Entries for the 'Professional Development' Category

Tagged - Career Challenges

 Got tagged again. Here are the details:

So here are the rules, please answer the question with at least two answers, once you have completed the answer please tag 2 people that you know to answer the questions as well. If you get tagged by this Quiz please let me know I would like to add all the results to the bottom of this blog so all the answers are in one place.

The Questions for this quiz…

What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those?

1. OJT

I did not always used to be an uberguru SQL ninja expert googler. I learned SQL the hard way. I broke production stuff and learned how to it really quick. I didn’t always break but if it was broke, I had to figure out how to fix it fast. It was challenging but a good way to learn. I try to avoid that most of the time now. It is bad for customer satisfaction. :)

2. Evolving beyond an “enterprise manager DBA”

A really smart DBA way back when told me to get out of the GUI and learn how to administer through TSQL. Meh, EM is just generating the TSQL commands, right? It happened slowly over time. I think after I discovered sysprocesses and some of the other system tables, I realized that the GUI wasn’t all that. Picture giving execute permissions to a user on 50 stored procs through the GUI. Yup, I was that guy. Now, I highly recommend doing most everything through TSQL unless it is a couple clicks and even then know what SQL is running.

So who else has responded:

Denis Gobo

Denny Cherry

Brent Ozar

Tim Ford

SQL Batman

Cherie

Who am I tagging?

Well, I’ll tag Kalen Delaney now that I know she reads my blog. :)

Louis Davidson(@drsql) since he squeeked by the first one.

Jeremiah Peschka(@peschkaj) since he was gloating about slipping through the cracks.

K. Brian Kelley (@kbriankelley)Just cause.

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Does the Microsoft Certified Master Program Fail 99.999 of us?

It seems like there is a lot of negative feedback for the SQL MCM\MCA certs. I tend to agree. I have taken all of the SQL tests since 7.0 and participated in the SQL 2008 test development process. I really just do it for fun. Yah, that’s how I roll. My boss does not put much value in those certs nor does the industry as far I can tell. Initially, I was happy to hear about the MCM but then I realized it would never happen for me.

It looks like they outsourced most of the teachers. Great industry renowned people with great kung fu but not the guys with access to the source or designed the architecture. In some cases, they teach better (They do it for a living)  but in other cases it may be better to have it straight from the horse’s mouth. On top of that, Greg Low says most people don't pass the first time around. Imagine spending 21 long days and 18.5 large for a 50%-100% chance of failing.

I have recently been put in a position where I have to manage Oracle DBA's and, after looking at the OCM cert, it requires 3 weeks of class time, ~$9k, about 4 tests and a lab test. The expensive classroom time can be split up over time. The OCM holds some good street cred too.

What is the solution? Copy Oracle. It won’t be the first time :)

Here are a few posts:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/steve_jones/archive/2008/12/01/rangers-to-masters.aspx
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/tim_mitchell/archive/2008/11/29/microsoft-certified-master-program-is-this-the-answer-to-certification-woes.aspx

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No PASS for me

I have been to SQL Connections and TechED this year so earlier this year I pointed out to my director that they could get a really good group and early bird discount if we send five people. I graciously offered to hold down the fort while they were out. Dumb me :) The session list looks awesome! All I am hearing on twitter is PASS this, PASS that. Yall have fun, asshats! All shenanigans need to end up on YouTube.

If you want to live vicariously like me, follow along here on twitter(RSS)

I also believe Brent Ozar(RSS) and Joe Webb(RSS) will be live blogging the keynotes.

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Yup, I am that Douche

Wow, what stressful week. I would much rather do a total disaster recovery on a VLDB than do this again. Last week, I announced I had taken a new job. Leaving my current position of nearly a decade. Well, I took a counter offer. When I resigned I told them I was not interested in a counter offer. I was so confident that I even announced it here before my butt was in the new seat. I took the job because it was really cool. There was not anything wrong with my current job or company. I was perfectly happy. The prospective employer contacted me on linkedin. I was not out job hunting.

My current employer respected that I wasn’t interested in a counter offer but a week and a half into my final two weeks the Manager of Database Services and Escalations resigned and they offered me that job. I thought that my decision to take the new job was tough. Well, let me tell you taking the counter offer was 10x rougher.

I weighed all of the pro’s and con’s. The only con for staying was the fact that I would be going back on my word. I don’t take that lightly but it was the best move for my family and I.

It came down to a lot of reasons but two main ones:

• We started this process talking in September. The economy had a horrible October. The outlook is grim for at least the next year. Most people expect it to get much worse before it gets better. I would much rather go through a great depression scale recession here. That may be just because I know where the company stands in the market and with me. However, I would hate to be the low man on the totem pole who is working remotely if things get really bad.
• In October, Microsoft announced their cloud computing initiative at PDC. This basically makes the MSSQL DBA obsolete. There will still be some on premise installations but it will be for legacy applications and the largest application so the MSSQL DBA market will be much smaller. That may take a few years but I am making this decision with the next decade in mind. In my new role, I will gain MySQL and Oracle experience which will allow me to diversify.

Conventional wisdom says never take a counter offer. However, I took the new job for unconventional reasons. It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t because I was unhappy. It was all geek factor. I just wanted to work on something of that scale.

I don’t think there is a totally right answer and I will always wonder “What if” but now that the smoke has cleared, I am feeling more and more that I made the best decision.

Thoughts?

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This Book has lots of Pictures

I listened to the keynote @ PDC this Morning while catching up from my travels. Windows Azure was the big news. Microsoft’s Cloud OS. In a nutshell, “.Net as a Service” but that does not do it justice. Read Mary Jo Foley’s detailed description.

They also announced SSDS is now just SQL Services except you can’t actually run any tsql(yet). They did mention they will begin to expose some more relational features as time goes on but it is not a RDMS as far as the developer is concerned. I have a lot of questions and no answers so I will break it down with three highly consumable marketing slides.

Image via Matthew Roche. This is the part that interests us.

Image via WindowServer blog. This is where SQL Services fits in.

Image via WindowServer blog. This is where cloud services fits into the Enterprise. 1. Not at all, 2. a hybrid and 3. all cloud with a browser client.

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The DB as a Service Inevitability, Trend, Fad, or Whatever.

Here are some places to watch:

http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/ (RSS)

http://www.cloudave.com/ (RSS)

http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/  (RSS)

http://www.amundsen.com/blog/archives/?category=15  (RSS?)

http://blogs.msdn.com/drobinson/default.aspx  (RSS)

MSDN SSDS Search (RSS)

http://brentozar.com (RSS) Yes,I link Brent in every post because I have a mancrush.

Of course, this is incomplete. Post if you have good resources…

You should also be watching the PDC news because that is where all of the game changing announcements are going to be dropped. I would suggest http://search.twitter.com as it get closer.

Things move fast. Do you still feel the same way the first time you read this?

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SQL Server Videos

I ran across SQL Server videos on .netkicks (RSS). I think this is a fairly new site and I must say it is pretty nice. Good clean layout with RSS feeds to let you know when new stuff arrives. You can stream with WMP or silverlight AND you can download in 3 different resolutions plus ipod format. On top of all of that, there is a transcript of the video.

I watched the 400 level video on extra wide covering indexes. It was well thought out and I learned something new. What more could you want? Oh yah, it is free!

Update: You can also follow Michael on twitter here.

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RE: Dead DBA's

I have half written post called "The Rebirth of the DBA". I am not sure if it is going to make the cut. There is not enough time before I go on vacation and there is some good community discussion both in the comments and in the blogosphere(Brent O, Grant Fritchy, Pythian).

I will summarize really quick. I was halfway playing devil's advocate. While it is possible that they could write some really amazing software that could script the DBA, it is unlikely that they can totally do it. The DBA will still be around. The numbers may be less. Maybe substantially. The roles may change. Maybe drastically. Hell, your SQL Server 2015 VM may have a "cloud partition" in a physical table. There are other factors in the mix like consolidation, virtualization and LINQ\ORM that are also going to have to have an effect. It is all speculation but the only constant is change.

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The Death of the DBA

I'd like to retire a SQL Server DBA with 40 years experience but I don't think that will happen.  The cloud is coming and it is bad news administrators, database or otherwise. Our government says the DBA field will grow by 37% between 2006 and 2016. I predict it will begin to level off in 5-7 years and begin reducing in 10 years or less. You have to remember that IT is measured in dog years and the government might not be up to speed on current technology like the "tubes".

Amazon\Google\Microsoft all have their v1.0 cloud database technologies. Amazon is actually in production. Amazon's other technologies are getting wide usage like S3. You basically just pay for CPU ticks, bandwidth and space. Yesterday, Intel, HP and Yahoo declared that they will not be left out of the party. The scariest news I have seen has also gotten the least amount of press. Microsoft has gotten into the hosting business under the cloud buzzword disguise. They are offering Exchange and Sharepoint hosting at a very completive price point. Email and intranet is the core and the thankless burden of corporate IT. Once email is in cloud, the database also begins to make sense. This is providing there is a cloud platform for application development like a Google App Engine.

The Best Case( or Worst Case depending on your perspective)

I think this technology has a long way to go. You really don't have all of the functionality yet. It is not battle tested. It doesn't have reporting functionality. It is not compliant. Not yet. Yet is the key word. What kind of reaction would you have gotten from a Sybase DBA's back in 1995 if you told them that they better reconsider their career path? There are still a few Sybase DBA's and Powerbuilder programmers out there. There are 7 openings nationwide right now.

Let's make some assumptions. The features get there. The availability gets there. The platform basically matures to as good or better than "classic" SQL Server and .Net. Now put yourself in the IT decision maker's shoes. No upfront capital expenses, no managing backups, and no patch management. Most company's core business is not IT. If they can remove their focus from managing and deploying IT, they sell and service more widgets. From the CXO's viewpoint, they can eliminate capex, reduce reoccurring costs and focus more on the core business.

Is this Science Fiction?

It may be. The "cloud" may turn out as useful as offshore outsourcing of software development.  However, the biggest software and Internet companies are throwing a lot of resources at it. The result could be a hybrid with small to midsize apps in the cloud. The bigger apps in a blade\VM web tier and a bare iron data tier. However, it could be all cloud. All the way down to the end user's OS with your personal setting stored in an RFID implant. :-o Only time will tell.

Natural Selection

Change is good and inevitable. Otherwise, we would still be in caves. Follow the news and be agile. Even if these predictions are dead on, it is not going to happen over night. The Big Blue programmers did not go on to waiting tables and digging ditches.

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