Of course not—but it is the right tool more often than the AWS keynote writers would like you to think..And yes, full disclosure, I have a bias: I agree with Marco Slot of Citus Data: the RDBMS is the future of distributed databases..The unexpected takeaway from re:Invent—the merits of laptop privacy screens Now that I’m back home and reflecting back on the whole week at the conference, I realize I have one more takeaway..If you travel on business, and you work on your flights, and you don’t have a privacy screen on your laptop: get one..During his keynote, Jassy told a story that he described as “a PR person’s worst nightmare.” It turns out one of his colleagues sat next to a senior person from a competitor on a flight out of Seattle..And during the flight, Jassy’s AWS colleague saw everything the competitor was working on..Hence: time for me to buy a privacy screen..About the Author Claire Giordano joined Citus Data to lead marketing and raise awareness about the worry-free Postgres database that is Citus..Before Citus, Claire served in leadership roles in engineering, product management, and marketing at Sun Microsystems, Quantum, and A9, an Amazon company.. Sign up for the free insideBIGDATA newsletter.. More details