Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Welcome to 2011

    It seems amazing that it is already 2011, and we’re ten years past the point when I expected there to be a manned mission to Jupiter. Or at least hoped it would have happened. We look forward to 2011, with many people expecting a new version of SQL Server to be released, along with many other technological advancements likely coming.

    The new year is a few days old, and I suspect a few of you have set some new years resolutions. Those are always hard to stick with, and it almost seems like failing to keep them is as much a tradition as making them.

    I read quite a few blogs last week talking about goals for 2011, and this is a good time to think about what you would like to accomplish in your career this year. I am trying to work through this myself, thinking about where I would like to take my life over the next year. Like many of you, I have to blend a busy family life, a job working for someone else, and professional goals into some strategy that fits into that ever limiting 24 hours we are stuck with each day.

    I think that putting these goals down is important. It helps to focus you, and regular review or reminders to check them can ensure that you will work on them. It’s easy to forget in which direction you want to go, because we get busy and are pulled in many different directions each day.

    This next year I am not sure what will be on my list, or even if I will have a list of goals for the year. The pace of change seems to almost dictate a shorter term set of goals, perhaps quarterly. I do think, however, that it’s important to have a list of things that you would like to accomplish in your career, and make an effort to progress through them on a regular basis.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72059/)

  • Building Better Communication Skills

    The most valuable skill for your career.

    I think that one of the most valuable skills that someone in technology can have is the ability to communicate with others. It doesn’t matter whether you write code, rack servers, or sit in meetings with business people, it is important that you find a way to express clearly what you want, need, or would expect from someone else. If you can’t, you will find that you often struggle to get anything accomplished in an efficient manner.

    It’s possible that you can get by with verbal communications in many instances, but it seems that so much gets done by written communications of some sort. Especially these days where it seems that so much of the interaction between people takes place through email, IM, or even Twitter. We are constantly using some form of written text to convey information between each other.

    However it seems that many people don’t place a premium on building better writing skills. When I talk to many people at SQL Saturdays, most of them are hesitant to try something like blogging. The most common complaint: I hate writing.

    But we have to do it constantly at work and working on your writing skills will not only help you to communicate better, but it will also help you learn to better organize your own thoughts. You will have a better understanding of the logical thought process, which might even help you build better code.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72122/

  • Enjoying the New Year

    The last 5 or 6 years, on this day, my family has gotten together with friends for an evening of games and fun at Dave and Busters before returning home for some movies or Rock Band until the wee hours of the morning. Tonight I expect to do the same, with some relatives in from out of town, making this one of our biggest parties ever.

    This is the last day of 2010, and most of us are starting to look forward to the new year. Next week will have us back to our jobs, and back to the proverbial “grind” as we are working with SQL Server. Hopefully this isn’t a busy weekend for you, and the last chance for a bit of a holiday before the new year.

    As such, I decided to make this a fun Friday poll, and ask for recommendations from you:

    What movies from 2010 would you recommend for the technologist this weekend?

    I haven’t seen a lot of movies in 2010, between a busy family life and travel for work, but I would like to relax and enjoy a couple this weekend. I just watched Sherlock Holmes over the Christmas break for the first time and enjoyed it. I think that one of the more enjoyable technological films of 2010 for me was Inception, which I saw a couple times while my wife paid to see it 5 times in the theater.

    As we close out this year, hopefully with a quiet day for most of you, share with us a suggestion for how we might enjoy ourselves away from work this weekend.

    Steve Jones

  • The Year of the Community

    Usually at the end of each year I try to look back at the previous year in the database world.  This past year seems to have been an amazing year for the SQL Community and for me it has been the opportunity to meet new people, and also reconnect with so many of the amazing professionals that work with SQL Server.

    The year started early with the decision for PASS to take over the management of the SQL Saturday franchise. Andy Warren and I symbolically passed a key (thanks to Peter Shire of SQL Sentry) to PASS at SQL Saturday #33 in Charlotte, and from there the number of events exploded. When Andy talked with me about this idea almost 4 years ago, we wondered if we would ever get to 50 events, or even if we’d have more than 20 in a year. Right now SQL Saturday #71 is scheduled for Boston in April 2011, and there were 32 events last year. It looks like 2011 might be an even better year, with 14 events scheduled so far. If you are even thinking of having one in your area, contact PASS, or even me for a little help.

    We also had quite a bit of change in the SQL Server world. SQL Server 2008 R2, the Parallel Data Warehouse edition,  and a few service packs, including SP4 for SQL Server 2005, were released. The growth, and support, of the platform from Microsoft continues to give us data professionals more tools, and opportunities, to build amazing applications for our companies. When I look back at where I started, with SQL Server 4.2, the platform is almost unrecognizable. Next year we may get another new version, with some nicely matured subsystems like PBM and Extended Events, that will greatly help DBAs better manage their systems.

    Checking servers from a horse

    Beyond the laptop was a change that amazed me. After having an iPhone, and seeing Surface, I was truly stunned at the success of the iPad, and the rush to build other tablets, like the Galaxy Tab. It’s amazing how versatile and useful these devices can be for consuming information. I expect some amazing new applications, especially in the BI area to be coming in the future. Even my employer has found them useful, giving away dozen’s of iPads in our SQL Monitor launch, which can be used to watch the SQLServerCentral servers in real time.

    There were many more events, from the release of Windows Phone 7 and 4G networks to the growth of the Cloud and NoSQL databases. We had Arnie Rowland’s Project Phoenix, which looks to help unemployed tech professionals, another Exceptional DBA in Tracy Hamlin, and perhaps the beginning of a recovery in the global economy. It seems more people are taking an interest in their career, and poised to take advantage of the hiring that is starting to pick up.

    From my perspective, 2010 was a great year for the SQL community. I don’t know if this community is closer, stronger, or more helpful that those of other technologies, but I do know that it’s an amazing group, and I am better for being a part of it.

    Happy New Year.

    Steve Jones