Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Cloud is Nothing Special

    In the news this week, there was a major announcement. Buck Woody (blog | @BuckWoody), longtime Microsoft employee and favorite speaker of many in the community, bought an iPad. That in and of itself, with Buck’s frequent touting of Microsoft products, is amazing, and Buck wrote about it on his blog, noting that Windows Azure is platform independent. He even has a picture of a NASA app, something built on Azure, running on his new toy.

    This week, SQL Azure finally gets its own web site, showcasing SQL Server in the cloud. I know lots of DBAs, and IT people in general might be down on computing in the cloud, but I’m not. I think that there are some problems, some applications, that will benefit from cloud computing. Not every instance of SQL Server should be moved to the cloud, but some will work better in the cloud. If nothing else, being able to use cloud services is another evolution of the hosted environments that so many small companies use today. You can get the services you need without the need to do as much administration or setup.

    For most of us, the services that we might use on the Internet are platform independent. We don’t care that Facebook uses Cassandra, or Google uses BigTable, or that TractorByNet uses whatever technology they use. We just want our particular service to work, and it doesn’t mattter what the underlying technology is.

    I think it’s the same with cloud computing. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if it’s Azure, EC2, or some other service. Just like Brent Ozar views virtualization, I would bet that some of the time a cloud service is “good enough” to use.

  • Salaries and Experience

    One of the main reasons that I got into IT was the salary. Honestly, there were relatively few places where I thought I had a skill AND could make good money. I graduated with an economics degree, with the idea that I’d go to Wall Street, follow Gordon Gecko, and work 140 hours a week and make a few million.

    That was until I wrecked my shoulder playing rugby my senior year, realized that I wasn’t invincible, and decided there were more important things than my salary. However I still wanted to have a good living, I had some skills in technology, and I moved in that direction. When I heard that our DBA was making $90k a year at a time when I was making $45k, I decided I should learn more about databases.

    Across the last two decades of my career, I think I’ve been fortunate in my career. It’s been a lot of work, , and a lot of fun. I’ve tried to grow my career, learn new things, and find better opportunities over time and in new positions. I’ve had success, and I’ve found the experience has resulted in higher salaries for me. I found a blog about salaries recently that says it’s not only experience, but also location that matters in terms of salary. That’s probably true, though I think industry, the particular company, and other factors are important as well.

    For most of us, we don’t necessarily want to change locations, but we can do something about our experience. I’ve seen it written before that for people that have 10 years of experience, it could be gained two ways. They could have one year of experience ten times, or ten different years of experience (or some combination). The point is that you should be continually expanding on your experiences, not just relying on skills you learned a long time ago.

    You may or may not be able to get a job that pays you more with more experience. I’d like to think, however, that any investment in improving your skills and learning more about your craft, is never wasted.

    Steve Jones

  • I Love the SQL Community

    This community is amazing. Across two decades in my career I have seen it grow, and grow, and now explode. It’s been exciting to me, and it continues to be exciting every day.

    The community is you. Each of you out there, each person that visits a site like this, or attends a user group, a SQL Saturday, posts a blog, or even asks a question. You are the greatest part of this community. It’s the involvement of people that is the most important part of this community, and I hope that more of you will continue to actively work in the community over time.

    I don’t have to attend SQL Saturdays. It’s a pain to travel. It’s slightly annoying to my wife when I’m gone as it cuts into her horse time. My kids miss me on the weekends. It jams up my work schedule and results in some late nights for me. I don’t typically represent Red Gate, though I’ll likely do a bit more in the future as they are paying for my trips. I don’t even get a resume bullet out of it at this point in my life.

    So why do I go? I go because of this community. I go because I get to talk to people and get excited by listening to them. I get inspired to see people giving up time out of their lives to try and learn something. And I feel I should be doing more when I hear some people tell me how far they’ve driven to a SQL Saturday. I go because the it’s least I can do to give back to a community that has helped me over the years.

    The community is bigger than any site, bigger than any event, bigger than any organization. There is so much to appreciate in this community, and I look forward to finding new ways to speak to you, engage with you, interact with you, and learn from you. It is a privilege and honor to exchange emails on a regular basis with so many of you, and shake the few hands at events.

    I look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones in the future. Please feel free to say hi, ask me a question, give me your opinion on anything SQL Server, or just share a cup of coffee at SQL Connections this fall, or any of the SQL Saturday events we attend together.

    Steve Jones

  • Project Phoenix

    As I’ve given my Modern Resume talk at a number of events, I’ve found that there are quite a few people out there in the technology business that are searching for work. Or searching for better work. I’ve tried to give them some advice on things that might make them more attractive for employers and more likely to find another job. One of the things that I advise them to do is volunteer. Putting forth some effort to help others with your technical skills, or even with leadership or management skills, can help fill up your resume and show employers that you are motivated.

    But how should you volunteer? I’ve suggested contacting a local non-profit or school and asking them if there is someting you can build for them that might be useful in their mission. I’m sure that there are many ideas and needs for these groups, who often can’t afford to hire a technology professional to work in a formal way.

    Arnie Rowland, longtime SQL Server MVP, has a great new project that looks to assist those people out there that have a project idea. Project Phoenix looks to provide some resources to developers, or aspiring developers, out there. With a combination of software, books,and training, Arnie has built a program that will give people and non-profits some assistance in implementing technology into their environments.

    This is a great program that looks to give back to communities and help some technology workers at the same time. If you are interested in applying, or know someone that might benefit from the help, please point them to the Project Phoenix page. You can view the people that have been awarded here.

    Steve Jones