Cloud Database Growth

Posted on May 5, 2021 by way0utwest

The growth of the cloud is exploding overall, with all of the major vendors showing growing lots of revenue growth. Not all of them are profitable, but they are growing. This shows that customers want to use the cloud, and more of them are migrating all the time.

I do think that databases are likely migrated less than many other services, though their use is increasing. Plenty of organizations would like to offload some of the overhead of owning and managing hardware, which may be one reason why the growth of IaaS in the cloud is one of the more popular options.

For those databases that are being used in the cloud, can you guess which ones have the fastest growing usage? Since this is a primarily a SQL Server-based site, you might guess Azure SQL Database, and you’d be close. It’s one of the fastest growing, edged out by PostgreSQL.  That’s one reason we’ve been publishing some PostgreSQL articles; it’s very popular and being used in many organizations that also have SQL Server.

While we know we can build cheaper systems on premises, and we can better control, or at least predict, performance, the cloud is attractive to many businesses. It’s not perfect, but it is an option that you should be able to knowledgeably talk about when someone brings it up. That means you need to learn a bit about how it works, the costs, the performance, and the differences with an on-premises system. The options change all the time, so don’t rely on your knowledge of the cloud from a few years ago or hearsay. Spend some time asking questions of people using the cloud today.

You also might consider using VMs if someone wants to migrate to the cloud, as the system will appear to be very similar to the way your on-premises instance runs. The hardware setup is different, and you need to learn about the differences in the hardware, especially how you connect disks and their performance. 

Knowledge is important, and for many of us, we are looked at as those with knowledge about these different platforms and technologies. That means we need to spend some time learning, and likely a bit practicing to understand the impact so that we can present a good argument about when it may or may not be appropriate to use a cloud database.

Steve Jones

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Daily Coping 5 May 2021

Posted on May 5, 2021 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 walk a different path outside today.

You could take this literally or figuratively today. Maybe you want to change the way your life goes today, but for me, this was a literal new path.

When I walk, it’s usually a specific path like to the mailbox or using a trail near the house. Today I decided to try something different. I don’t walk the property enough, but I took the dogs and made a loop around, checking on fence, and just enjoying a different environment in life today.

I do try this figuratively as well, thinking about our outside life here from my wife’s perspective. How she looks at horses and our property, the things she’s concerned about. I try to put myself in her place, to better understand why she does some things and what’s important.

It helps me cope by not focusing on my issues.

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Holding Code in Your Head

Posted on May 4, 2021 by way0utwest

It is hard to write software. Many of us write lines of code, and often if we go back, we find flaws and problems in our code. As I look at the solutions others might give for the same problem, I’m sometimes amazed at the way they tackle the problem and what language features they use. I’m especially always intrigued when I see someone using STUFF() or APPLY in their queries. I know I have a bit of a hole here, as I haven’t done enough work with them in my career. It’s a tool I just don’t think to reach for.

Part of that is that I don’t know I completely understand how they work in my head, at least not without effort. The lack of familiarity hurts me here, but it’s part of the issue that Paul Graham expresses in this essay about holding a program in your head (essay via Brent Ozar).

I certainly have held entire programs in my head, and when I do, I think I work a little more efficiently. Certainly faster, and I can change things as I refine the solution I’m aiming for. I also find that when someone else is touching the code I’m working in, even lightly, it is distracting. The differences in reading my code vs. someone else’s are noticeable.

I think this is where working in a team, unless you are pair/mob programming, can be challenging. While discussing issues with others might help find solutions, I do think that groups need to subdivide code into sections and allow each person/pair/mob to work on that code alone for a period of time. Some organizations do this well, but plenty do not.

Perhaps one of the best reasons to be careful about touching the same code in a database is the last writer wins. While some tools might work with the code in memory on your workstation, many of the ways we capture and track T-SQL code come from the database itself. If multiple people change the same object in a shared database, we can easily lose code or frustrate programmers seeing strange behavior.

There are a number of items that Mr. Graham thinks will help programmers write better, or more, code. However, I also think that his problem space is focused more on startups and new applications rather than the legacy code on which many of us work on every day. However, I do take the point that having a more succinct language might allow a programmer to hold more in their head and get more done.

If they’re are intimately familiar with the language itself. I think that is a skill managers should promote in teams. And something I need to work on with STUFF and APPLY.

Steve Jones

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Daily Coping 4 May 2021

Posted on May 4, 2021 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 laugh at something today or make someone laugh.

I love comedy, and going to see a show is something I’ve missed during the pandemic. However, comedians are still making recordings and telling jokes, and I’ve enjoyed some of their efforts this past year.

I also like hearing or saying something humorous in the family. We all mis-speak at times, or we make a comment at the right time that gets everyone laughing. I’m not good enough to do it on demand, or consciously, but it does happen regularly with some of us.

Verbal, text, the right gif at the right time, I’ve had a few good ones lately that get my wife or kids to laugh, and after seeing this tip, I stopped to appreciate the humor in my world a few times and be thankful we can still laugh at things.

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