Here are the resources for my talk at Day of Data Boston.
Slides – ArchitectingZeroDowntime.pptx Slides also at: https://dayofdata.org/2026-10-03-dayofdata1150/#schedule
Code: https://github.com/way0utwest/ZeroDowntime
Book: Refactoring Databases
Some interesting questions. I’ll write more, but a couple of quick answers as I breakfast at Logan.
How do I handle expanding a column? Making it larger?
This is platform and change dependent. For example, if you are expanding a varchar() column from 10 to 20, this is usually a metadata operation in MSSQL. No data gets touched, no rows, the system tables record a new size. This can be instantaneous. There are exceptions where this might take time, but usually this works.
Changing from int to Bigint is different, but I’d follow the split columns pattern and add a new column instead, move data, then drop the old one.
How do I get my organization to adopt better patters?
This deserves a longer answer, but there are two parts: technical and politicial. The technical part is teaching other developers the new patters, using linting to catch issues, and convincing others this isn’t hard and works well.
The political part is getting management to support/enforce this. That can be tricky, but you need to provide business reasons why downtime is a problem and how this addresses the issues, with real numbers: time down, cost savings, revenue lost, etc.
Leave a comment