Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Cool Projects

    I had a conversation recently with a developer that was working on a rather neat problem. This had to do with a financial system and it involved some complex calculations and real time interactions with a variety of systems. It was important for their company, and a lot of pressure was on this developer to not only deliver this software quickly, but also to have it perform at a very high level. This particular person was using Red Gate’s ANTS Performance Profiler to dig into their code, feeling pressure to make it as efficient as possible.

    However this person was also enjoying themselves. It was a challenge, and it was a cool project.

    I know this community is made up of people working in all sorts of industries, in a variety of roles. We develop many different kinds of software. Some may be for employers, some may be for ourselves, some may be for a side business, but  across that spectrum of work, there are some interesting applications.

    What cool things are you working on?

    It might not be software. Perhaps you’re working on an interesting data application, like a super collider. Maybe you work on some gaming software, or you manage a system that makes people’s lives better, easier, or even possible. I’m sure more than a few of you work on some real time systems, which have all kinds of data challenges.

    Let us know this week what type of interesting work you’re doing.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 16.1MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 13.4MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 3.3MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • The Costs of Data

    Most of us know that there is a cost associated with the management and storage of data. After all, it’s part of the reason many of us have jobs as data professionals. Our salary is a cost, though we also realize there are real costs in electricity, on-line storage, backup storage, and more that relate to the stewardship of data.

    Many US government agencies are being asked to share more of their data publicly, but without additional funding. That could mean less research is funded as the cost of opening their databases rises. How this should be handled is open to debate, but Vint Cerf and others have noted that someone has to pay to manage data, and public/private partnerships are a potential solution. However, the fate and cost of public data isn’t the core issue.

    The core issue is that data sets are growing, and in some cases, growing at phenomenal rates. We see companies getting caught up in the Big Data hype, often gathering and storing data just because they have the ability to capture more data. However as our data volumes, and rates of growth increase, that impacts the performance, and perhaps availability, of our systems. Perhaps more to the core for many of us, all the data impacts the performance of our jobs. Systems might run slower, we have more work to do to analyze data, write reports, or deal with the every widening array of tools that people want to use to analyze the bits and bytes we manage.

    The costs of data storage, of tracking and managing systems, or administering a multitude of environments, of supporting new tools for analysis, are going to grow. Most likely that means that each of us will be asked to handle more data, with few staff increases. We will be more valuable, but more will be demanded of us. The physical costs will be easy to measure, but I do worry about the personal costs, in stress and pressure, as we each continue to do more and more every year.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 15.7MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 19.3MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 3.8MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • Guidance

    How do you manage SQL Server? Do you have a list of rules that tell you to do yy whenever xx happens? Or if yy doesn’t solve the problem, you next try zz? Some of you have guidelines like that, though it’s likely that the way you solve problems is somewhat internalized. You adjust your “rules” or “steps” based on the situation. Do you reduce or increase parallelism when you have high CPU? Either change might be the solution, depending on the causes of an issue.

    SQL Server is complex. We can’t easily reduce the solutions to problems to a set of rigid protocols that ensure optimal performance. If we could, there truly wouldn’t be as much of a need for DBAs as there is. Consultants and experts are well paid, and often very busy precisely because SQL Server is not so easy to tune and optimize in many organizations.

    That’s a bit of the point I saw in Grant Fritchey’s “Be Cautious Offering Guidance” piece recently. When trying to help someone improve performance, or reduce issues, or anything else, you can’t often give someone a rule of thumb that just works. You can’t give them a one sentence solution. Most things in life aren’t that simple, and neither is working on SQL Server.

    The environment in which your application runs is complex and there are lots of variables that can affect the advice or guidance that an expert might recommend. It’s the reason we see DBAs often saying “it depends.”

    Because it does.

  • Should He Stay or Should He Go?

    This editorial was originally published on Sept 29, 2008. It is being republished as Steve is on vacation.

    An interesting question. Read page one of this article and then give me your opinion for this Friday’s poll. Would You Fire This Person?

    Should He Stay or Should He Go?

    Now my first thought on reading the first page was that this is a person that I would fire. I would temper that statement with the fact that I don’t know the person and the description doesn’t really convey what is happening. I’m sure that I’d have different feelings, though I did feel I’ve known a few “Erics” in my career.

    As I read through more of the article, I thought that I would probably end up following a lot of the advice given in order to fire Eric. I’d document things, I’ve give him a chance to change and improve. I’d have to spell out specific things that needed to change, though I’d like to think that I wouldn’t have gotten into that situation.

    I can work around employees that don’t know things. That’s something you can fix, or try to, and if they can’t learn the things, and I can’t find you a job that matches your salary, then you have to go. However the team fit is a big deal and not having a good team means that I think Eric has to go.

    In any case, place your vote in the discussion before reading beyond page 1 of the article.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 23.8MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 18.4MB) feed

    MP3 Audio ( 3.8MB) feed

    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center