Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Is Fabric a Reliable Service or a Ripped Resource?

    Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a few complaints from different friends and customers about issues with Microsoft’s Fabric service. I had assumed these were isolated incidents in just a few places, and customers were being refunded according to an SLA. Then I saw Joey D’Antoni’s post this week about Fabric going down. It lists quite a few of the incidents in June, including a few global ones.

    However, the most surprising thing in the post was this link, noting Fabric doesn’t have a dedicated SLA. Instead, it’s under the general Microsoft support agreement, meaning your organization needs to have a support plan to get help. I think that makes some sense, but I’d really expect that a data service in the cloud, including an analytic service that touts itself as real-time, would have a high SLA. Some agreement on the order of 4 9s at least, if not 5.

    For those of you who think you can do better on premises, I’ll remind you that four 9s mean you get 52 minutes of downtime a year, or 1 minute a week (roughly). Five 9s is 5 minutes a year, and the weekly calculation doesn’t matter. I’ve had systems run for a year, but a lot, and not a lot of databases, especially with patching 6 times a year. This year, with AI (my guess) finding lots of holes and GDR releasing quite often, I would guess that three nines is out the window for most SQL Server systems that aren’t HA clustered in some way.

    As a point of reference, Denny notes that Azure SQL database, Business Critical, has a four-and-a-half 9s level of reliability and financial refunds for costs if that’s exceeded. You will need some sort of business insurance if you worry about revenue issues, but my guess is that most of us live with the downtime and work around it (and hopefully, plan for it).

    I’ve been skeptical of Fabric (outside of Power BI). It feels cobbled together, so many issues are reported, and I feel like it’s immature. If I were working on a new analytics project, and we didn’t have a solution, I might PoC it, but I’d be more likely to consider Databricks, Snowflake, or Redshift rather than Fabric.

    Perhaps you have a different view, or you have had success with Fabric. I know some people who have, but it seems one-sey two-sey and not commonplace. There seem to be so many workarounds and issues; it makes me skeptical that Fabric is really ready for primetime if Microsoft won’t stand behind it. Databricks only gives credit up to three 9s, but if they fall below 95%, they issue a 100% credit. Snowflake offers four 9s.

    I feel that if Microsoft were confident in their reliability, they’d offer refunds if they didn’t perform.

    Steve Jones

  • I Want to Use My Brain

    I had a very interesting conversation recently with a longtime DBA who was worried about using AI in their database work. The Redgate State of the Database Landscape 2026 report showed that the vast majority of you (99%) are getting value from AI, so clearly it’s being used. However, this individual was concerned that using AI for tasks would not engage their brain, and they might lose some of their SQL skills.

    And they want to use their brain at work.

    I would hope most of you want to use your brains and accomplish things. That’s a lot of the reason I continue to work and enjoy what I do. It engages me, and I find the challenge of solving problems to be interesting work. Whether that’s simple T-SQL queries, architecture for an application, or the culture challenges of changing teams. It’s exciting to move anything forward.

    I would hope most people want to use their brains at work and not just get through the day without straining their mental faculties. It’s fun to solve a problem, puzzle, or challenge. The thing I’ve learned is that AI doesn’t preclude that.

    I use AI to tackle tedious things. Small things. Minute-saving things. The number of times I use an AI to do something that saves me minutes is surprising. Those minutes add up across the week and let me avoid some of the tedious work and focus on the things I enjoy: deciding if something works and if it is the appropriate solution.

    I might ask an LLM to generate some code, summarize some text, or give me a first draft. I might use a lot of what I get, or just a little. I might throw everything away and do it myself, but often that little kickstart gets me moving quicker than I might otherwise get started, and it’s lower stress for me when I’m on a deadline.

    I enjoy PowerShell, but sometimes the tedium of getting the syntax right and formatting things is annoying. Scaffolding around an algorithm can be a pain. An AI can do a lot of that stuff and I can evaluate the result. I never type > instead of -gt anymore because the LLM does it. I decide if I like the approach or not, or if I want to write a little code inside the scaffolding.

    I still use my brain. AI hasn’t changed that. It’s just that I avoid some of the tedious things. And if I need a break, I can go for a walk or cook or play guitar rather than slogging through a chore that isn’t interesting.

    Steve Jones

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  • Spending Time in the Office

    I’ve visited a number of customers in the last few years who require most people to work in the office. Recently, I had the chance to go to Epic Systems, just outside Madison, WI, USA. They are a medical records software provider that was very reminiscent of Microsoft in some ways, and quite different in others. I published a blog with some pictures, so you can see how cool this office is in person.

    Epic has all their employees coming into the main office every day. They are flexible if you have needs, but the expectation is that employees go in every day. I believe this is also their policy, and culture, in various offices around the world.

    This is somewhat rare these days, but not unique. I’ve worked with one other (10,000 people) large company and a few small ones that have similar policies and expectations. Their offices aren’t as fun, but they are still neat. I love working at home, but I miss the camaraderie of being in an office. JD Edwards was probably my favorite place to work, and I enjoyed going into the office with friends, having lunch, going to movies together, and especially our Friday afternoon Nerf battles.

    I’m lucky in that I get to split my time. I’m at home much of the time, but I do go to the Redgate offices 4-5 weeks a year. Usually, I visit Cambridge, but I have visited the offices in Austin, Pasadena, Brisbane, and Amsterdam. I’ve yet to get to the Berlin office, but I’m hoping to fix that later this year or next.

    I know many tech professionals, and even those in other areas, prefer to work at home and can do their jobs effectively. We saw this during the pandemic, but I also think that many of us are missing something by not being in the same room with others. I find I build better bonds, better understand the way others communicate, and we can go back and forth with brainstorming, debate, discussions, and other collaborative actions more effectively. This can work remotely, but for many organizations that didn’t start this way, I feel like something is missing. We’re struggling to communicate and work as smoothly together.

    I don’t want to give up my ability to work at home, but I’d also hate to never visit an office either. I think I have a great balance, I enjoy both environments, and I appreciate the ability to change my location on a regular basis. However, if I got another job and had to go into the office every day, I’d be happy to do so (provided the commute is reasonable).

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • What is the Cloud?

    Last week we had a training session at Redgate Software on the Cloud. One of the first slides from John Q Martin asked the question, “what is the cloud?” The next slide had the answer: it’s just someone else’s computer.

    I mean that’s true, but it’s not Grant’s computer. He’s got a creaky, 4 year old HP that I don’t want running my workload.

    The cloud is many things, it’s hard to define, it does so much, and at the same time, can do so little for you. Except cost a lot. We certainly find no shortage of people spending a lot of money in the cloud and not necessarily happy about it.

    John was trying to educate others on the IaaS v PaaS, the challenges of cloud migration, giving them a perspective on what the cloud changes, and how customers think about the cloud. Apart from the basic details of what the cloud entails, he said an interesting thing (I’m paraphrasing here): the cloud does things that 95% of organizations couldn’t do themselves.

    It’s not just someone else’s computer. It’s a whole bunch of computers someone else owns and has put a lot of security, infrastructure, planning, tooling, and more to enable you to flexibly create systems at a pace you would struggle to match inside your organization.

    For most people.

    The cloud is amazing. It’s is someone else’s (large rack of) computers that you can rent. They will charge you for the flexibility, and they’re not doing all your work for you, but they give you the ability to configure things the way you want them. Or you can ask one of your buddies, Claude or Copilot, to set up the configuration for you.

    The cloud is a set of Lego bricks, some pre-built Lego models, a surface on which to place them, and a few rules to keep you from going too crazy, but you still have to do some work.

    The cloud is a great enabler for many things. Not all, and not always for those things, but it’s up to you to find where it works, where it doesn’t, and where it’s worth the money.

    That’s the cloud.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.