Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Put Your Data in a Box

    A few years ago I was attending a keynote talk from one of the scientists that works CERN’s Large HADRON Collider (LHC). The talk was about data and how they deal with a large volume of data from experiments run on the machine. If you’re wondering what large is, the scientist talked about peak experimental data being over 1PB/s. I don’t know how much data you capture, but that’s a lot.

    In fact, it’s so much, that if they tried to analyze all that data, they’d never get around to running experiments. Instead, they depend on some pre-processing of data in sensor hardware as well as some early aggregation to get the data to a manageable level. It’s a good idea, and they have spent a lot of time and effort learning how to do this and still capture meaningful data for their work.

    The capability to remotely process data before sending it on is coming to all of us in a pre-packaged container. The Azure Data Box Edge was announced this week from Microsoft. This is a data processing device that is cloud managed and has FPGAs that you can program. It can run on batteries and is ruggedized for the field. There are more docs at Microsoft on the specifics.

    I don’t know how many companies want this, but I suspect that some who have remote or portable operations might think about it. Certainly if this can gather some data and then upload when a connection is available, it might be a good fit for places that don’t have good network connections and need a device that can handle some adverse conditions. I know sourcing and putting together a system for field offices is a pain. Off the shelf systems don’t always have reliability, and can be finicky to manage remotely.

    Recently I hosted a webinar with Abel Wang, and he talked about AI and ML being technologies whose use will grow dramatically in the next ten years. Perhaps a prediction without merit, but it does seem more and more companies and vendors are putting efforts into finding ways to deploy and operate ML systems. The Data Box Edge has capabilities in that area, which could be useful if you want to locally, and quickly, process data.

    This doesn’t appear to run SQL Server, or it’s not mentioned, but it does seem useful. If you doubt this, I know this is exactly what I would have wanted over a decade ago. I had to install systems in a warehouse to visual inspect some products. We used crude AI-ish systems that were set up to watch evaluation by humans. Eventually, the computer took over part of the job, but with humans randomly verifying its results. Keeping that system running was a pain. A Data Box Edge would have been a much better choice, and I’m sure we would have purchased one.

    There are likely plenty of customers that might be able to use this. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can find them and sell many of these devices.

    Steve Jones

  • Republish: The Work of the Ancients

    Today I’m teaching a pre-con with Kendra at SQL Saturday Denver, so you get The Work of the Ancients

  • Feedback and Change

    Recently I heard from a number of people that they received an email from the PASS organization asking them for some feedback on why they weren’t registered for this year’s Summit. I didn’t get the email, which is both good and bad. I’m teaching two precons, but not attending the Summit, so it might be good to actually have my feedback.

    I think the email is a good idea, though since it comes directly from Grant, I hope someone is triaging his email. Rather, I hope that there actually is a need for people to triage his email because there will be lots of responses.

    This is a good chance for anyone to give feedback to our professional organization as to why they aren’t attending this year as opposed to previous years. There will be all sorts of reasons, but I’d like to think that if there is a pattern of something the conference doesn’t do well, the organization will address the issue. Or at least explain why things are a certain way.

    Those of you that have followed me for a long time know I have a love/dislike relationship with PASS. I do support many efforts they manage, and I’m generally pleased with their stewardship of SQL Saturday. However, if you peruse the list of posts I’ve made about them on my blog, you might find some older notes that showcase some displeasure. I haven’t changed many of my thoughts, but instead I provide feedback privately to people when I disagree. I am trying to be a better version of myself online, and limit my public criticism.

    PASS has been slow to change across two decades, and I’d argue, resistant to many ideas from the community. I understand that it can be difficult to change the way that the organization works, and that I certainly don’t have all the information that impacts decisions. I also feel that transparency and accountability are important, with too little of that over the years from those that have served on the board. My view is that there should be more public justification for spending decisions as well as open and honest disclosure about difficult topics. I also would like to see more data from the org made available publicly. After all, we are a data organization.

    However, I do see the organization changing slowly. I have been a member since 1999, when the first Summit took place in Chicago. We have a much wider group of speakers, more rotation for speakers at all levels, plenty of new speakers, new events and virtual chapters, policy changes to better support the board and governance, and probably plenty of other things I’ve missed. While I’m not always in agreement with specific decisions, I do think there has been change over the last decade.

    I’d like to see more change, and I think more comes about with feedback. If you got the email, I’d appreciate you sending feedback to Grant and the board. Me, Steve, is asking you to send feedback to PASS. Long, short, it doesn’t matter, but be specific.

    If you’re not sure about what to say, or don’t want to send it yourself, feel free to send it to me (sjones at this domain) and I’ll give you feedback or send it on anonymously. In fact, I’d encourage everyone that would like to see something changed to send a note to the board members or the info@pass.org email.

    Changes takes time and it takes effort. Be a part of that.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Priorities and Productivity

    Time is a resource for all of us, both at work and in our lives. As I get older, I think time might be the most valuable resource I have, the same amount each day, but an ever decreasing set in my life. As a result, I try to avoid wasting time and taking advantage of what I have when I can.

    At work, we often have more tasks than we can complete in any point in time. I have rarely been without work, though certainly there are slower times when deadlines aren’t providing pressure to get things done. For many of us, we can struggle to manage our work, especially without strong management to help us.

    There was an interesting blog from Trainline, from a technical worker that was promoted to manager and had a whole new set of tasks and responsibilities. He decided to adopt some of the same agile principles he used as a developer to manage his time. It’s an interesting read, and perhaps one that might help some of you better organize your own work.

    The principles of Lean Thinking and visualization are two of the items he used, along with building a Customer-Value map. You can read the basic descriptions, but to really understand how these concepts work, you will want to do more research and spend some time practicing the concepts. However, there are a couple of other techniques in the post that I think are worth pointing out.

    The idea that work has an effort and value you can use to help determine which tasks are worth tackling is important. I think sometimes we consider value without effort, but organizing tasks into grid is useful. There is also the concept of important v urgent tasks, and how these two may or may not be related. As I read about these, I realize that I often do this internally with my work.

    I know there are important things to do, many of which aren’t urgent. Finding time to get those done is useful, not only because they get off my plate, but the more often I can avoid creating urgency, the less stress I have. I also find that urgency can sometimes be my own fault for procrastinating a task.

    There are certainly many times when managers will prioritize work for us, but I often find for developers and DBAs, that we have a fair amount of autonomy. Many of us also have a known backlog of work. Developing some skill and techniques to manage your own workload will serve you well, and you might consider adopting some of the ideas in the post in your own career.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.