Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Insiders Selling Data

    There is a report that the lowest-paid employees at various banks are selling customer data, which is sad and also not unexpected. Those who have access to sensitive information can be tempted to part with it for a quick profit. I’ve seen this in the past in restaurants and retail stores. Sometimes with credit card or other data, but also with knowledge (or keys) that would let someone burglarize the premises.

    There’s a great quote in the article that says: “The more employees there are inside a company with access to sensitive customer information, the higher the risk that access is going to be abused.” I think that’s very true in most companies, which is why governance and data controls are becoming more important in some organizations. I wish it were a global trend at all companies, but far too many don’t think there is a high risk, or that their employees will abuse their privileges.

    I’d like to think most IT people wouldn’t be tempted to sell or disclose info, but I’m not sure that’s true. While many IT staffers are paid well, well is relative. Some might not think they’re compensated enough or they might feel pressure from their own financial stresses to compromise that data of others.

    Privileged access is just that: privileged. While it can be a pain to have a separate account for certain access, the intention is that you are reminded that this account can access things that others should not see. In my career, I’ve tried to remember this and be careful with my access, though admittedly, I’ve done plenty of non-privileged things with a privileged account, being lucky enough that nothing bad happened.

    Security continues to be a problem in so many places, and with the vast amounts of data we collect, and the growing desire for many organizations to let AI LLMs view that data, I suspect we’ll likely have more problems in the future not less. While we might not have as many humans that decide to sell our data, I suspect we’ll have many more AIs that can be tricked into disclosing it.

    Steve Jones

  • The Learning Plan for 2025

    I saw a post from Brent Ozar a couple of months ago promoting his Black Friday sale, which is really a Month-of-November-Training-Sale. I like that he does this, as I know it can take time to get purchases approved and not many techies want to spend a few thousand USD in hopes their company will reimburse them. Redgate likely would for me, but I don’t know many other employers that would reimburse the expense without prior approval.

    In the post, Brent outlines how you might spend your year working through his courses, learning more about various aspects of SQL Server. He plans out 11 months (Dec-Oct), and it’s a good flow going from understanding how things work to more advanced work in different areas. I’ve been in a few of his classes and I honestly think you might easily need a month if not 2-3 months to get through the various modules, practice using them, and cement in a few skills along the way.

    That’s around the rest of the things in your life. You do need to live your life, right? It’s not just work and training for work?

    I used to make a plan every Dec/Jan for the year, with some goals for learning and growing. I gave up a few years ago because I found the nature of my job meant my plan was likely not appropriate after March. Even going to quarterly goals was hard, as travel became a bit chaotic for me.

    As much as I like to set an example, for someone in their 50s with a busy job, the reality is I don’t know where my job takes me year to year, so planning is really hard. Plus, I find myself focusing on different aspects of technology or software sales as challenges arise. While I’m trying to work on my career, it’s more tactical in the sense that I worry about new things in Redgate month to month that can help me in my position.

    However, for many of you, you have a job that you know the parameters of, you know what types of things you’ll be asked to do, and more importantly, you know which of those things you were asked to do in the past, but struggled to get done at an expert level.

    In that case, have you made a learning plan? Are you setting aside time most (or every) week to further your career? If you’re young and single or married without kids, you definitely should spend time every week on your career. Doctors, lawyers, CPAs, and engineers have dedicated education requirements in their jobs, and they spend time on their careers. You ought to aim for at least a 3-4 hour a week commitment to yourself.

    If you have young kids, time is precious. While you might take a few years off, my view was that when my kids were 4-5, I could take some time to grow my career. In the those toddler/young schoolage years, this might only be an hour or two a week, but it should be something. As your kids grow, you can spend a bit more time.

    If you’ve got older kids, now is the time when you can prove you’re worth a higher salary. Dive deep into tech and show that you’re an expert. If your current employer doesn’t want to pay you, I’m sure someone will. While there are lots of people looking for jobs, and lots of unfilled positions, employers aren’t just hiring unless they are convinced someone really adds value. Learn to do this and you’ll have a fun, enjoyable twilight to your career.

    Think about your learning plan for 2025 and if you want to share, we’d love to hear it.

    Steve Jones

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  • Republish: How Much AI Do We Need?

    I’m back today from holiday, but gone tomorrow. As I try to close down the year, I decided to re-run How Much AI Do We Need? as it was an interesting look back at a piece from 2020, when the LLM/GenAI hype wasn’t a thought in most people’s minds. Instead, the AI systems were simpler and more focused on specific siutations.

    I find myself thinking back a bit and thinking about the world back then and re-reading the linked article. In that one it seems like “smart” is more about better communication and coordination in the kitchen, and less about the appliances having any intelligence. Some of the image recognition items might lightly be called AI/ML work, but most of the added features aren’t.

    Re-read the piece and article and think about how much AI do you need, or want.

  • Republish: Choosing Sequences Over Identity

    It’s the start of the holiday season for me. I’m off all this week and a few next week, so I’m really done for the year.

    You get to re-read Choosing Sequences Over Identity.