Data and DevOps Predictions for 2022

Posted on January 10, 2022 by way0utwest

All the Advocates at Redgate (Kathi, Grant, myself) got asked about some of the future predictions we might have, based on some of the data from The 2021 State of Database DevOps and The 2021 State of Database Monitoring. We each came up with a few things and then someone summarized them. Grant has an official blog post, but I thought I’d glance through the summary, see what the others wrote, and then come up with a few things.

Side note: I hope to review this next January and see how I did.

I didn’t do this last year, but I’m going to separate the DevOps and monitoring topics and give a few thoughts on each.

DevOps

DevOps continues to grow and really become almost a mainstream idea. I don’t know if I think the majority of companies are really adopting much of it, but many are adopting something. I rarely need to explain DevOps, though I do often need to define it for me and level set how I view it. It still seems everyone things about this differently.

The main challenges for DevOps are adding automation, moving to the cloud (or hybrid) and writing better code. DevOps can help with all these things, but I think far too many organizations still want to tackle these are projects, not an ongoing habit.

Well, all but the last one. It seems no one really prioritizing better code in most management I encounter.

Automation is the easiest of these, and I find that more and more DBAs are embracing automation in different ways. Some still want to do everything manually, but more of them are starting to accept that a framework (like Flyway) or even a simple automated script runner can be used without them needing to connect with SSMS.

I see this as a trend that will continue to increase, and eventually we’ll expect 95% of all deployment code to run with an automated process of some sort. Bt process I mean you aren’t connecting to a production server from your workstation.

My prediction for 2022 is also that I won’t see anyone create new repos in a version system other than git. I do tend to work in the MS stack or the Flyway area, and I don’t expect to encounter any clients still trying to work with SVN, CVS, Vault, Perforce. or even TFVC. Any why should they?

I also expect that we will see more cross platform work from everyone, which means that we will want a fairly consistent way of managing development, whether this is on SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB. I know that deploying code here means more chances for mistakes, so having a consistent high level process is important. This might mean that you use one type of framework for SQL Server and another for PostgreSQL, but the flow will be the same. Save code, run CI, deploy with automation. Hopefully testing in there somewhere.

The cloud encourages automation, but not completely. The portals are complex, the offerings changing, and no one wants to worry about which version of a CLI you have on which machines. Still, I hope to see more GitOps or Infrastructure as Code used by clients.

Monitoring

I think two things here. First, people are going to rely more and more on monitoring systems to manage the disparate and ever-growing estates of data stores they have. This is going to come about with the problem for many people of not only managing different platforms, but also different monitoring tools.

People already struggle with SQL Server and Oracle (or any other combination of platforms). I expect they will have AWS and Azure to contend with as well, though likely each organization will lean more heavily on one than the other. However, they’re also going to be dealing with different products for different platforms.

I predict some stress, confusion, and anxiety about incidents and employees trying to decide how to find and use information.

The second prediction is that we are going to see another security issue with a monitoring and/or management platform. We had a big one last year, but I bet hackers are working out how to attack other platforms, especially those that require sysadmin privileges and also allow the tools to change the remote systems.

Security is always a problem and after last year’s incident, I expect other software to be targeted in this same way.

Looking Forward

If you are trying to find a new job, or improve your career, here’s what I suggest. First, learn to write and speak. However you can, but working with others, advocating your position, and improving your showing at interviews will matter.

In terms of tech, get good at something but learn a bit of many things. Pick a cloud and learn how the general infrastructure of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS work. Things will vary a bit from Azure to AWS to GCP, but the core remains the same. Learn how to spin up and work with a variety of technologies related to data. Be comfortable with version control, with repos, with CI, with CLI tools, with finding answers on how to accomplish tasks. Knowing a bit and how to find out more might be a good way to answer some of those interview questions.

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Teams Security Issues

Posted on January 10, 2022 by way0utwest

At some point during my career sharing files and links in email became a security concern. There were all sorts of malware problems and issues that spread throughout organizations because someone unknowingly clicked on or forwarded a malicious item. At a couple of large organizations, we had to turn off email for days while we cleaned out systems. Fortunately, antivirus and other types of scanning software improved to prevent most of these problems.

It seems that not all developers learned the lessons of the past. Microsoft Teams has a few vulnerabilities inside it based on link sharing in the chats. One of the issues is that the preview features aren’t well implemented, though Microsoft security doesn’t think this is a problem as a user would notice the link would be incorrect. I think that’s a huge leap and not a very safe one to make.

I don’t use Teams often, and as a Slack user, I find it rather confusing, busy, and unintuitive. I know lots of others that like Teams and find it very productive in the Microsoft world, and I’m glad we can have the choice of a way to collaborate with others. However, no matter which type of communication mechanism is used inside of your organization, the security protections ought to be very strong. We are often busy with work and distracted. We are often expecting the information in Slack or Teams to be safer than browsing sites on the public internet. Perhaps that’s not the way things should be, but it is.

Attack vectors that use code inside a webpage are very common, and I dislike many of the “preview” features that I’ve seen in various pieces of software. They slow down the application, especially on a mobile network, and take up unnecessary space. As someone that often can see bandwidth constraints, I’ve prefer that all of these features were optional. Let me decide if I want a preview.

The trend to build richer experiences in applications and pre-fetch data can make the experience better, but there is a tradeoff. There are potential security concerns, but apart from those, these features can make the experience more enjoyable or unnecessarily slow things down and interfere with the way we use an application. More isn’t always better, especially when the pattern for an individual user might not match what the majority does. If 51% of users often use a feature, I’m not sure the other 49% view this as a positive way of architecting the system.

Steve Jones

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

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Daily Coping 10 Jan 2022

Posted on January 10, 2022 by way0utwest

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to pick three things you are looking forward to this year.

Well, the end of the year was great, personally, but I have no idea what to think about the future as the world still remains gripped by a pandemic. I do have a few things scheduled, and there are some things I am looking forward to.

SQL Bits – I haven’t been in a few years, apart from the pandemic. I have often had scheduling conflicts, but this year, I’m making it work. Looking forward to a trip to the UK in March.

Reno – We have a volleyball tournament scheduled in late April for Reno, a place I’ve never been. I know it’s not a hot place to go, but I’m looking forward to going and taking a day at Lake Tahoe.

Bryce Canyon National Park – This one has been on my wife’s bucket list to ride with her horse, and with 2 kids wanting to ride with her, this is the big family trip planned for the summer. After seeing the Red Rocks around Las Vegas, looking forward to checking them out in Utah.

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Driving the Tesla in a Little Snow

Posted on January 7, 2022 by way0utwest

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

I saw a couple videos of the Model Y in the snow (one with stock tires, one with all season Tesla tires) last year, but I hadn’t had the chance to experience it in Colorado yet.

That is until earlier this week. We returned home from Las Vegas to freezing temperatures. The BMW showed –5 on the drive home from the airport. I was glad we hadn’t left the Tesla there. I don’t know what the drain would be, but I wasn’t interested in coming home to a low battery after a week.

I got snow tires a couple weeks ago and wrote about the experience. When we had a light snow, really a half inch of sleet, the car slipped a few times taking turns in the neighborhood on pavement. It had me a bit worried as I’ve been in snow with summer tires and things don’t go well.

In this case, we got about 2-3 inches of snow and I needed to run to town. It wasn’t a great test, as lots of the pavement was clear, but the driveway wasn’t. Ruts from a few trucks and the X5, but still snow. The kind of snow that the Prius could have navigated, but it would be slightly tricky and slip.

Actually, there’s a chance the Prius would get stuck, but not a big chance.

In any case, the new snow tires (Michelin X-Ice Snow) worked great. I felt confident and no slippage.

We’ll see how it goes when we get real snow or drive to the mountains.

Update Jan 6, 2022: We got about 2-3″ of snow late yesterday. We left the house around 6:15 for volleyball practice and there was very little snow. However, but the time I got to the gym, the roads were covered with a light 1/2″ or so. The tires seems to grip well and handle light acceleration and braking, which is how I’d drive other cars in the snow.

When I came of practice, there was a good 2″ of snow on roads (and the car). We actually stopped by a store for a few things, and I grabbed a new long handled scraper/brush, as the Model Y seems to accumulate snow on the rear window (no wiper) and across the front.

Driving went well. A little slippage when accelerating into turns, but about what I’d get from other cars. I felt safe, and I’m ready to take this to the mountains, but I was aware of the weight of the car. A few times turning while slowing and going down a hill, I could see it slipping. Definitely need to be careful coming down hills and braking, leaving more room and slowing earlier.

A video of this post is available.

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