Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Help Us Help You

    Nissan GT-R
    Nissan GT-R

    Recently I was debating with some people on the quality of abstracts that were submitted to various conferences and events. There was quite a bit of discussion on the way that the summary of a presentation ought to be worded, whether your name should be in the description and various other considerations of what will attract an audience.

    To a large extent we all have our own personalities, and some of them show through in the session abstracts they write. If you look at how Brent Ozar (blog | @brento) or Buck Woody (blog | @BuckWoody) talk about their sessions, it’s quite different from those of many people. How many speakers use Nissan GT-R or arsenal in their descriptions?

    As a speaker I have a different view of the events and sessions, and more often than not I look at the speaker before the session title or description. Those often mean more to me in deciding if I want to attend. However I’m not sure that my view is the same as most of the audience.

    So…

    I’ve decided to try and help everyone out. We have created a new forum at SQLServerCentral calledPresentations and Speaking. It’s there for speakers to post their abstracts or titles and get feedback from everyone out there. This is one forum that I hope people subscribe to and go look at the entries on a regular basis.

    I’d also ask that those of you that have attended a conference or a SQL Saturday, take a minute and look at a few of the past submissions. Post a note in the comments for this editorial and let us know which abstracts made you want to attend a session and why? Or which ones made you not want to go see the session.

    With some feedback and help, you can help all the speakers out there get better at building presentations, and hopefully teaching you more about SQL Server.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72233/)

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Changing the Past

    The National Archives

    A few years ago my accountant caught a mistake in one of our tax returns. This was during the next year’s filing and so we had to amend to previous return, filing against almost two years later to correct an issue. Fortunately the error was in our favor and we ended up receiving a refund.

    In most businesses you typically do not change data that was completed in the past unless there is a severe error. For some types of data, such as audit data, you never want to change it. And in many cases, even if there were some change, because of the way that you have operated the business based on those past values, you might decide not to change things.

    However as more and more data is accumulated, and used in business decisions, legal proceedings, etc, it is likely that more data professionals will be faced with the questions about when it is appropriate to alter something. With that in mind, this Friday’s poll is:

    When would you change archived data?

    Are there circumstances that you are aware of where it is valid to change data that might be archived? Is it only to make corrections that were recorded incorrectly in the past? Is it to normalize data, so events like companies merging are able to run reports with pre-merge data?

    This is a thorny subject, but it seems like one that we should be thinking about as data professionals, looking to give guidance to our clients.

    Steve Jones

    (Originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72232/)

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • The Face of BI for SQL Server

    Donald Farmerannounced recently that he was leaving Microsoft for QlikView. For many people, Donald has been the face of BI for Microsoft. His many talks on all aspects of the platform have entertained and informed thousands of SQL Server professionals all around the world. However I am sure that many of us will continue to learn from Mr. Farmer in his new role at QlikView.

    Many people outside of Microsoft were sad to see Donald leave, including me. However I support and understand his decision, and I know that there is still an amazing team at Microsoft that will continue to work with the SQL Server BI pros everywhere.

    I felt the same way when others have left the SQL Server team in the past. Some have been good spokespersons or speakers. Donald Farmer leaves a hole that will be hard to fill, but we still have Amir Netz, among others.  Amir is someone that I would always recommend you go see speak, even if you’re not interested in the topic. Like Donald, Amir is entertaining and has an infectious enthusiasm that makes you enjoy the technology.

    There are plenty of other talented people working on SQL Server, and I am sure that we will find some other great speakers to help us learn more as SQL Server continues to evolve in the future.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72200/ )

    Podcasts

  • Skunk Works

    The SR-71 Blackbird cockpit

    The abstract at the top of this article is great: “Using SQL Server, you can build a BI platform without getting your organization’s top brass involved.” Not that I condone you going off on your own to do work without any communication with others, but funding and starting a BI project can often get shot down when too many resources are involved. It might be just as likely is the approval to tackle a long project often gets bogged down because too many people and too many objectives are involved.

    The release of SQL Server 2008 R2 didn’t excite me very much because I have always been a core database engine person and this version mostly had BI improvements. I like the database engine, T-SQL, and working with OLTP systems. However I do see the value in building BI systems, and the enhancements made to the SQL Server platform, mostly in SSIS, SSRS, and SSAS with Powerpivot, mean that you can build an incredibly powerful application to work with business data without stepping outside of BIDS and SSMS.

    A skunk works project is a great way to try out BI ideas, and make some useful prototypes that end-users can take advantage of. If you find that you have built something useful, then you can approach upper management with a request for more resources to build a better system. I would not go this alone, however, without at least getting some approval from your manager to spend time and resources to build something. I’d also be sure that you implement good security practices; after all, if you use production data, you need to be sure it is protected at the same level as the production systems.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72180/)

    Podcasts

    * Video Podcast – 17.1MB WMV
    * Video Podcast – 13.7MB MP4
    * Audio Podcast – 3.2MB MP3