Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Not Excited by Linux

    You’re not excited by Linux. At least most of you in this community aren’t excited. A recent poll we ran showed that nearly two thirds of the people answering aren’t interested in even evaluating SQL Server on Linux. That’s an interesting result because in some groups I’ve spoken with, quite a few people are excited by the prospect of using a different host platform for their database.

    When Microsoft first announced they were going to run SQL Server on Linux, I was excited, mostly because I think this means more applications and organizations would consider using SQL Server, which I think is a fantastic platform. It’s been the platform of choice for my entire career. However, from a business perspective, I wasn’t sure if this was a great idea. After all, Microsoft may reduce their revenue from Windows licenses if a large number of people moved to Linux for their underlying OS.

    Does the OS matter? I don’t know if it does. I’m not sure how much revenue comes in from Windows Server licenses for hosting SQL Server. I’m sure it’s a significant number, but will the number decline substantially if some people move to Linux from Windows for their SQL Servers? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t think many people make that move.

    Instead, I think the people excited by Linux hosting SQL Server are those that already are deeply committed to the Linux platform and avoid SQL Server because they don’t want to run Windows servers. There will be DB2 and Oracle databases that might move to a much less expensive SQL Server license. Certainly I expect lots of (free) Express editions installed by developers, which will allow them to gain experience, and perhaps be more comfortable in the future with SQL Server as a data platform.

    It’s hard to know if the move to Linux will result in a big change to Microsoft’s bottom line, but I do think it opens up many new opportunities for us, as data professionals, to find work. With the way that SQL Server works and the seamless way the Linux version seems to behave, I don’t even think most of us need to know much about Linux to develop or manage an instance on that platform.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • SQL Server is Getting More Popular

    At the db-engines.com site, SQL Server was named the DMBS of the year. This was the site’s choice based on a measure of how popularity changed from Jan 2016 -Jan 2017. Apparently SQL Server grew in popularity in a number of ways, including job offers and LinkedIn profiles, but also with various search engine metrics and forum discussions. A few people have noted that SQL Server isn’t the most popular DBMS, as Oracle and MySQL are above it in January 2017. However, the change in score was dramatic for SQL Server, with MySQL a close second.

    Perhaps Microsoft’s embracing of open source is a reason why SQL Server is growing in popularity. That’s what some people think. With the announcement of SQL Server on Linux, as well as the regular commitments they make to Github, where Microsoft is the largest contributor. Microsoft has had a place for open source projects, CodePlex, for years, but now they have an open source site as well where they have numerous announcements and resources about how one might integrate some of the open source products with their closed source products.

    I certainly think the popularity of SQL Server is increasing as it grows to encompass more and more features. Compared to Oracle, SQL Server is a much less expensive, and it integrates well with the .NET stack of programming tools. Microsoft has made strides to make it easier for connections from Java and Python code to SQL Server. I’ve run across quite a few people using Redis, ElasticSearch, and more in applications along with SQL Server, which implies it’s becoming more acceptable and easier to integrate different data platforms than in the past.

    SQL Server has been a part of my career for over two decades, and in that time I’ve seen it become more and more popular, more useful, and easier to integrate into a wide variety of applications. I expect this will continue with the Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse, as well as the Azure Data Lake. There might not be as many installations of SQL Server as Oracle or MySQL, but I think it’s the best database platform for me.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.9MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Changes are Coming to the SQLServerCentral Forums

    The codebase for SQLServerCentral is old. Not as old as it looks, since our developers tried to keep the look and feel of the original site when they upgraded the underlying framework in 2009. Since then we’ve made a few changes, but not a lot of development. Like many of you working in organizations, I struggle for development resources when there are higher priority projects inside the company. I think I’m a bit of a victim of my own success here as the site has remained popular despite the aging design.

    Around September 2016, we did get more resources and a project approved to make changes. The first of which is an upgrade to our forum software. We’ve been running an old version of InstantForum, which was customized to integrate into the rest of the site. After evaluating quite a few options, we decided the newest version of this software was the best fit and have had developers working on integration as well as sending feedback to the vendor about some bugs we’ve discovered (and fixed). They’ve taken some pull requests from us, and since we’ve abstracted some of our customizations away from their codebase, we should be able to take upgrades and improvements over time.

    This is a large change, with a database upgrade, data movement, and large deployment of changes. After many practice runs and a beta test period with a number of users, we’re ready to deploy the new software. Our plan is to deploy the changes on the early morning (UK Time) of January 12th, and the site will have a short outage during this time.

    While much of the appearance of the main site will be similar, the underlying forum code and styling has been revamped with some new features and integration with SPAM detection engines. Hopefully that will cut down on some of the annoying posts we’ve seen across the last year. My fingers are crossed for that this happens.

    This should be a smooth upgrade, and I have confidence in the technology team that’s been working on this project. At the core, however, the mission of SQLServerCentral is to educate you, and that doesn’t depend on technology. We seek to publish information that helps you learn more about SQL Server and allow to ask questions and get answers to the problems you face in your work. When we come back up on the 12th Jan, we’ll get back to the business of helping you get better at your job.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.4MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Your 2017 Goals

    Last week I wrote some predictions for 2017, and plenty of you added your own thoughts. Overall, security is a concern for most people, with little hope things will improve. I certainly hope they do, but like most of you, I think expediency and profit will overwhelm any chance that organizations will make patching their systems a priority, much less improving their data security.

    As the new year came and went, I ran across a great post from Buck Woody that’s a few years old. Inthe post, Buck notes that he likes to make goals in the new year with his family, not resolutions. That sounds like semantics, but I agree with Buck. There is power in making goals instead of open ended changes. Goals can help drive you, especially if they’re measurable and time boxed. Having someone else keep you accountable also helps.

    This week, as we start a new year of our careers, I wanted to ask you what goals you might have. List a few and think about asking a friend, spouse, parent, child, someone else to help hold you accountable and check on your progress each month. If you have just a few goals, chances are that you will achieve some of them. Don’t forget, you can always add a few more later in the year if you finish everything.

    Perhaps you want to learn something about a new technology. If that’s the case, make a specific goal. Don’t try to “learn Azure”, but instead think about “building a database to track my own movie reviews in Azure and use it for a year.” If you want to get better at a specific technology, like T-SQL, then think about challenging yourself with a specific set of problems, like the T-SQL challenge. Or complete something like the Advent of Code in T-SQL.

    Set aside some time to improve your career and take a step forward. Data professionals working with SQL Server have no shortage of new features, subsystems, and solutions to practice with as our platform grows wide and deeper each year.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.