Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Best of the Best

    Today’s editorial was originally pubished on June 26, 2007. It is being re-run today as Steve is traveling. 

    Men in Black
    The best of the best of the best, sir.

     

    Of the best of the best, sir! (remember that one?)

    Where’s the best place to work? Here’s the list from Computerworldfor 2007. I’m not surprised that a few of these companies (University of Miami, Quicken Loans) were in last year’s list. After all, if you’re a great company, you should be able to maintain that in the short term.

    What’s more interesting, is that in the various lists (Best overall, Diversity, Benefits, etc.) is that a number of companies show up multiple times. For example, the University of Miami shows up in 4 of the 5 top tens. With the weather, maybe that’s the place to be.

    I’m not sure I’d use this list as a way to seek out a job, but I’d certainly check it if I were applying somewhere because it shows that there are people that like the company. That’s important since I’m of the opinion that the people you work with and their attitudes are extremely important to having a good term of employment.

    But most important is that you need to find the best fit for you. I interviewed with Pulte Homes (#69) a few years ago (2002?) and wasn’t impressed with the people. In fact, I wouldn’t have wanted to work there. Maybe things have changed since then, but I know I’d be wary of going back there as the culture didn’t seem to fit me.

  • Key Storage

    keys
    Hopefully your digital key storage is more organized and secure than this.

    One of the issues with encryption, perhaps the biggest issue, is the management of the keys that protect the encrypted data. I have been an advocate of keeping the backup of the keys far away from the backup of the encrypted data.I usually want them on separate media, or a separate tape, just so that a loss of my backup of the data (or the data itself), doesn’t include the key.

    However this presents a problem in a DR situation, especially over time. If I make a backup, and lose my server in a year, can I easily find the copies of the asymmetric keys or certificates? Can I easily match up the proper key with the encryption if I rotate keys periodically? There hasn’t been a great solution I’ve seen to solving this issue.

    Recently I saw a talk on security, and the speaker mentioned they kept copies of their certificates on the backup tape with the backup of the data. This person felt that since a password was needed for the certificate, that this was secure enough. Perhaps, but you still have the problem of securing that password over time as well. This week, I wanted to ask those of you that use encryption, how do you handle the issue.

    Would you store a secure asymmetric key protected with a password on your backup drive or tape?

    If so, then how do you handle the security of the password? If not, then what other solution do you have? I know key management is a struggle in many organizations, but if you have something that works for you, let us know how it works.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Transfer Times in the Cloud

    SQL Azure
    Can you get your data out of the cloud if it goes in?

    There are many reasons not to move your data to the cloud. You might be concerned about the performance of your system, you might be concerned about the reliability of the service, you might worry about any number of regulatory or legal factors, or you might be worried about security. However I think most of those issues aren’t as important as another one: moving your data.

    I like the freedom to choose how I want to run my business. I like to be able to choose to run Oracle, or NoSQL, or SQL Server. I like to be able to purchase my hardware from Dell or HP or Apple. And more importantly, I like to be able to change my mind and move to a new vendor if they have a better product, or if the price saves me money, or if I just change my mind.

    The ability to get my data back is critical to me. Despite all the triple redundancy of Azure and the backups avaible from AWS, I want to be able to move my data if the need arises. There are transfer options, but they might not work as well as expected. A test moving data from AWS to Azure didn’t work as well as expected, which unfortunately, isn’t surprising. Part of this may be Azure and not Amazon, which is a little disappointing.

    I suspect that cloud companies would not be as helpful when you are closing your account as when you first sign up. They have no financial incentive to do so, but I would hope that they would act maturely, and let customers go if they cannot meet their needs. Our requirements may change,  and being able to get our data back is important. If you want to charge a fee to expedite the removal of data, state that up front, but make sure that we can get our data back.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Wasting Time

    ping pong
    In a few jobs, we had a ping pong table at work and it was a great place to take a 10 minute break from work.

    I used to come into work, get some coffee, sit in a cube, put headphones on, and then spend my day stuck in the world of SQL Server. Solving problems, working on trouble tickets, analyzing performance and more. An occasional meeting interrupted me, and an empty coffee cup interrupted me more, but for the most part I worked as a DBA with headphones on, doing my job. However I wasn’t perfect. There were times that I surfed the web, looking for news, answering questions on forums or more.  Add this to the conversations with co-workers about non-work topics and it’s clear that 8 hours at work isn’t 8 hours of work.

    I’m not alone, and most of my co-workers engaged in other sorts of distractions as well. We weren’t alone either, and this survey from Salary.com shows some interesting results. Many people spend time on the Internet on non-work tasks, and I think that’s OK. I also think it’s not much different from the pre-Internet days of work. Smoke breaks, random walks around the building, water cooler time, I think some people would be surprised how much time they spend away from “work” if their movements and efforts were tracked by the minute.

    As humans, we aren’t going to focus on a single task for a long period of time unless it doesn’t require much thought. For anyone that has to think, however, distractions are necessary over time. Extreme concentration in one area can easily leave us locked in to a particular solution, creating tunnel vision. It’s also hard, and requires some downtime to recharge. That downtime at work can easily come from a few distractions that let your mind wander.  The best people I’ve worked with often had short breaks spread in their day. A game of table tennis, playing a song on a guitar, a short conversation, or even working with a co-worker on some problem unrelated to their job. What looked like a waste of time didn’t seem to affect their productivity.

    Not everyone handles the freedom well, and plenty of people get distracted to the point of being unproductive. However eliminating all distractions doesn’t necessarily make them more productive. They’ll just find some other way to distract themselves. Great employers look to help people learn to manage themselves better, shortening breaks, learning to tackle problems as a challenge, and perhaps learning to become better at their craft by using some break time to learn more.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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