Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Republish: We are All Data Companies

    I’m off to Portugal on holiday. So I’m leaving you We are All Data Companies.

  • Republish: Does Speed Compromise Quality?

    Out of town visiting a customer today, and it’s been a busy week. Plus, trying to get off for vacation, so you get: Does Speed Compromise Quality?

  • An Amazing Summit

    It’s been a couple of weeks since the PASS Data Community Summit 2022. I was lucky enough to attend the event, and I had the chance to experience things firsthand for the in-person part of the event. I also had many people come up to tell me that they loved the event as well. It truly felt like a homecoming with so many people that I’ve seen at past Summits in the same place at the same time. I know I’m biased here, but it was a wonderful way to reboot the Summit after not having an in-person event since 2019.

    Before the event, I was a bit nervous. While we have a number of people who have been a part of the Summit previously, and a lot of Redgaters coming who had been to events, the effort to execute on an event of this scale is high. There was a lot of stress and worry, and a lot of last-minute tasks. I was watching the various Slack channels in the background while being available to offer help where needed.

    To be clear, I really had nothing to do with organizing, planning, or executing this event. I spoke at a few sessions, but it was a lot of other Redgate employees and various contractors that made everything run fairly smoothly. Despite a few hiccups with getting started and some streaming issues, almost everyone I talked to thought that the event was very similar to previous Summits and the highlight of their year.

    For me, this was fun for many reasons. First, because of the people. Far too many to name, and far too many that I didn’t get a chance to speak with, but it was wonderful to meet new people and see so many friends from the past. The event was 5 days for me, but I never had enough time to stop and talk with others.

    Second, it was fun to be a part of the Lego Steve promotion. Every time I saw a picture posted or talked with someone about it, I had to laugh a little. It was a fun part of the event for me, and I have some fun memories of the experience. Starting the week off with a photoshoot was very enjoyable.

    Lastly, I loved seeing plenty of people taking advantage of networking and also seeing very quiet hallways during the presentations. People were learning from speakers and taking time between sessions to talk to each other. I had more than a few people tell me they networked and met some great new friends. Something that I have done many times over the years.

    I’ve had a strange relationship with the Summit over the years. Sometimes I’ve loved the event, other times I’ve been angry with the organizers. I’ve skipped a few as well. Over time I’ve come to realize that this is a magical event for the data community, bringing many of the best and brightest together with a happy, eager, hopeful, and wonderful #sqlfamily. I look forward to next year, and hopefully, finding more time to chat with people during the week.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Cloud First Software

    Watching the evolution of SQL Server and the Azure SQL Database (ASD) variant has been interesting across the last decade. For a long time, ASD felt crippled compared to the on-premises product. The last few years, however, it seems that ASD is getting features first, which then slip into a release that I can download and run locally. It’s a cloud-first database now, even though there isn’t parity with both products.

    In my career, I’ve worked with a number of platforms in production environments. One of those is Db2, though that’s often felt like a legacy platform. I’ve rarely seen users starting new projects on Db2, though they might add some new databases, especially on AS/400, mainframe, or Linux platforms. I never thought Db2 was less capable than other choices, but I just don’t see it used very often.

    There’s an article that notes IBM is moving to a cloud-first version of Db2, where there will be a cloud version coming first, then “traditional” releases. I assume this means a model similar to ASD and SQL Server, which makes sense. It’s much quicker to develop and deploy to the cloud, and test things behind feature flags with a limited audience. Those items that work well can then be bundled up for a versioned release on-premises.

    I don’t know that I think Db2 will gain a lot of market share beyond what it has with this announcement, but it does make me think this is the model that a lot of companies will adopt if they even sell software for download. Most companies seem to want to move to a SaaS (software as a service) model where they can “rent” you access to code rather than deal with the struggles of supporting an install on your machine with who-knows-what configuration.

    I get why this is attractive to companies. I also get the struggles of consumers. For some things, sure, I’ll rent access. Music makes sense. Some software makes sense, but others worry me. Already I can see that companies that control the data, and its format, might be poor choices for consumers. If I don’t like your software, can I still get whatever data I have stored with you? Is there any way to port this to another system?

    I don’t want to see regulations deciding how data and software should be implemented, but I would like to see some contract requirements with consumers that ensure the ability to leave a platform. Companies ought to be required to provide a way to extract out data into a common format, allowing me to move my pictures, tax data, sales records, health data, etc. to a new provider if I choose.

    This is often easy to do in databases, and many people know how to extract data. The harder problem becomes when higher-level vendors, those building applications, want to use proprietary formats. I don’t mind that, but I do mind not being able to extract my data if I choose.

    Steve Jones

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