Voice of the DBA

Tag: Redgate

  • The Second Best Job

    I think I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to run SQLServerCentral, focusing on the Microsoft Data Platform, writing articles, experimenting with technology, speaking at events, and more, all with a bit of autonomy. I’ve been doing this job for well over a decade, and I’ve built routines and rhythms that have allowed me to balance work, family, and life. I really enjoy my job with Redgate.

    Redgate also runs Simple Talk, a companion site that seeks to educate and inform the community, just like SQLServerCentral. Simple Talk runs somewhat longer pieces and has fewer newsletters, but it’s a part of Redgate’s effort to give back to the community and help our current and future customers get better at their jobs. And now, we’re hiring a new editor for Simple Talk, which means the second best job in the company has an opening.

    This isn’t necessarily the easiest job, and it does take a certain kind of person. I’ve told many people for years that almost anyone versed in SQL Server could do my job for a few days, but few could do it for a month. Or maybe, few would want to do it for a month. Producing new content on a regular basis, handling some of the tedious duties of an editor, these can be difficult tasks for many people over time. Even managing yourself (we need an independent self-starter) can be a challenge.

    We have a great team in marketing, and Redgate is a fantastic company. The highest praise I can give them is that they have been the kind of company I’d want to build if I were to start a new venture. There are great benefits, you can work from home and work with autonomy. Plus, you get to work with me.

    We need good technical skills, strong communication skills, and someone that wants to help grow the site even further. If you think this might be your kind of job, think about applying. Who knows, maybe the second best job could be yours.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • More Data Masking Options from The Foundry

    I’ve written about The Foundry before, a research group within Redgate Software. It’s a bit like Microsoft Research, but with a tighter focus on specific database related issues. One of the areas of investigation is data masking, which is becoming more important to organizations all the time as development and QA systems get breached by hackers.

    In an effort to continue their work, they’ve added a new option to the data  masking: configurable masks. This is is along the lines of the choices that Dynamic Data Masking gives you in SQL Server 2016+, but it’s built for refreshing your dev/test systems.

    If you think you want to understand the issues and how masking might help you, give the POC a try. It’s a basic representation of the problem (deployed in Azure) that you can play with and investigate the issue.

    We’d love feedback, and perhaps some of this will make it into a product, or maybe this will just be research into the issue. Either way, it’s the chance to participate and learn a few things about the problems that we face with databases.

  • Still time to enter the SQL Clone contest

    You could win an Amazon Echo from Redgate. Our contest is still open for a few days, so post a comment on my blog and take your chances. I’ll be picking from the comments next week.

  • What’s Next for SQL Clone?

    I think SQL Clone is a useful, handy product. It’s what I’ve needed in a number of organizations, or it’s what would have saved us (literally), $100,000s of dollars by avoiding larger SANs with snapshot technology. At one company, we actually bought a second six-figure SAN when our customer service people wanted a copy of our SQL Server database from a point in time overnight that they could use to respond to customer requests and test issues on the next day.

    Now that v1 is out, and many of you were impressed by the demos and details from our Livestream launch, what should we do to the product?

    Let us know: sqlclonefeedback@red-gate.com.

    We are getting feedback from some customers, we are getting a few questions here and there in presentations, at conferences, and on Twitter. However, it helps to give feedback directly in a way that we can tally things up.

    Do you need more than 2TB clones? Send us a quick email.

    Do you need better permissions and security? Send a quick email.

    Is there something else?

    As much as I like getting feedback, and Grant does, it’s good to vote with your voice and send a note to the company. If you want a louder voice, send a few emails to the salespeople. They can really put some emphasis on feature requests.