Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Practicing Deployments

    This editorial was originally published on Feb 18, 2013. It is being re-run as Steve is out of the office.

    It’s said that amateurs practice until they can get something right. Professionals practice until they don’t get something wrong. That’s the idea, and while professionals make mistakes, they make far fewer than those that don’t approach their craft as a professional task.

    Many of us in the data industry develop software in some way. Whether we write queries in T-SQL or build projects in .NET, we produce code to accomplish some task. I’d like to think that many of us improve our skills over time, preferably by practicing new techniques and learning from our mistakes. I know some people stick with the tried and true methods without gaining skill over time, which not only hurts one’s career, but also doesn’t give an employer a reason to value their work.

    However the deployment of software, which encompasses more than the developer(s), doesn’t improve in many cases. Deployment includes operational people’s skills, scheduling dowtime with clients, possible even the briefing of support personel. However the whole process is often performed poorly. Deployments fail, or require more time than expected. People view them as a pain, and software deployment tends to happen less often than it could, resulting in a large software inventory.

    There’s a great quote from James Moore on how we can deploy software better: “…deployments are hard, but rather than long-winded planning, they need constant practice, testing and refining, and we could only do this by deploying early.” Red Gate Software has learned that deploying more often results in the company gaining skill in deploying software, resulting in more successful software changes in applications.

    The improvement you make in your software can bring tremendous value to your clients, but only if they can use those features in the software. Learning to push those changes out in a repeatable, professional manner is a great way to ensure your clients and customers trust you to deliver new features and enhancements that meet their needs.

    Steve Jones

  • NCAs and NDAs

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 12, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.

    It’s getting close to March Madness, but this editorial has nothing to do with basketball. I saw a career newsletter recently that answered a question someone had about negotiating non-compete agreements (NCA) and non-disclosure agreements (NDA). The basic answer was that you might want to negotiate reasonable limits to these agreements to protect yourself.

    I’m under a few NDAs, one as an MVP, one as part of Red Gate, and I still have a NCA as part of the sale of this site. I’ve also signed some in the past, but I’ve been careful to read them and negotiate the terms to be more fair, at least in my mind what was fair to me and the company. Often the original agreements I’ve seen are heavily in favor of the company and should be changed.

    The MVP one with Microsoft actually seemed fair to me and mostly covered releasing information that we get as MVPs in advance of Microsoft’s disclosure. So I always ask before I repeat something I’ve gotten through their channels.

    I don’t think that NDAs or even NCAs are that commonplace as a condition of regular employment, but you should be careful and read them carefully. The exceptions might be if you’re a consultant (often an NCA will be given to you) or you work in a company that’s going some type of research or invention, including software. In these cases, I think you might see a standard one.

    However you feel about them, usually they’re required as a condition of employment in those cases, however you don’t necessarily have to accept them as is. I highly encourage you to read them and ask for changes that you think make sense. Usually this involves limiting the distance, time, or scope of the agreement. I definitely advise you to limit time frames to no more than one year for most time limits, a reasonable distance limitation (50-100 miles), and scope out specific companies for which you cannot work (for example, current customers or even only those you have contact with).

    One thing I’d also mention is that don’t look at these agreements as ironclad. I know consultants that have gone to work for current customers of their employers by negotiating the transition. Often the contractor doesn’t want to anger its customer, so it may let an employee go as a gesture of goodwill. Of course you probably have to work for the company, not be your own contractor.

    Just keep in mind one thing if you ever want to get around the NCA or NDA. You need to ask and negotiate again, which just might get you what you want. If I’ve learned one thing in negotiating anything, it’s that you can’t get it if you don’t ask.

    Steve Jones

  • The Copy Cat Poll

    This editorial was originally published on Aug 3, 2012. It is being re-run as Steve is on vacation.

    One of the interesting facts I saw a few years ago talked about storage in enterprise environments. There was research that showed many enterprise applications had 6 or 7 copies of their large databases inside the organization. In addition to the production copy, there were many other copies in use, resulting in an explosion of growth. That wasn’t surprising, and it was one of the drivers for implementing compression in many databases.

    While the cost of storage is constantly coming down, it’s still expensive for enterprise class hardware, especially in a large SAN device. Today I wanted to ask those of you that work on real world systems to make a quick count of your own system, and let us know. I can’t decide if 6 copies of a production database is high, or low.

    How many copies, on average, of your production databases are in your company?

    I suppose you could count backups as a copy, since it’s disk space usage and you have to pay for it. If you count backups, let us know, but I’m thinking just about the test systems, development systems, HA or DR systems that might receive copies of the data. Some of those secondary systems might be in use for other purposes, such as reporting from readable secondaries in an AlwaysOn scenario. Whether they are or not, they are still copies of your database.

    I used to think that four or five copies would be a lot, but with the advances in technology that allow different DR options, and the cheap local storage available on today’s desktops and laptops, I wonder if seven or eight copies might be more accurate.

    Take a count today; you might surprise yourself with the results.

    Steve Jones

  • Time Off

    This editorial was originally published on Aug 20, 2012. It is being re-published as Steve on vacation.

    As a US citizen, I’m lucky to work for a UK company. I get a generous allotment of vacation, and desperately try to use it all each year. I haven’t been successful yet, but I’m getting closer. If we could only get a little more snow at the beginning and end of the season…..

    Last year a friend told me that they lost 6 days of vacation. Over a few years this person had accumulated extra vacation by basically working too hard and when the year ended, some of their vacation was lost because of carryover limits. This person vowed to change this year and use all their vacation, but with a busy job at a small company I’m not sure that will come true. Unfortunately, I’ve all too often seen this same behavior from many people in IT.

    This piece shows that all too often people are not taking their vacation, or they’re not taking it as a complete break from work. I’ve been in both situations, and over time I’ve learned that I’m not being more productive in either case. I’m unbalanced, and over time I become less productive. That’s especially true if I’m doing creative work, like writing, or developing code.

    There’s no shortage of poor managers out there, and there are plenty of them that will work you as hard as you allow. I don’t have any great solutions for dealing with them other than scheduling vacation every year, insisting you get to take it, limiting contact with work, and if all else fails, looking for another job.

    Life is short, too short to spend more of it as work than you have to. Take advantage of your vacation to relax and recharge, even if it’s a stay-cation at home. Getting away from work is not only important, it’s something you owe to yourself and your family.

    Steve Jones