Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Your Frame of Reference

    sql_cat_logo_smIs a database snapshot in SQL Server update-able? Most of us would say no, but I ran across a blog from the Microsoft SQLCAT team that proposes a method of issuing an insert, update, or delete statement in a database snapshot context. You can read the article for the details, and we could argue if this is really allowing a snapshot to be read/write, but that’s not what I noticed as I read this.

    This is a very creative way of approaching a problem. It changes the frame of reference slightly so that we rethink what the customer is trying to accomplish instead of what the technology limitations are. There might be more elegant, or more easily maintained solutions, but I found this to be creative, and perhaps useful, approach for solving a certain domain of problems.

    I think quite often we get caught in viewing problems in terms of our frame of reference, or in terms of common technology implentations without thinking through the problem from the customer’s frame of reference and working on an effective solution. That’s our job most of the time: being effective as we solve problems. If we view all problems within the narrow range of our past solutions, we are relying on our experience, but that may prevent us from building applications that work better than our past work, go beyond what our customers want and get them excited about using the end result.

    However it’s a balance. I’ve seen hacked solutions that didn’t perform well, or didn’t scale and ended up causing problems for years. Looking at the problem from the customer’s viewpoint needs to be tempered with the requirement of building a solution that performs well and fits within the framework of the environment. Ultimately I think the way to get better at building applications (and databases) is to increase your knowledge and experience. Learn more about other people’s solutions, and engage with the rest of the community to sanity check your approach.  Learning new techniques that have worked for others, and experimenting in your environment to build better software over time.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • A Better Conference

     

     

    sqlcity

    Hope to see you at the conference.
    Hope to see you at the conference.

    ImGoingToSqlBits200

    sqlsat183_speakingspeakingsqlsat197.jpg

    I participate in a lot of events during the year. I had the SQL in the City event from Red Gate recently, with more of those coming to the US later this year. In 2013 I’ve also been a part of SQL Intersection, the online-only spring IT Connections event, various SQL Saturdays, and attended the MVP Summit from Microsoft. In the past I’ve also spoken or attendedTechEd, the PASS Summit, and various one, two, and three day events that didn’t necessarily focus on one specific technology. In that time, I haven’t seen a lot of difference between the various conferences organization and flow. some little things have been tried, and some I liked, but overall most events consist of:

    • a series of “tracks”, which are really rooms in a building.
    • a 60-90 minute presentation of varying quality from a speaker, built months in advance, with little input from the audience.
    • shuttling from one session to another quickly

    There are other parts of the events, parties at night, sometimes networking, keynotes, lunch panels, etc, but for the most part organizers pick a location, choose to have x number of rooms, and choose speakers to present in those spaces, largely on the basis of their own biases or desire to learn about a specific topic. Even when attendees vote for content, they only affect a small portion of the agenda.

    Could we do better? I don’t know. I saw this post on a better conference and it got me thinking. Perhaps there are other ways we could build conferences. Would it make sense to link sessions together, and build on knowledge across the day? What about getting a panel of speakers to respond to real scenarios and questions from the audience, possibly submitted a few days or hours before? That would raise the bar for speakers, and it might be more entertaining. I’m not sure the quality would be better, especially if demos are hastily thrown together.

    However the post has an interesting point. Conferences and many sessions ought to be more about engagement and inspiration and less about training you to use a particular piece of technology. Perhaps we would like to find ways to interact more, discuss and debate ideas and approaches rather than broadcast information. Would you like more interactive content? Or do you prefer to sit back and listen to what the speaker thinks is important?

  • Who’s Got Your Data?

    enigmaThe headlines lately have been filled with the plight of Edward Snowden, along with his disclosures on how the US National Security Administration (NSA) has been gathering, cataloging, and examining all sorts of data about people in the world. It’s not just terrorists, criminals, or anyone suspected of illicit activities, but also many ordinary people that may not feel they should have been subjected to this level of surveillance. Whether you think this was a proper way to disclose this information or not, there’s a separate issue here.

    We are producing a tremendous amount of data about ourselves all the time. There are so many ways in which companies can gather data points about us, often with logging activity that we might not find intrusive. Our houses produce logs of electrical activity along with the various types of services we might use (water, trash, etc.). We use cell phones, whose locations and usage are recorded, and we often use on line services for mail, research, entertainment, and more that all produce logs of our activities. Purchases on line are stored, and purchases off line might be stored if you use any type of loyalty card. I can imagine it not being long before any card purchase can be linked to the actual items themselves, regardless of whether you want this to occur.

    We can add in any services we use that store data in the cloud, from physical activity to medical information to even your location from status updates. While much of this data is stored separately, and not necessarily aggregated, that might not be the case in the future. The government could potentially request this data, which is unnerving to me, but what is more disconcerting is the idea that businesses might engage in complex deals to share much, or all, of your data without you knowing about it. This could be under the guise of providing better services, which makes sense, but that’s not what concerns me.

    What concerns me is the lack of care that so many companies take with our data. It’s lots constantly, and the more data that might be shared between companies, and need to be transformed and loaded into new data warehouses, the more people that will touch this data. And the more developers that will have copies of it on their laptops as they build new applications. It’s scary to think about the lack of control we have, and now many mistakes will be made in the future.

    I wish I had a good suggestion on how to improve the situation, but I don’t. However I do think disk encryption, for all machines that touch data, is a good place to start.

    Steve Jones

  • The Intrusion of Life

    erI really try to be professional in my career. I try to meet my deadlines. I take pride in my work. I try to ensure that the commitments I’ve made, I keep. If that means I need to work late or on weekends, I do so. That doesn’t mean that my life revolves around work, or that I allow myself to be abused by an employer, but if I’m behind, or I haven’t given 100% of my effort during a project, I make an extra effort to catch up.

    Recently as I was stressed and preparing for SQL in the City, life intruded into work in a very visible way. A family injury, resulting in some doctor visits and additional work around the house for me, severely cut into some of my work time. Fortunately my flexible schedule allowed me to work early in the mornings or at night to try and make up for the errands and appointments, but I still fell behind.

    To add to the stress and pressure, there were business continuity issues. If I couldn’t attend SQL in the City, someone needed to be able to deliver the talks in my place. Not only was it important I finish the content, but I also needed to practice myself, as I had still planned to make the trip if at all possible. In the end everything worked out well, but it was a very busy couple of weeks for me to finish this “project” for my job, continue to manage the daily work, and tackle the extra load at home.

    That’s not much different than the challenges and pressures that many of you face in your jobs as data professionals. You have regular responsibilities, you have special projects with hard deadlines, and you sometimes struggle to fit the rest of your life into the remaining time you have. However, you shouldn’t fit your life into work most of the time. There are always situations where you must, but for the most part we work to have a life outside of work. We want to spend time with family, friends, and on hobbies. I would hope that all of you would ultimately see your family and life outside of work as more important than work.

    I’m lucky. My boss was very supportive and understood I might cancel the trip if my family needed me. Red Gate was willing to work with me to rearrange things, have remote meetings, and support my by tackling a few of my daily tasks. Not all companies or bosses are like that, and I’ve struggled with those that were difficult in the past.

    I hope that you really think about the priorities that you set in life, and limit the compromises you make when the demands of work conflict with those in the rest of your life.

    Steve Jones

    PS: Everyone at the ranch is fine.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.