Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Tech Blame Game

    Last year Solarwinds was hacked and blamed an intern for a security lapse. When Equifax was hacked, in testimony to the US Congress, the former CEO blamed a specific, though unnamed, person for not patching a system. British Airways blamed their USD$200+mm IT issue on an engineer that rebooted a system too quickly.

    I don’t know that any large company from my younger days, say before 1990, would have blamed a massive failure on a single person. While any single person can influence more systems in the age of technology, no one should have the power to cause such a massive failure. If they do, I think I’d look towards poor system design, rather than individuals.

    These aren’t the only examples of management trying to scapegoat an IT worker, and I suspect we’ll see more examples in the future. However, I hope that governments and shareholders start to demand better management from management. If you don’t understand how IT works, get auditors or consultants to evaluate things and explain them to you. If you don’t think that your systems are well put together without single points of failure, address that. If you worry about security, make that a priority. Microsoft did after the Slammer worm, and arguably they have a difficult job where most employees want to control their laptops and workstations entirely and run them in their individual manner. Microsoft built better controls into infrastructure and software development, and everyone else should as well. Management needs to own their responsibility for failures.

    We should expect mistakes in security, in design, in coding, and more. We should also be placing guardrails, tests, and limits inside our environments to ensure that we catch most of the issues. Software development and system design have improved dramatically the last decade to help us improve quality and security, but we have to embrace the knowledge that’s been gained, as well as ensure we have circuit breakers to prevent runaway failures. If a sysadmin can alter a Chef script to set the max memory in SQL Server to 1MB, this shouldn’t get deployed to all instances. Moreover, we ought to be testing for all sorts of potential changes that can cause issues.

    To me, this is the area that DevOps, GitOps, anything Ops, automated, or at scale, needs to mature. We need to allow for, expect, and assume mistakes and failures will happen and build in controls to our build and test systems. Once we start to better understand how someone can make simple mistakes, we can attach more checks and balances to ensure that we continue to improve quality, without sacrificing speed, or lowering security.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Hopes for vNext

    It’s been quite some time since the last version of SQL Server was released. SQL Server 2019, v15, came out on Nov 4, 2019. Since then we’ve gotten 10 CUs, but no new version in 18 months. The pandemic likely slowed things down, but with vaccines being delivered and offices starting to slowly open, I suspect we will see more work on the vNext version of SQL Server.

    With the last few years, there has been a lot of growth in cloud computing, more concern for data privacy and security, not to mention plenty of need to support larger workloads. This week, as I think about the next version, I wonder if you have any wishes or desires for what you would like to see? While Microsoft has a feedback area for SQL Server, it gets cluttered and full of bugs as well as suggestions.

    As we start June this week, what things would you like to see added or fixed in SQL Server v16? While I think the platform is quite mature and capable, there are still bugs and plenty of room for improvement in existing features, as well as adding new ones.

    Most of the work I do is easily handled by SQL Server. Maybe it’s because I’ve learned to work around issues and within the capabilities, but I find the platform stable and strong. I would like to see a little more work on the language to enable better unit testing. I like tsqlt, but it works around some issues. We need better ways to setup and handle tests across all of the language.

    On the administration front, I think we need better auditing abilities that are easy to setup and use. The current SQL Audit feels immature and clunky. I’m not sure what should change in security, but certainly we have continuing needs to improve the platform to handle additional threats from hackers, as well as the privacy of data and individuals.

    If you have specifics, add them to the feedback area and post a link here. Maybe you can get enough votes to convince Microsoft to build something you want.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Back to Basics, Reaching for the Clouds, and Leveling Up

    The three themes for speakers at this year’s PASS Data Community Summit are: Back to Basics, Reach for the Clouds, and Level Up. The goal here is content that covers a wide variety of areas, with many fewer restrictions from previous years. Perhaps the big thing to note for this year’s event is:

    Free.

    That’s right, this year’s Summit is free for the general conference. That should boost attendance, and it might mean some incredible audiences for this year’s speakers. I’d recommend you submit something and take a chance, as there are opportunities ranging from 10 minute lightning talks to 2 1/2 hour half day sessions. This is a great chance to speak at the largest Microsoft Data Platform focused conference out there. There are also pre-conference sessions. They’ll cost something, but with all the proceeds going to the speakers, I’m looking to support someone that will teach me a few new skills.

    We all need fundamentals, and the idea in Back to Basics is practical, day-to-day solutions. All of us build those on a regular basis. What creative, solid solutions have you implemented at work? What code or configuration do you rely on to keep your business moving? Those are the topics to share with others.

    The cloud has really started to prove it’s a fantastic solution for many organizations. Not for everything, but for many things. The modern data professional needs to know about the cloud, and when to move or not move. Many of us have been excited by the cloud, and plenty forced into adopting it, but there are lessons and experiences to be shared here. Good and bad.

    Level Up is the internal Redgate Software conference, where we look to improve skills. It’s a theme here where we try to help people advance their careers in some way, whether that’s a technical skill, a soft skill technique, or a new way of thinking. I’m glad to see that among the tracks, we have both a Professional Development and a DE&I (diversity, equity, and inclusion) track. Both are ways to help us round out our ability to work in a team. I hope to see lots of “Level Up” type sessions, both technical and non technical, delivered this fall.

    I wasn’t sure there ever would be a Summit again, and I am glad that we have a chance to get a large group of incredibly talented speakers and attendees that all care about data, databases, and building better systems, reports, and employees. I’m excited by the free online Summit, and I look forward to a hybrid event in 2022 when we get the chance to connect and smile in person again.

    Steve Jones

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

  • A Computer on Wheels

    I enjoy cars, and I’ve owned a lot in my life. In fact, I resurrected my list and I count 30 for my wife and I, with 1 motorcycle, 2 ATVs, 2 UTVs, and a tractor. Likely a new tractor or skid steer coming in the next few years as this one is 14 years old. I was hoping for a different car this year, but with two kids needing help, I’m going to have to delay my gratification for another year or so.

    For years, Glenn Berry has been trying to get me to look at a Tesla. He’s owned a few and has driven me around. I’ve never been thrilled with them from a design perspective, though they are quick. Recently I ran across this video (5 Features that didn’t exist when I purchased my Tesla model 3), and for some reason I watched it. It caught my eye (especially dog mode) in that Tesla is doing DevOps with their cars, introducing new features in a way that evolves the car into something new.

    Since then I’ve watched a few other videos, and the Model Y is intriguing. It’s got more range than the cars originally did and it’s not a crazy price. It’s expensive, and more than I want to spend, but it’s tempting because it’s a computer.

    The way that DevOps is changing software is moving beyond tech companies. As I study more about how some companies are building better software quicker, I see that this is finding its way into more and more types of industries. From finance to medicine to manufacturing to shipping to anything, there is tremendous investment in software developers and computing technology to transform industries.

    More and more we are going to depend on software, which means that quality, security, and more are going to become more important. They already are becoming issues, as different companies are realizing just how costly it can be to remediate software bugs for their customers.

    I don’t know if I’ll get a Tesla, but it’s on my mind. If I do, I’ll ping Glenn for a referral code, and then likely be reminded forever that he introduced me to the car.

    Steve Jones

    Update: My wife and I went to test drive a Y. She loved it and actually decided to sell her current, 1yr old car and use that money for a Model Y. So I’m getting a Tesla. Or half of one.

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