Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Summit 2014

    The 2014 PASS Summit kicked off this week in Seattle. It’s a familiar location for those that have attended past events, as the conference has been held here more often than not. Plans are that it will be here for the next few years, so if you would like to attend, plan on a trip to the Pacific Northwest.

    My plan is to try and write a bit each day about the event and get that out to those of you that aren’t attending and share a bit about the experience. Don’t expect reports on late night activities as that’s not usually part of my day. My bedtime is likely in the 10:30 range, and I plan to be in the hotel most nights by that time. I also need to get things written by late afternoon, so some of the reporting may slide to the next day.

    Yesterday was SQL in the City – Seattle 2014 for me. This was our second event this year, and I’m assuming it was fun. I’ve written this in advance as I’ll be busy speaking at the event, meeting people, and then racing to the annual Networking Dinner that Andy Warren and I put on. I’m sure that’s fun as well.

    Today is my pre-con day. There were pre-cons yesterday (Monday) and more today. I’ll be in Allan Hirt’s The A to Z of Availability Groups. I’ve fumbled through AG setups myself, but it’s been confusing at times, and I know Allan is one of the experts, so I’m looking to shore up my knowledge. I’ll be taking lots of notes that I’ll be using in blog posts to document my knowledge later.

    I’ll link to pictures as I find them and add notes when I can. Hopefully I’ll get new posts out every day with some highlights and coverage of the event. I’ll be live blogging and live tweeting on Wednesday and Thursday, so look for some posts on the announcements and happenings, possibly with some sarcasm and humor, so take things with a grain of salt.  Hopefully you enjoy hearing about the event this week.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • The Geek Costume

    It’s Halloween, and while many of you are too old to dress up in a costume, some of you may be planning on joining your kids for trick or treating, or even attending a party of some sort. It can be fun, though I have to admit that I’ve rarely dressed up as an adult. However if my kid asked me to, as Patton Oswalt’s did, I’d probably join in on the fun.

    There are not shortage of fictional heroes available for us as geeks. Many of us have admired characters from the science fiction, comic, fantasy, and other worlds. The various SQL Bits conferences have included some great themes, with steampunk this year and the medieval theme last year. There was even a Jedi sighting on Pass TV last year.

    This week, with the holiday in full swing tonight, I wanted to ask you a question on which costume you’d pick. Whether you have one ready or not for tonight answer this:

    Which costume would you choose to dress up in for an event?

    It could be a character from fiction, or even a device of some sort. Maybe you want to use technology to build an awesome costume? While I’d be tempted by the Indiana Jones look, I think I might choose something in the Batman genre if I had to.

    Let us know this week what you’d pick, have a safe holiday tonight, and have a great weekend.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 1.9MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn. 

  • Have You Been Hacked?

    I am glad that I don’t work in the retail industry as a DBA. It seems that I read about a new security breach every few weeks from some company. Home Depot, Target, Staples, the list goes on and on, and includes more and more businesses that at least some of us use regularly. It’s gotten to the point where I expect that I’ll need to replace at least one of my cards every year because of some data loss issue.

    However it’s not just retail companies that are getting attacked. According to the Q3 Dambella report, companies are having dozens of devices infected daily and seeing increasing numbers of point-of-sale (POS) attacks all the time. Even those companies that don’t deal directly with credit cards and consumers are finding that they are targets of network attacks more and more. Some of these are merely vandalism, but many are intended as some sort of industrial espionage or data breach that can be used for profit.

    This is the other edge of the data professional’s sword. We have low unemployment and high salaries, but we are also becoming responsible and the target of blame when data is stolen. I really believe that theft detection is becoming more important for data professionals. We won’t be able to prevent attacks, but we surely need to know when they have occurred and be prepared to respond.

    I don’t know how our profession will move forward in the future to meet these needs. Perhaps we’ll become bonded like locksmiths. Perhaps we’ll be bound by insurance requirements to adhere to best practices. I’m not sure any of that will help increase security, but it might help reduce the liability that we may face.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Triple Digits

    The salary surveys for 2015 look good for data professionals. The Robert Half results that appear in this piece show lots of salaries creeping well into the triple digits for annual salary in the US. Not only are the upper bounds over $100k for many data professional areas, but so are many starting salaries.

    The values show a good increase from 2014, so if you aren’t thrilled with your job and are thinking of changing positions, you might land yourself a nice raise. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to change jobs for just money, and certainly the problems at your employer might be worse at others, but if you have other reasons for leaving, certainly look for a raise if you can.

    I’m also pleased to see a wider variety of positions appearing in the survey results. To me that points to a maturing of our industry and the recognition that we do a variety of jobs, all of which are different. And based on the salary responses, all of these are also important to companies. I’m have confidence that as the data we manage becomes more important, and many of us continue to work on improving your skills, we’ll continue to see greater rises in salaries in the future.

    The one thing in the piece that caught my eye was the “add 7% to salaries for Oracle database skills.” I get that Oracle costs more, but do we think Oracle data professionals are worth more for that reason? Or because Oracle is a bigger pain in the rear to deal with?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.