Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Looking Back at 2020

    In some sense I hate to do this. 2020 was a black swan event for the world, with a pandemic that caused changes all across the world in ways that many of us might never have thought possible.

    For the data platform, perhaps one of the more startling changes was the demise of PASS. This organization has been a part of my life for the last 20 years, and while I’ve had my disagreements, I think they have brought the SQL Server and related communities closer than they might otherwise have been. I hope that any of you that have had dealings with PASS or been to an event will wish the best for the staff at HQ. Anika, Audrey, Craig, Erick, Leeza, Marcella, and others have really helped the community over the years, and I hope I get to see them in the future.

    We didn’t get a new version of SQL Server, though we got a number of cumulative updates. We also had quite a few updates to their tools, SSMS and ADS. The latest releases included a welcome change. You can now avoid installing ADS with SSMS if you run the installation from the command line. This was something requested and voted on by many people. Glad Microsoft is listening.

    The other big thing that changed for many of us was the way we work. Our work environments dramatically changed, in a way that many managers would not have thought could be effective. Many organizations transitioned to remote work in March or April of 2020 and are still embracing the format. A few large tech companies will give people the option to work from home forever, though forever might be changed at some point. Some, like Microsoft, have picked dates next year, which I think is good. Choosing June or July makes sense, as it gives some stability for those with children.

    At Redgate we went from requiring most people to be in the office to embracing a remote-first approach from this time onward. Lots of tech professionals have known this was possible, but haven’t had the chance until the pandemic forced this upon us. I’ve seen many people and groups thrive, which shows us that the office might not be quite as important as we thought. We also changed our attitude from coping with this change to thriving under this new paradigm. I don’t know what this will mean, and I certainly look forward to the chance to go back to Cambridge, but I’m not sure when that will be possible.

    From the database perspective, much of 2020 felt somewhat like a blur. We had breaches, we had minor patches and changes. No big changes, no dramatic evolution of how we work with data, though I know all the cloud vendors would point to all the software releases they’ve during the year. I am hoping that 2021 starts to feel more normal, even if the pandemic continues to drag us along in the same manner. At least, I hope I adjust more.

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 30 Dec 2020

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

    Today’s tip is to bring joy to others. Share something which made you laugh.

    I love comedy, and that is one outing that my wife and I miss. We’ve watched some specials and comedians online, but it’s not the same. I look forward to being able to go back to a live comedy show.

    One thing that I love about the Internet is the incredible creativity of so many people. While I get that there is a lot of things posted that others may not like, and it’s easy to waste lots of time, it’s also nice to take a brief break and be entertained by something.

    There is plenty to be offended by, but one of the cleaner, more entertaining things was brought to my by my daughter. She showed me You Suck at Cooking one night while I was cooking. I finished and then ended up spending about 20 minute watching with her while we ate. Two I enjoyed:

  • What Skills Will Help Me?

    Yesterday I wrote a little about skills from the corporate side of your career. What is important, valuable, and helpful to your organization. Today, as we close down 2020, I want to look a little at the skills that will help your career, whether at this organization or another one.

    When I speak with people about their career path, I often hear them speculating on which technologies will be hot, which ones will ensure a long and financially rewarding career. The answer isn’t the same for everyone, and I’m not sure there is any technology that’s can guarantee it will boost your career, but I do have a few thoughts.

    First, you will want to evaluate yourself and understand your skills. How skilled are you at T-SQL or SSIS or security or anything else. Write down skills, evaluate yourself, and also evaluate if you like doing that work. I know when I’ve done this, I sometimes realize I’m doing things I don’t enjoy far too often.

    Next, get some goals about the type of work or employer you are dreaming about. Ask friends about their workplaces, look at job postings, and network with others about the work they do. Be sure to check Glassdoor or other ratings services, as no one wants to go work for an employer everyone dislikes.

    To grow your own skills, I know most people want specifics, so here are some. For development skills, go through the Advent of Code or Exercism and show that you can solve problems. Don’t look at the answers, and don’t look at anyone else’s solution until you have one. Write down how and why you solved something, save it in Github, and blog about it. Whether you share this or not, it’s good practice for you.

    For development or admin skills, learn about DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Delivery. To do this, you’ll need to learn some scripting and various other organizational skills. Tackle a sample project, and learn to implement it, ensuring you can deploy code to one other machine using these principles. This promotes lots of good, core software development skills that anyone wants. You can use the cloud or not, but many things are not that different in the cloud, conceptually. The syntax varies, but a lot of what you learn can be reused.

    Lastly, work on your soft skills. I recommend blogging, but learn to make a presentation to a friend, at a user group, or even to your dog. Record yourself if you do the latter, and ensure you can concisely and clearly explain concepts. Learn to respect others, listen more than you speak, and critically evaluate ideas, code, and thoughts, without attacking or complaining to others.

    Ask lots of questions of others, in forums or live. Learn to learn, learn to share, and learn to improve your code or admin practices. Refactor things periodically and improve them. These are the ways in which you can grow your talents. You can do this at work, or at home. And if someone doesn’t want to use your refactored code at work, that’s fine. You know when you’ve written something better, and it gives you stories and content for interviews. It isn’t time wasted, as learning to do something better is always good for your growth.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 29 Dec 2020

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

    Today’s tip is to congratulate someone for an achievement that may go unnoticed.

    This is a double congrats, for someone that I know and don’t get to see often enough. Some of you may also know Glenn Berry, hardware expert and the author of the DMV Diagnostic queries that lots of people use.

    Glenn left his job and struck out on his own this past year and he’s been busy working on a number of things where he’s had some success that I think is worth noting. I have probably left some positive notes on posts, but I’m going to use today as a way to congratulate him for a few things.

    First, his YouTube channel has over 500 subscribers, which is a nice accomplishment in relatively short time.

    Second, he’s been winning awards for his beer. Congrats to him, and hopefully I’ll get the chance to try some of these. I was over at his house last summer, watching him brew beer one day and got to try a few of his creations. Looking forward to doing it again.