Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • 25 Years of Redgate

    Redgate Logos_RGB_AllinOneI’m in Austin today, ready for the Redgate Software 25th Birthday celebration. The company started in 1999 and this is their 25th birthday. All of our offices are celebrating, with most of us in the US coming to Austin for a party last night. My wife (and many partners) are here as well, emphasizing that we care about our people and recognize that partners support our employees.

    I haven’t known Redgate for 25 years, but I have known one of the founders for 22 years. I first met Simon Galbraith in 2002 at the PASS Summit in Seattle. They were our first advertising customer at SQL Server Central in 2001 and the relationship continues through today. Redgate purchased SQL Server Central in 2006 and I’ve been working for them ever since.

    In that time, it’s been interesting how my job has changed and evolved. I remember the early days of SQL Monitor being released and me demoing it from horseback.

    There was the DBA in Space promotion, which I was only lightly a part of, but it was fun.

    We had the
    SQL in the City events, which included a tour around the US.

    I still remember the first one in London at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. That was a treat.

    and SELECT Star beer.

    We ran that series for a long time, with quite a few live and virtual events. It was a fun time for my coworkers to get together in various places in the world. One of our last live events was in Cambridge at the Redgate office, with our 4 advocates.

    2024-07-15 11_37_41-Window

    Now we’ve evolved to the Redgate Summits, one of which is coming to New York next month.

    I’ve watched Redgate grow to include Flyway (I’ve got a tips series), SQL Provision, and now Test Data Manager. I’ve done so many blogs and promos, the latest of which is TDM in 10 minutes. One of my favorites was a photo shoot in Cambridge, where they got me on another horse.

    dbateam8

    It’s been a great time for me and I’ve enjoyed my job with Redgate. I continue to do so today and look forward to the future. I truly hope this is the last job I have.

  • Speaking at SQL Saturday South Florida 2024

    I’m heading to SQL Saturday South Florida 2024 next week. This is my second time attending the event and if you’re in the Miami area (or want to take the train down from N Florida), register today and join me.

    This is my second time attending the event after missing them for many years.  Andy always said this was a fun place to go, but timing often didn’t work. It did last year and again this year.

    I’ll be doing two sessions next week, but the schedule is packed with a wide variety of talks on ML, DevOps, Performance tuning, T-SQL, Fabric and more. I’m doing a talk on Blogging and one on Zero Downtime Deployments.

    Register today and let’s connect, learn, and share next week.

  • The Last Trip (for now)

    I’m in Cambridge, UK today, at Redgate Software. This is our annual Global Marketing Week, where the entire marketing department gets together to learn, share, connect (recognize the theme), as well as enjoy some time with colleagues that we rarely see. I think Grant, Ryan, and I see more people more often than most others, and I’m grateful we get to spend a week here.

    This is the end of my wild travel time, where I’ve spent 11 full days at home since Apr 12. In fact, I don’t get home until Jun 15, so it’s not over yet, but it’s close. I’m definitely tired and a little worn out, but I’m looking forward to a week in the office and then a week of vacation next week in Europe with my wife.

    Not much blogging for the next two weeks, though I may drop some office or fun pix here later this week.

    Then I get home and no travel for a few weeks.

     

  • Halfway Through

    I’m halfway through my crazy stretch of travel. I’m leaving today for Syracuse to see my daughter graduate college on Saturday. This is a nice trip, and a little break, but it’s still time away from home.

    I’ve been home 6 full days since Apr 14, with trips to the UK and Australia in that time. I have work trips next week, the following one, and then two weeks in the UK again. All told, in 9 weeks, I’m at home for 11 full days.

    My year so far:

    2024-05-14 12_21_15-TravelReport I’m coping so far, though I am a little worn out with the movement through time zones. I’m going to use the next few days to take it easy, relax, and try to just enjoy the time with family away from home.