Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Promotions and Conflicts of Interest

    I noticed my co-worker, friend, and PASS board member, Grant Fritchey, posted a note on members of the PASS Board of Directors (BoD) presenting pre-cons at SQL Saturday events. It’s potentially a legal issue, and conflict of interest. I’m glad that the issue is being raised, and discussed publically. Here’s Grant’s question:

    The question is simple, for a PASS branded event, should a member of the PASS board receive payment?

    There’s two parts to this, because there are two events. There are events that the organization runs and takes legal and financial responsibility for, and there are events associated with PASS, but run by others who have responsibility.

    My short answer is yes to local events, and no to events run by the PASS board. I’ve read through some of the comments and I have some thoughts.

    PASS Run Events

    First, events run by the organization, such as the Summit and BAC, are different. The BoD can vote on aspects of these events, and can override the decisions on which individuals are chosen. With that being the case, I think there is a clear conflict of interest here and for the limited time the BoD members serve, they should not be a part of these events. Whether they receive direct payment or not, I’d say no.

    There was a conflict about this a few years ago, and I think it was justified. If you serve, you can’t present a pre-conference (or post) session. You have other duties, and a responsibility here.

    If your business or your employer wants you to be a part of this event in a different way, resign one position or the other.

    SQL Saturdays

    Really this could be any event that PASS might support or lend their name to, but doesn’t have any financial (or likely, legal) responsibility. This is trickier, as certainly the ability to bestow favors on the organizers of these events in terms of choosing them for PASS run events is possible. However I’d say that this is very unlikely, and hasn’t been an abuse of power. If that changes, I’d change my opinion

    I think that the BoD members are still speakers and well respected trainers, and I really have no issue with them being accepted to present a pre-con and being paid by the events. I’d like the fact disclosed, but this doesn’t seem to be a conflict of interest to me at this point.

    It’s also good for the community.

  • Guess the RTM Build

    I’m going to take a page from Joey D’Antoni and start a contest. We’ve gotten quite a few releases of SQL Server 2016, including now 4 Release Candidates (RC). RC3 was released recently, and noted as being feature complete. I am assuming this might is the last RC, though certainly any big bugs might result in an RC4 (or 5).

    This week, for a bit of fun, I’m going to start a pool for the final RTM Release number. If you post in the comment thread for this editorial, and guess correctly, I’ll send you a prize. Likely this will be something from Amazon, though I haven’t picked anything yet. Suggestions are welcome, though I am thinking some new SSD. We all need more fast storage.

    I’ll use the Price is Right rules, so the closest person, without going over. Ties will result in the first person posting winning, based on thread order. If the final build is 13.00.9500.12, and you post 13.00.9500.13, you’re out of the running.

    The RCs have been almost 100 builds apart. However there’s no guarantee that the RTM build will be follow any pattern, though it seems like previous releases have ended on an easy to remember build number like 12.00.2000, 11.00.2100, 10.0.1600, etc.

    Take your guess, and if you’re right, I’ll contact you with a private message to redeem your prize. Contest ends when SQL Server 2016 RTMs.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.4MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Crack that Encrypted Data

    Ransomware appears to be gaining some traction as a new trend. For awhile in my career, it was virus programs designed to send to all your contacts. Then it was infections to use your computer as part of a bot net. Now it’s encrypting your files and demanding a payment to get the password.

    I’m starting to think that a)I need to ensure I have solid, better backups on all devices, and b) I should pay attention and be aware of decryption programs. I’d love to say that I could build a decryption program, like someone did, but as much as I’m interesting in encryption and study it, that’s a little out of my skillset wheelhouse.

    I’m actually starting to think that this might be a way that people in communities, like the SQL Server community, can help each other. We can be aware of potential ransomware threats, like the one that hit this hospital, and potentially share ways to recover from the incident, or even decrypt the drives. In fact, I suspect it might be worth keeping a system handy to practice decryption techniques, if you can determine the attack vector.

    I’m sure many organizations wouldn’t want to share details of attacks and infections, but this is exactly the type of information that we, as data professionals, should be sharing. It’s incredibly difficult to keep up with all the threats and attacks, not to mention the techniques to recover systems. I’d urge all of you to ask your employers if you can at least help others, even if you can’t disclose how or where you gained the knowledge. If nothing else, the information needs to be shared more publicly to allow us to better protect our systems and be effective custodians of data.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Getting Started with Encryption in SQL Server 2016

    The release of SQL Server 2016 gives developers a number of ways in which they can securely encrypt and protect their data. In this introductory session, you will learn about the encryption options in SQL Server 2016, watching Always Encrypted, TDE, Row Level Security, Dynamic Data Masking, and server side column encryption can secure and protect your data from unauthorized users.

    Length: 60-75 minutes

    Code: Github

    Powerpoint deck: Getting Started with Encryption in SQL 2016.pptx