Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • What is Big Data?

    big data visualization
    Big Data visualization of “water” being spoken to a child.

    This industry is full of some very smart people. We tend to get some very strong opinions, and some rather snarky comments at times about the way the technologies that we use are presented. Karen Lopez (@datachick | blog) recently made headlines with her comments on big data. “What the heck kind of definition is that?” she asked when looking at the Wikipedia definition of Big Data. If “big data” is data that is “awkward to work with” then I know lots of people that have had to deal with big data anytime they had to work with outer joins.

    While I’m not sure big data is well defined, I do know that there are large data sets which can overwhelm relational databases, both in scale and the speed at which the data is collected. Microsoft added StreamInsight to SQL Server to help deal with the speed problem, but I’m not sure that relational databases can handle the size issues at the same time. Some large computing and analysis problems don’t lend themselves well to non-relational soluttions, and other technologies are needed.

    I do agree with Karen that big data, whatever that means to you, is not really in conflict with relational databases like SQL Server. There are lots of data sets that work well inside of a relational database, especially when you have built a solid data model and referential integrity. Many problems with relational databases come about because of poor code added to the platform, not a problem with relational platforms in general.

    Relational database systems are not “obsolete”, despite what some vendors of other databases think. I have complete confidence that SQL Server as a relational platform will be used for years to come.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Self Service SQL

    self service help and advice
    Self service isn’t always better.

    I was looking over the Microsoft Virtual Academy recently, and went through one of the courses they have on SQL Server for the private cloud. I was curious how this solution is being both implemented and presented. It was interesting, and I learned a few things, including the fact that Microsoft is looking to build self-service into this idea of a private cloud. Users can build a virtual machine from a template, with Windows, SQL Server, and more already setup. They receive a SQL Server they can use as long as they like, and can delete it when they are done with it.

    There are a few problems here, and they are similar problems that we’ve seen in the past as we pushed out more capabilities to individual users. The first one is that allowing people to create their own SQL Server instances can be problematic as they don’t do a good job of setting up maintenance. SQL Server is easy to set up, but a little more complicated to manage over time. I suppose templates could potentially have backups and maintenance built in, but if you do this with any scale, you might end up with storage and space issues as well.  There’s only so much automation can do with limited resources, and I could see this ending up causing more infrastructure problems over time for IT staffs.

    The second issue is that people just don’t manage data well. How many people would delete a virtual machine without a final backup? How many people would create machines, load data, and then forget they had data out there? Apart from security concerns, there are likely to be efficiency concerns. How many people might create their own database server for financial data, even though the person in the next office might have already done the same thing? How many reconciliation problems will be brought to the DBA when people load different data sets into their servers, run reports, and then try to compare the results?

    I think IT self-service is a good idea in many ways, but it’s not the answer for all problems, and without some controls, I can see it easily causing as many issues as it solves.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Is Software Engineering Dead?

    Software Engineering
    Are textbooks like this obsolete?

    Is Software Engineering dead? It’s a premise that’s in this article from Bloomberg. It calls the job a career dead end where job prospects decline after one reaches 35 years of age. I think that’s a naive view of the industry, despite the quotes from Craig Barrett and Mark Zuckerberg. While the best of the best might peak in their careers at the same age as many athletes, that doesn’t imply that the career choice is a poor one.

    There’s a discussion on Slashdot as well, and I was struck by a few of the comments, which seem to suggest that if you are still just a “software engineer” at age 40, you aren’t very good at your job. It seems that some people seem to think that everyone in this business is constantly looking to move to a new job and advance into management or they aren’t successful . I saw analogies with other industries thinking that same thing, that experienced people would not still be doing the same job after 20 years.

    That seems crazy to me. So many people in various industries continue to improve at their jobs, and do the same work for decades. Carpenters, doctors, accountants, all continue to improve their skills over time, and while some may more into management or open their own firms, many will continue to do their same jobs until they retire. And they’ll enjoy their careers.

    I don’t deny that ageism exists, and that older programmers often can’t, or won’t, work as many hours as younger ones, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth their salaries. Good, experienced programmers produce better code, with fewer bugs. Once managers learn that working more hours doesn’t equal better code, or even more code, the entire industry will start producing better applications.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Time for Your Career

    Pro XMl book
    Trying to learn some XML, and work on my skills.

    When I was at SQL Saturday #131 recently, I attended Will Sisney’s (@HanSQL | blog) talk titled “6 Steps to a Stellar Performance Review”. It was a very interesting session and I agree with most of the advice that Will presented. A lot of it feels like common sense, much like my Branding presentation, but it’s helpful to have someone talk you through the ideas and get you organized. I’d recommend you attend this session if you get the chance to do so and vote for it if Will submits for the PASS Summit.

    However there was one thing in the session that struck me. One of the steps is for you to take control of your own training and make an active effort to learn more about your craft, tracking your time and efforts to present to your boss. Will says that he spends an hour a day on professional development, which sounds like a lot at first glance, but it’s only 12.5% more than a 40 hour work week.

    Who works 40 hours in this business? Lots of people, though I’m not sure it’s the majority. However I do know that there are people that don’t focus and work just on their projects for that 40-50 hours they spend at the office, so an hour a day isn’t unreasonable. I’ve had more than a few bosses that were willing to give me 2-4 hours a week to spend on learning something, if I could show them it was time well spent.

    How much time could you spend on professional development every week?

    I am asking what you could realistically fit into your schedule now, without large sacrifices by your family or the rest of your life. Could you spare an hour a week? Two? Five? Andy Warren talks about needing 100 hours to learn a new skill and feel comfortable with it. You won’t be an expert, but you would be able to work with the technology and have an idea on how to learn more. Four hours a week would get you 100 hours this year. Could you spare that?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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