Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Where is the Puck Going?

    During the PASS Data Community Summit last week, Brent Ozar delivered the day 3 keynote, and it was great. I really enjoyed the format and topic, and I look forward to how someone else might be creative next year with the time. I’d certainly love to do the keynote, though not sure I’d be eligible. I’m hoping a few others get interested and compete for the slot in 2022.

    One of the things Brent mentioned was about looking for skills to focus on, primarily for “builder,” or those that develop new applications. He used a quote from Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” The reference is to pick things that will be relevant in the future (where the puck will be), not where things are today.

    Lots of people ask questions and wonder about this when we look at technology. What should I learn? Where is my best investment for the next ten or twenty years? There also is plenty of fear that you might learn to be an expert in something like Notification Services (dead after 2005) or Database Mirroring (deprecated in 2012). The other day I heard a few people say “graph is dead” in SQL Server, and I might agree. The features exist, but are they really growing and improving enough to compete with a graph platform? I’d argue no.

    I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you what will be popular. I have a magic 8 ball, but that’s less helpful. Here are a few things I’d suggest to help you think about this. Please, if you have specific questions, engage in the discussion, and I or someone else can try to help.

    First, the ability to work in a team is important. The skills to communicate well, debate a point, and collaborate in how you work are important. Not critical because plenty of people can get by without these skills, but when we look to hire new people, often we want to bond. If I find 10 qualified candidates and get along well with 2 in an interview, I’m likely picking one of the two. Learn to speak in small groups, summarize your thoughts, advocate your position, and appreciate others’ views. Also learn to accept defeat gracefully when things don’t go your way.

    Second, learn more about the choices your employer has made. Brent mentioned this a bit, but honestly, if your employer is focused on SQL Server on premises or in a VM, learn to run that well. Learn more about how it works and how to solve problems or tune it. If they want to use AWS RDS or Azure SQL Database, focus on those. Spend spare time, or quiet time at work, becoming more proficient with the platform. Read about it and practice on it. It will help you enjoy your current job, increase promotion and raise chances, and give you some confidence if you do need to change jobs.

    Third, learn to learn. Always be learning, and follow the advice above, or even pick the things that pique your interest. The important thing here is that if you need to pick something up, you want to be comfortable with those skills. How do I search out info on the Internet. Can I find videos or articles to consume and can I take sample code and stat using it? Can I set up new environments? Am I comfortable poking around a cloud portal or digging into a programming API? Maybe most importantly, can I sit through and absorb information from a Pluralsight (or other) course? All good skills.

    Lastly, part of skating to where you want to go is writing a resume/CV that gets you an interview. I’ve given this advice, and Brent did as well. Include keywords on your resume. If you decided to use Snowflake, I’d find a way to mention Synapse and Redshift on my resume. If you are good at Snowflake, you are likely going to be good at Redshift and Synapse. What you aren’t going to be good at is convincing a non-technical, HR person searching for your resume that these are synonyms if they aren’t included in your resume. Maybe you only want Snowflake jobs. That’s fine, decline the interview. Maybe you need a new job, and in that case, don’t limit yourself. Get past the AI or human filters.

    Actively managing your career takes some work and effort, and it takes some knowledge. Improve your skills, but take advice from those of us that have walked the paths. Ensure you represent yourself well, both with your avatar (the resume/CV), and in person for the interview. These won’t ensure you get a job, but they to help increase your chances.

    Steve Jones

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

  • The API Bottleneck

    While talking with a client recently about their performance challenges, I was relieved to find that the database wasn’t the problem. Instead, their API server was overloaded by the number of calls taking place in their application. While the database did provide the backing for the API calls, there was a fair amount of caching. However, as they’d moved to microservices, more and more of the interaction between modules was taking place as a network call to a single server, which became overloaded.

    Certainly, they could add more API servers, or break out different types of API servers, but each of these changes potentially has downsides. Data can become out of sync across two systems, which is why we often want a single database storing all data. Distributed systems are hard to architect and implement, and I suspect as more developers try to build them, we’ll find more issues like this. Not that developers are doing anything wrong, but they often don’t realize the challenges of building a distributed system when the workload scales.

    They’re relearning the knowledge that others have gained through their own experiments and failures.

    One of the things we try to do here at SQL Server Central is share our knowledge with others. We hope to help each of you learn from others, and hopefully not need to make the same mistakes in your applications.

    As I listened to the client talk, I was reminded of this post from Troy Hunt. In it he talks about the HaveIBeenPwned site, which he built a scaled to meet demands. The site doesn’t cost a lot, but there is a great quote about the API server he set up. He wrote: “I’ve tested it with 380k queries a minute! Infrastructure will scale out and magic will happen, so long as you’re not maxing it out for perpetuity, just go for it.”

    However, in your company, you might be scaling in perpetuity in an app, especially as a workload grows and more parts of your application need to make queries against an API. Good design, good coding, and adhering to good distributed system design, will help ensure you can handle the load. This is especially true in the cloud, where scaling up is just provisioning another resource, but there is a cost.

    You have to know what to do, so I urge anyone looking to build a distributed system to read about the experiences of others. Learn from their knowledge, rather than make your own mistakes and try to correct them. There is a lot of great information out there, but you need to be looking for resources that provide technical details, like Troy’s posts on how he built his site or Jeff Moden’s posts on writing high performing queries. That’s the type of knowledge that is invaluable if you want to be an efficient and effective developer.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Summit Reflections

    This is the second year that the annual PASS Data Community Summit has been virtual. Last year, as a pandemic gripped the world, I thought we might never see another one. I’m glad we have one this year, and I look forward to going back to a live, in-person Summit in 2022. That being said, this year’s event has been better than I expected in many ways, mostly because of spatial.chat.

    I can remember walking through the hallway of the Washington State Convention center and seeing Taiob Ali coming the other way. We stepped to the side of the hallway and had a chat among hundreds of people walking by. I thought about that in the Community Zone when he and I, with a couple others, were talking with each other in a group, away from others that were also in the room. We could see their avatars, but we were far enough away in the virtual space that our conversation didn’t upset others.

    At early Summits in Washington, there were couches in the Convention Center. Andy Warren and I often planted ourselves for hours on a couch, chatting with each other and those that came by. People would walk up and spend some time, others would drift away, but we had a conversation ebbing from work, life, Microsoft, family, hobbies, and more. We’d laugh and joke among ourselves, bonding and sharing, inspiring, and encouraging each other. I had that experience a few times in the Community Zone last week, as I stopped in various rooms, sometimes gathering in a crowd, sometimes (virtually) walking away to chat with just a friend or two.

    When I presented at the Summit, I often felt pressured, rushed, and excited by interacting with people. Getting questions and needing to go off script and explain something was a challenge and a joy. When the Summit opened this Wednesday, I had one of the first Q&A sessions. Most people hadn’t watched my recording, so I started to deliver the talk, but quickly realized I didn’t have time. I saw a few questions come in the chat, feeling pressure to get to them and quickly answer them. I had no idea how many I’d get, so I did my best to share my screen, show examples, talk through some of the concepts. It was scary and invigorating. It reminded me of the times I’d get a few questions, realize I wasn’t quite explaining things well enough, and then feeling pressure to deviate from what I’d rehearsed to help clarify the idea.

    Most years I’d have early mornings and late nights. I’ve be buzzing from my interactions and physically exhausted. As I logged off from holding open the Community Zone Wednesday night, I felt the same way. Getting going Thursday to host the SQL Saturday room for a long time and trying to watch other sessions was tough. Friday harder. Exactly like I’d feel many years at the physical event. I needed a break. I’ve enjoyed walks around the grounds of the Gaylord, or in the park behind the Washington State Convention Center; at home I go outside and see the horses. Rather than a quiet dinner with a friend (or even solo), I could go cook something and relax with my wife and son here. Both different shades of the same experiences.

    I am tired of virtual events. For me, they often lack the excitement and interest I get when I’m in a physical space. I wandered into different sessions, listened in on conversations of others, and enjoyed the interactions of being able to see and chat with others. I escaped at times to get away from the hectic environment, embraced it at others. Unlike my experience two weeks ago at Ignite, I felt like I was at an event.

    That being said, I’m looking forward to more live events in the next year. I want to engage with actual people and remember the wonderful emotions of being in the same room. I’ll miss those that don’t feel comfortable, I respect your choice, and I hope we can continue to find ways to touch each others’ lives. I’m also grateful that some of you are willing to come back to physical events and enjoy the #sqlfamily.

    Steve Jones

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

  • A Summit Rebirth in 2022

    This year the SQL Server and Data Platform community is getting together for the annual Summit virtually. You can still register and attend today through Friday for free. The content is also being recorded, and if you register, you can watch it later, or re-watch it, at your convenience. It’s free training for your career across a wide variety of topics, so take a moment and fill out the form.

    There’s another good reason to register now. Next year’s Summit will be hybrid, with the in-person portion happening back in Seattle next fall. However, there will be a limited number of tickets available for those that want to travel to the event and be in the same room as other professionals. Tickets for the live portion are only going to be available to people registered for this year’s event, so make sure you head over to the site and register today. You can also read about the announcement on the Redgate blog.

    I am thrilled that there will be a live conference next year. I have missed the chance to get together with others now that I’m vaccinated. I was lucky to attend a couple of events this year and am looking forward to SQL Server and Azure SQL Conference in December. I am hoping to get to SQL Bits in the spring in London, and I am very excited to go to next year’s Summit and spend time with the #sqlfamily that have made the last two decades a joy. I relish the chance to talk live with others, get inspired by their knowledge and stories, and bond over meals. It’s been invaluable in my career and brought many smiles to my face.

    I am also glad that next year’s event will be hybrid, allowing those that can’t travel, or don’t feel comfortable, to still access content and interact with others. I know that this is important, and I hope we find ways to provide additional hybrid options in the future. While I do think the pandemic will recede, some of the concerns will remain over large crowds and event safety. I think we should accommodate those that are not attending conferences live, and I expect we will find ways to do this better in the years ahead.

    The annual Summit has been a large part of my career for over 20 years. It has been a time and place where most of the best, brightest, and more generous Data Platform professionals from inside and outside of Microsoft gather to share information and help each other grow our industry. I look forward to the rebirth of this amazing experience in a hybrid form next year, with changes and ideas to make the event even more invigorating.

    Note: The deadline to register and be eligible for a ticket next year is Friday morning, before the Community keynote, presented by Brent Ozar.

    Steve Jones

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