Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • More MVPs Than Awards

    Every year, July 1 is the Microsoft MVP Renewal date and quite a few people received good news that day. I was one of those renewed for another year, and I am honored that Microsoft chose me again. I also congratulate all the others that received the award for the first time as well as those that were renewed.

    Not everyone was renewed, and some very popular names were dropped from the list. I don’t mean to leave anyone out, but I did see a couple good friends were not renewed: Kevin Kline and Andy Kelly. Both are extremely talented SQL Server professionals and generous with their time and knowledge with the SQL community. They are truly MVPs to me, as they are to many others.

    The MVP program is run by Microsoft, under their rules, and with their discretion about who is awarded and who isn’t. I don’t feel they did anything wrong here as I don’t know what criteria they use or what information they had access to. I also know they have a limited budget and have to make decisions about who to award each year.

    The award is an indication that you are providing a lot of valuable contributions to the technical community about some Microsoft product. The amount that is a “lot” is some level decided by Microsoft. There are many people that provide very close to “a lot” of contributions to the community, but they don’t make the cut off. That’s just the way the program works.

    Think of the 100m dash in the Olympics. Only three people get to stand on the podium after the final heat. They are the people awarded a medal. Don’t think for a minute that the other five in that heat aren’t fast. They are some of the fastest humans on the planet. They just didn’t make the cutoff for the medal. They are still Olympians and worthy of fans’ praise for their efforts.

    The same thing goes for Kevin, Andy, and numerous others that didn’t get renewed. It also applies to even more numerous others that help me, you, and many people in their technical community every day.

    There are more individuals out there that act like MVPs than Microsoft can award each year. Remember that fact the next time you read a response to a question you posted. Remember that when you attend the next SQL Saturday or other conference and listen to a speaker that is donating their time to teach you something. Remember that when you read an article by someone at SQLServerCentral or elsewhere. There are lots of MVPs for the data platform out there. Only a few of them get to use the designation from Microsoft, but all are worth thanking.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Republish: A Clock With Benefits

    A busy week in the office, so a rerun of A Clock With Benefits

  • Evergreen SQL

    Colorado is a beautiful state, one that my family and I have enjoyed many times. We like the summer and winter outdoors, including lots of days skiing. We have plenty of trees on the slopes, which is both great to view and a series of obstacles to avoid. Fortunately, the pines and spruces keep their needles all year round and are easy to spot.

    Recently I caught a press release from Microsoft about the Azure SQL Server platform. It was written as support for SQL Server 2008 and R2 comes to an end. Microsoft certainly wants to pressure those customers to upgrade, as there are lots of them out there and this would be quite a bit of revenue. It’s been nearly a decade since R2 and over that for SQL Server 2008. There are a few options Microsoft has for you, though the move to an IaaS system in Azure with 3 years of support might be the only feasible one if you need support for some business reason.

    There are other options, and the post calls out some of these as evergreen SQL. Both the Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database are listed here, because there’s no need to patch or upgrade these platforms. Microsoft handles this for you, though that’s not necessarily as simple as you might expect. I don’t know how vendors will deal with Microsoft upgrading code, but certainly your in-house applications that might be built with workarounds for the various bugs that people stumble upon need to be prepared to change code if the bugs fix and behavior changes.

    I do like the idea of not needing to patch SQL Server and having the code improve and grow. I also like the idea of my code working and not breaking. While Microsoft has noted they don’t plan on removing functionality (deprecated just means there’s a better way you should use), what about the features that have bugs and the current behavior needs to change? That can be challenging for in-house development teams, but also a hassle for ISVs.

    Perhaps this will get ISVs to write code that handles patches and upgrades. Perhaps this means that we won’t get stuck on RTM or SP 1 of some old version of SQL Server because a vendor doesn’t want to test and certify their system on patched code. Perhaps it also means they’ll write the most basic, generic SQL that uses limited features and will work everywhere without them spending any resources verifying their code. I worry the latter more than the former will be the result of evergreen SQL Server.

    Do you want a version of SQL Server, as an instance, a database, or some hosted service that you never patch, but Microsoft does? I wonder how many of you look forward to evergreen SQL for your code.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Data Challenges and Travel

    I made a quick trip to Pensacola recently for SQL Saturday #884. I had a great time and consider myself honored to be picked to speak, as well as lucky that I can make the trip. I didn’t have a smooth trip, as I wrote on my blog, but things worked out. These were really first world problems and minor hassles for me.

    When I wrote my blog, I was thinking about all the data I received, and didn’t receive on the trip. Across the last few years, United (my primary airline) has enhanced their apps and services to share more data with travelers. I get text reminders two hours before flights, which is usually my drop dead time to leave the house for the airport. A good reminder for me. I get an announcement when boarding starts. I’m usually there, but if I’m late, or busy in an airport trying to find food, coffee, or a restroom, this is a great reminder.

    Maybe the best part for me as a frequent traveler is the information about what’s happening with the plane before I get on it. There’s a “where is this plane coming from?” and a “where is this plane currently” view that I’ve used to make decisions on how to handle delays or other issues. While this might not matter to most people, though kids will love it, this has helped me to decide to rebook, alter plans at times, or even just keep working a bit longer during delays. Timing can be everything for frequent travelers.

    Perhaps one of the amazing things with the data from airlines is baggage. While I don’t know how things work, I have been amazed at times that my bags get from plane A to plane B in a short time. My frequent travels from Denver to London have had me running between planes at times. This means that baggage handlers have to know there are a few bags (I’m often not the only one) that are in a particular bin or bucket on plane A need to be separated out from other bags and routed to a plane, not the collection point. Add in the fact that many other bags might need to go to different planes in a short time, and it’s actually incredible that most bags get on the plane with their owners. Or maybe that’s a major source of “unexplained delays”. Who knows, but when you think about the challenges, it’s incredible.

    Certainly the data sharing isn’t perfect, and I’m sure the companies are careful about what they share. At the same time, I appreciate that other companies are doing a better job of using data and technology. While on my trip, I got a picture from Amazon of a package that was delivered to my house. I know it was my house because the package was next to a planter on my porch. Useful in case one of the kids moves it and denies doing so.

    Mistakes will continue to be made by companies all over the world, and certainly we should understand that. The more data they collect, and the more they share, the more we can better understand what went wrong and fix it in the future.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.