Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • The Data Platform is Important

    I didn’t attend the //build/ conference this year and am slightly disappointed. Only slightly, since I was in these cities in May already and didn’t need another trip: London, Los Angeles, Austin, Brisbane. In addition, my family had to celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, Mother’s Day, and a graduation in May. A busy month for me.

    However, I did watch some of the keynotes and streamed a few sessions. I have more on my list, but one of the big things I noticed is covered in this article: the data platform is becoming more important. Both to Microsoft and their customers as we all start to depend not only on software, but on the data that powers our software systems. More and more executives are waking up to appreciate not only the value of data as an asset, but also that it needs protecting.

    At the conference, there were some announcements that give us more options and more opportunity as SQL Server professionals. We get SQL Server on the Edge, running on ARM platforms, as well as some caching improvements in Azure SQL Data Warehouse. While not a lot of people use ASDW, the technologies that Microsoft builds here are filtering down to the on-premises version of SQL Server. Keep an eye on this caching to come in 2021 or 2022 to all of us.

    There were other items, but one thing that strikes me more and more: this is an exciting time to be working on the Microsoft Data Platform.

  • Keynoting at SQL Saturday #831–Christchurch

    After our SQL in the City Summit in Brisbane last week, Hamish Watson () asked me if I’d do a short version of my keynote talk at the upcoming SQL Saturday in Christchurch this week. I was happy to do so and I’m excited to get the chance to welcome you to the South Island 2019 event.

    If you haven’t registered, and you can come, do so now. Tell your friends, colleagues, family, kids. Bring your kids and let them get some exposure to a SQL Saturday and the exciting Data Platform.

    There’s an exciting schedule, with lots of great sessions. I’m looking forward to a few myself, and if you are interested in Always Encrypted, I’ll give you an overview and demo of this in my session.

    Lots of core database sessions, BI, even a predictive session from Greg Low on technologies to watch.

    Register for SQL Saturday #831 – Christchurch and I’ll see you Saturday.

  • High Security Prices–Always Encrypted 2019 needs Datacenter Edition

    I was recently doing some work on Always Encrypted in SQL Server 2019 and needed to set up an HGS server. I went through most of the setup, and then encountered this issue:

    2019-04-24 07_52_51-Window

    After embarrassing myself to other MVPs and Microsoft, I realized I hadn’t read the requirements for the secure enclaves. I need 2 machines, but the SQL Server has to run on Windows 10 or Windows 2019 Server – Datacenter Edition.

    Grrr, I had built a machine for this and need to tear it down and restart the process. It’s not that hard, but it’s annoying.

    I should learn to read more carefully.

  • A Busy Few Weeks and Vacation

    I’m taking a short break from blogging with a 3 week trip to Australia and New Zealand. I’ve got quite a bit of work to do, as well as session prep for a busy schedule (5 different sessions to deliver) on quite a few time zones away from home.

    And a little break in the middle as my family joins me in NZ.

    Look for some blogging to pick back up the week of June 17.