Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Long Term Storage

    Data storage has always been a concern for data professionals. Early on in my career, we dealt with large ESDI, IDE, and SCSI drives, all of which would fail unexpectedly in servers. Sometimes after a few years, sometimes after a few weeks. We learned to use RAID and tape backups to ensure that our data was recoverable.

    In many places tape was the long term storage medium used. These days, I know many people have moved to secondary disk storage of some sort, often rotating data across a few disk types that give you recovery for days, weeks, or longer. I don’t know how long term storage work in Azure or AWS, but I assume some sort of combination of technologies are in use. I also know I don’t trust them completely to be readily available and recoverable after a few years.

    For most of us, database backups aren’t really relevant after some number of weeks or months. We usually just don’t need to recover things from long term storage. The exception might be for some types of data that do need to archived for legal or financial purposes. I know we used to keep a end of year tape for 7 years after we’d closed the financial records at one company. I don’t know if that would be the case today, especially with so many “digital records” of transactions. Would we really need to recreate a system as it looked on a particular day from 5 years ago?

    However, there are types of data that we might want to archive for a long time. An example might be the arts, where we have lots of music and video that can preserved. There might be other records, such as historical government records, which are suitable for WORM (write-once-read-many) systems.

    A new type of recording uses glass and may provide archival storage for thousands of years. Obviously we don’t know this is the case as we haven’t been recording digital information for thousands of years, but it’s an interesting medium. It also doesn’t require the algorithms to be maintained as the idea is machine learning systems can read back the data and learn to interpret it.

    To me, that might be the most interesting part of this project. Using computers to learn to read the data rather than requiring us to know have an MP3 player, a database system like SQL Server, or any other particular technology. Instead, we can let the computer learn how to read the data and then play back that recording of Prince in the year 3510.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Onboarding Remote Employees

    I guess that I was a remote employee that needed to onboard at a new company at one point. When Redgate Software bought SQL Server Central, I lived in Colorado and the company was (mostly) in Cambridge, UK. However, I was hired mostly to continue the same work I did at SQL Server Central, so I didn’t really on board with the company. I signed a contract, and set up payroll paperwork, and that was it. I used my same workstation and laptop, albeit with a new account, password, and VPN, but almost everything was the same for me.

    Over the last two years, we’ve hired many people at Redgate, with most of them being brought onboard remotely. Plenty of them have never seen any of our offices, and quite a few didn’t meet any other employee in person for months. Our blog posted a couple of stories from people we’ve hired in the last year about the remote onboarding process.

    The stories are a bit light on details, but I know that we send out packets of info and boxes of equipment to people, and we use Zoom and Slack extensively to help people get themselves configured and set up for work. I also know that our managers are good about regularly reaching out to people and connecting them with resources if they need assistance.

    For many technical people, I think getting a pre-configured machine and then credentials would allow us to get working easily. A URL or path to source code and server names ensure we can work on a database or a set of code. Asking a few questions of current employees should solve any minor issues with connecting to development resources.

    I don’t envy anyone that starts a new job without being able to see or talk to someone in person at a new company, doing new work. However, I do think this is a process that is likely to continue for some time. Even those companies that have open offices and employees available likely have learned how to send someone packages and get them productive quickly without needing to schedule everything face to face. Even most signatures can be handled electronically these days.

    I do think we miss something by not getting together, at least periodically. I know I enjoy traveling to the Redgate offices, and I think most people would gain something from being in the same room as their co-workers some of the time.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Better Communication of Information

    Many of us work with data in some way that helps a customer better understand data, use it to make a decision, or support a some conclusion. The way we present data (or help others present data) can impact how well a consumer understands the information represented by the data. There are people whose job it is to design visualizations and ensure the final product communicates well, but often I find a developer or DBA is the person that gets asked for help.

    What do we recommend when looking at a set of data and deciding how to format it? A few posts I saw recently help with decisions (when should I use a map) or basic knowledge (what is a square chart). I’ve seen presentations that help me understand the impact of my decisions and how to better design my informative reports for more people. In fact, I hope more people produce content on how and why they have built reports. It’s helpful for many of us that would like to do a better job.

    The other side of this is actually producing some report and then getting feedback on it. I’ve been working on a report for the kids I coach and need to write some blogs on the way I’ve built report and how I think others might use it. I certainly could use some feedback and I know someone will have suggestions on how to better structure a report, color it, choose a different style, or something else.

    I might even get some better feedback on how I chose to store the data. That certainly isn’t a set or known thing, and I would guess that there are some things I haven’t thought about in building a structure.

    Ultimately there is information to be gleaned from the data we capture, store, and manage. While it might not be our job to help convey that information, we are a part of the process and the more we know about it, the more we might do our jobs better, or help others do theirs better. I do hope that I see more posts on not only how to query information and solve problems but how to better present the data from those queries.

    I’m looking forward to some blog posts, articles, or maybe even someone hosting a T-SQL Tuesday on this topic.

    Steve Jones

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

  • My Incredible Journey With Your Help

    At Techorama, I saw a keynote from Derek Martin of Microsoft. The talk was called Pain, Grief, Perseverance, and Technology, and it’s worth seeing if you can find it live or recorded. David talks about his growth in life from a young man to a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, husband, and father of six or seven. All the while dealing with a mental illness and learning to ask for help and to manage his busy life.

    It’s a great talk, though one I only lightly relate to. My life has been mostly easy and wonderful. Not always, but mostly. My problems are often minor ones. As I write this, I had surgery this morning to repair a painful ankle I’ve been dealing with for a few years. Things went smoothly and I expect rehab to be the same.

    My challenge with this issue? Scheduling it when I had a hole in my schedule to get cut and then a follow up. As it is, I arrived home from Brussels yesterday with a little stress about the COVID test and airline delays in getting back. I now fly to Germany in 3 days and then come back next week to see the doctor. I know, life is hard for me. My wife “gets” to come along and help carry my bags on a trip to Europe.

    Did I mention my life is amazing?

    I’ve had a lot of success in my career. I’m not an expert on tuning like Grant or Erik. I don’t know all the ins and outs of Power BI like Patrick or the deep Azure tricks that Denny and Joey constantly amaze me with. I don’t make the great presentations that Brent does or the business success of Stacia or the impressive credentials of Dr. Holt. I’ve learned from all these people and more. They’ve been there to give me help, whether with a technical problem or guidance in some area of life.

    I work hard. I’ve worked many weeks in my career and at my career beyond the standard 40, or even the common tech 50. I grind away at times, but I’ve also learned to say no and find balance. My wife and Andy remind me that babies aren’t dying because I take time off and that I need to take time off. Tjay provides the inspiration to do that more. I’ve learned to do that more as I age, balancing a busy work schedule with my coaching hobby. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some wonderful young ladies the last six years and travel with them to various cities to watch them compete, laugh, cheer, cry, and work as hard as I’ve ever worked at my career. In a sense, I have two amazing careers.

    My kids are healthy and happy. I’m proud of their journeys through life as two of them work on careers and one grinds through university. They are strong and dependable. They find a better balance between work and life, but don’t shy away from work and are accountable and responsible. This week, they’re taking over the cooking for me and horse chores for my wife as we travel in Europe.

    Again, life is wonderful here.

    My Mom praises my work ethic in getting through college and finding jobs that grew my career because of my hard work, and the effort I made to build SQL Server Central with Andy and Brian and then sell it to Redgate. All true, but that’s not the whole story. I had luck in people giving me opportunities, supporting me, even helping with the workload at times. I had lots of opportunities, and I took advantage of them. I also had plenty of help.

    I helped build something that Redgate and many of you have appreciated and used over the years. SQL Server Central, SQL Saturday, the Networking Dinner at the Pass Summit, and a few other things. However, you all helped me with those things. Many of you took a chance on posting a question or coming to the event. Plenty others of you participated with answers, articles, presentations, volunteer efforts, and more. You have helped me in my journey and I appreciate your efforts alongside my own.

    We’ve been a team, and I thank you for being there alongside me.

    I’m on an amazing journey in life, and I’m trying to enjoy more of it even as I keep busy at living it. My “problems” are first world ones, minor bumps on one a road I could never have imagined traveling when I was younger. I work hard, but I know many of you are there to help me often. Sometimes you help me when I don’t ask or think I need assistance.

    You can find an amazing life for you. Work at life, work at your attitude, work at your balance, work at your skills, and work at asking for help. I, and many others, are also here to help you. We don’t achieve anything on our own, but we do work to find success. Remember there is always someone else willing to provide an assist when you need it. Sometimes we don’t even realize how others help us, but they do.

    My life is perfect, thanks to us.

    Steve Jones

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