The next edition of the SQL in the City broadcast is coming Feb 28, and I’m planning travel now to head back to the UK for the event. The schedule is up on the Redgate Hub Livestream page.
This edition has lots more GDPR/security/masking content as well as updates on the new products.
Mark the date on your calendar, let your boss know it’s a training day, and get some friends together to join us for the day.
David Poole wrote a nice summary of the GDPR regulations that come into force this spring in Europe. He covers a number of the sections, trying to provide a simple explanation of the potential issues from the perspective of a data engineer. That’s likely the role most of us fill , and I think David does a good job of trying to note the items that he (and maybe you) need to be concerned about.
If you want to read the full text, and you should, it’s here. To me, this is a more sensible, easier to understand type of regulation. It’s way better than SOX and most other regulations I’ve had to deal with, with a better view of balancing the idea that companies won’t have all the answers, and might not choose the best technology but do need to make an effort. I don’t think this will excuse just continuing to do business as you have, but it does read as though courts and authorities will have flexibility in their interpretation.
One of the main things that should be pointed out is that the 10 million Euro fine is a max, not a minimum. The same things goes for the potential 2% of global turnover (revenue for the US folks). These are the highest potential penalties, though if you have made some effort to protect data and comply, I doubt you’d see fines at this level unless you’re negligent.
The keys parts of this regulation are that companies should be paying more than lip service to data privacy and protection. They should be designing and building software and infrastructure that protects data, and also considers the point of view of the individual or organization that is the subject of the data. That’s a good move, in my opinion, having us actually think about the data and the ramifications of its use, sale, transfer, and release, rather than just focusing on our own goals. Most data professionals I know keep this in mind, so GDPR is a step in the right direction to push management to care.
We’ve got information at the Redgate site, which will help guide you. We are building features into existing and new products, and we’d love to sell you software if you can use it, but we’re also learning and trying to share what we know. This goes along with the core values at Redgate of being a part of the community and giving back, through SQLServerCentral, Simple Talk, blogs, and more.
Ultimately no one knows what GDPR will bring, and its application can present a risk to any of us that gather data from EU residents. I know Brent Ozar as already decided to stop EU business for the time being to avoid taking on this risk, and I’m sure other small companies may do the same thing. In one way that’s a shame, though a reasonable decision for a company. In another way, this opens opportunities for other businesses. People in Europe still need goods and services, and there are plenty of ways to comply with GDPR that I don’t think will be too hard, especially for those businesses based in Europe that won’t have a choice. There will be other companies that can fill any void left by companies that cease working in the EU.
GDPR isn’t the end of the world. I think it’s a good move in the right direction to balancing data value and protections. I’d like to see a better framework in the US that also ensures individuals have rights to exercise some control over all the data being gathered about them, as well as something that forces companies to actually consider data protection in their systems. There may be some bad results from GDPR, but most of us will adapt and continue to do business as we have in the past, albeit with better data controls.
Steve Jones
Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 5.4MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.
SQL Compare is a core product from Redgate and I’ve got a series on some of the interesting things I’ve found. Download a trial today if you haven’t tried it.
SQL Compare does a great job of trying to help you map columns in your database. For example, I was testing deployments recently to see how a process might work and I noticed the SQL Compare had automapped columns for me.
This is a feature in SQL Compare that tries to make your development effort a little quicker and easier. As you can see in the image below, there’s a note at the top of the comparison, and then an indicator for the actual object.
If I click the object, I see the code, but I don’t know where the auto mapping has taken place.
In this case, I know because I changed the Quantity column name, but there’s nothing special here about the mapping. SQL Compare just mapped “Quantity” to “Qty” by itself. If I check the project properties, I can see the mapping, and change it if necessary.
If you want to know how to customize this, I’ve got an article on the Redgate Hub on How to Customize Schema Comparisons using Auto Map in SQL Compare.
Automap is one of those useful, handy features of SQL Compare. It gets you moving in development quickly by taking care of some work, but you can easily change things and keep your project handy if you have the need.
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Today is SQL in the City 2017. Once again we’re streaming the event online, live from Cambridge in the UK. I’ve flown over, along with Grant Fritchey and Kathi Kellenberger to entertain you for the day. We’ll be broadcasting at 11am in the UK for five hours before we take a short break and return for a 1pm EST start of the second broadcast. You can still register and we hope you’ll tune in for a few a session or two, or all of them if you can convince the boss to give you a training day. You won’t know unless you ask.
I’m excited to show off a few things today, as I’m sure Kathi and Grant are as well. Our developers have been hard at work throughout the year, improving our software and adding new features, while fixing a few bugs. It feels like the pace of change is steadying out, with most products releasing changes every two weeks, but we’re adding a lot more exciting and interesting changes. It seems that the products are maturing well, in ways that I didn’t expect.
I’ve been especially excited by the changes in SQL Clone this year. We’ve really grown this product up, with the team being reponsive to customer requests. It’s exciting to be the one to present some of the changes to you, as well as try to introduce others to the product. This is one of those products that I wish would have been available 15 years ago as I would have saved lots of storage costs as well as gained a tremendous amount of flexibility.
SQL Prompt and SQL Monitor have also had great years, and I’ve been impressed with their growth. Unfortunately I didn’t get the short straw and had to leave those products to my colleagues. I guess I can’t have all the fun. Maybe I’ll try to photobomb my way into one of those sessions.
Presenting at events is exciting, and I’m looking forward to the day. It’s long, but it will still be a fun time. These streaming events are also a neat experience, as we’ve got a bit of a TV studio feel, with multiple cameras, displays, tape on the floor, and more. For someone that is used to sitting at a desk and working at my pace, I get a little excited by the efforts put into the broadcast from our IT staff. We have various schedules and checklists, and I’ve spent the last couple days rehearsing the talks.
I still like live events, and hope we’ll do a few in the future, but for now, sit back, relax, and enjoy SQL in the City from the comfort of your office.
Steve Jones
Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.
Voice of the DBA 