Embracing Learning

The recent release of SQL Server 2019 offers new and improved features for data professionals. There's already lots of information out there about the latest bells and whistles; here's a link to start with and if you haven't already then you can download yourself a copy and have a good look around. 

If we look at the added functionality or support for different technologies between the 2016 and 2019 releases then clearly there's a lot of learning required to stay up to date; new introductions like Linux, containers, Kubernetes, R, Python, Apache Spark and lots more provide quite a list of new capabilities for DBA's and developers to put to use within their data platforms so gaining a good understanding of these technologies is becoming more and more vital.

But staying up to date can be difficult, especially in a technical landscape that is rapidly evolving as it is in current times but it's also a time where embracing the learning opportunities out there will undoubtedly be massively beneficial for those willing to invest in their career management.

I say "willing" because ultimately it is a choice, and with all the learning material being made available from vendors and from within the community it should be a very straightforward choice to make. Whilst it's not going to be free; it is going to take some time, money or more commonly both, the benefits far outweigh any personal contribution (or if you prefer to view it, sacrifice) that you'll be making. 

The main point that I want to put across is that right now, more than ever, it's become absolutely essential for anyone working in a data environment to take ownership of their personal development.

Some may be unsure where to start, which isn't surprising considering the rate of change but that's no reason to simply sit back either. Have a think about some of the factors that go into learning roadmaps; job requirements, your personal career aspirations, areas of interest, new technologies and of course, marketability all need to be considered (yes, the latter does matter) and then map to what training material is out there. It's virtually impossible to not find what you're looking for and if you're stuck for ideas - hey, ask away!

An early SQL conference.

So if you are just watching and waiting take the release of SQL Server 2019 and use it as the perfect opportunity to kick start your personal development journey; go through the release material, explore the new features and supported technologies, check out the changes to existing features, read blogs, watch videos, buy or download some books and attend events like conferences and user groups - there's plenty of choice out there to fit any favoured learning style and many require nothing more than an hour or two of your time. Above all, investing in yourself is the most rewarding investment you can ever make.

The DBA and the Data Platform

I've been consulting now for well over a year, it's been a fantastic experience so far; I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with some truly incredible people and it's also been amazing to be helping organisations get the most from their SQL Server platforms.

The last 12 months have been extremely interesting considering the current technical shift towards a seemingly endless list of new platforms and capabilities. For many organisations this shift has fundamentally changed how they do things (or going to do things) and many are going through their own journey of digital transformation understanding these new technologies and how to leverage them to improve their existing processes.

Right at the centre is data, nowadays considered to be a companies greatest asset, so how we use data or to be more exact how we extract more value from it is a frequent aim of these transformation projects. As a result the data professional roles within an organisation have changed too and many teams and individuals are having to broaden their technical skill set to design, deliver and support these new capabilities.

There is no truer example of this than the role of DBA but yet the question still remains on which direction(s) they should be focusing their future on? By that I mean development; which skills should they be learning, what certification, what products, platforms etc? It's easy to see why it's confusing; there are lots and lots of new technologies available to us but that also means there is no consistent path for administrators to set out on. 

It was easier in the not so distant past; the DBA role tended to come in two distinct flavours; development or operational, but now the line between the two has became far less apparent and in many cases non-existent. The DBA role has without question become much more rounded containing core elements from both "sides" but it goes beyond that. Modern approaches to database administration have reduced the footprint of the operational side of the role so a more DevOps orientated DBA is an essential part of the roadmap, for organisations and individuals alike.

This shared roadmap is actually an integral component of an evolving data platform. I've worked with many different organisations at different stages of development but a key component in each has always been a collaborative working practice between data professionals and I'd say the success of a platform depends on it. Over the past year I've worked alongside many different teams; architects, DBA's, developers, release analysts, change and testing specialists, when working together they all have a great influence of the effectiveness of a data solution. 

Whilst it's fair to say organisations should be encouraging this type of working practice it is very much dependent on individuals to pursue and implement it. For DBA's this means engaging with other teams much more frequently, understanding their skills and processes but also adding their own expertise and skill set to produce a much more co-operative function. 

It might not fully answer this common question of what next for DBA's, there's a lot of factors involved, not least your personal career aspirations but it does show how when looking for your next phase of self development the paths that you need to take could be very close to your current role. 

Your skills as a DBA will always be of paramount importance towards availability, security and performance, but by widening your technical scope by working much more closely with those around you not only improves you as an data professional but also the overall effectiveness your data platform. The starting point is to seek out these opportunities; start building relationships, start knowledge sharing and developing new ideas and different ways of working. 

In many ways the data platform is a reflection of the people tasked with shaping it. If we choose not to broaden ourselves, learn new ideas then at some point we come to a standstill, especially in this rapidly evolving technical landscape. If that happens a data platform stops growing, not in terms of data quantity but most certainly in terms of both capability and perhaps most critical of all, value. 

This puts a big emphasis on self-development but we've always had that, it's nothing new. The key is to seek out those opportunities, start close and work with teams that you will probably already have a working relationship with. As these relationships grow so does the collaborative skill set and as a result business processes improve and technical solutions get faster and more productive.

This also cuts down reactive measures, less time fire fighting means more time delivering enhancements and of course, more learning. Any learning process shouldn't have a cut off point, the more we broaden our horizons the more the effective we become and in turn, our products, our services and our platforms keep on evolving.

This is the true nature of a technical platform and we as data professionals play such an important part not just in the support or development of them but towards shaping their growth, effectiveness and their value. Perhaps the key to all of this is realising the value of our own development alongside it.   

Interview advice for DBAs?

Earlier today I saw an interesting book being advertised on a social media channel I use regularly. The books subject matter was around interview questions for the DBA and had been gathered by a bunch of people who had interviewed at various organisations and presumably the book (because I haven't read it) is being aimed as the how-to-get-that-DBA-job manual.

I'm not going to single the book out because I hope that the author had genuine good intentions when writing it however having on been on both sides of the interview table I can honestly say that an interview guide for this type of role isn't actually going to help as much as having two particular things; relevant skills and experience.

For a technical I'm sorry to say that is all you need. If you've simply studied on the "popular" interview questions and their corresponding answers and you don't have any technical understanding then I'm afraid to say you'll be worked out in a matter of seconds by whoever is conducting the interview and it's probably going to end very quickly.

The other thing to bear in mind is that no interviews are ever the same. Some favour intensive technical tests whilst others can be very informal but in both cases they're designed to and will assess your actual abilities and no matter how hard you try, you cannot take any shortcuts, no matter how well they're advertised!

Sadly this particular book isn't on its own; there are quite literally hundreds of books, ebooks and web articles out there that quite frankly are setting you up to fail and it's wrong. So if you are looking for a new role in the SQL platform please avoid the temptation for taking the fast route, because it's not going to happen.

Now it's fair to say actually preparing for an interview is very different and there are certain things you can do to help your cause, it's pretty high-level advice though; make sure you can talk about (and back-up) your skills listed on your CV, give examples that relate to your previous and/or current job(s) and research the subject matter that you might not be as clued up on if the job description asks for it.

The last point is crucial. I don't mean look into the top 5 interview questions about Always On but if the job asks for it and you haven't had too much exposure then look into the technical guides that are out there and spin up some test scenarios. You can't know everything, the interviewer should be aware of that and a candidate who makes that sort of effort does stand out in an interview, that I can assure you.

So if you are looking for a role right now in the data platform don't forget there are also a wealth of people in the community that there to help just avoid anyone who is offering a clear short-cut that will only end up leading to a dead end.

Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials

The last article that I posted was about my thoughts on the future of the DBA role and the direction that it and many others are going. If you haven't read it then please give it a read as it's been really interesting to read other peoples views and opinions on this topic and of course, huge thank you to anyone that has taken the time to do so already.

The TL/DR version of the post is that whilst job roles will be changing to keep with all of the technical advancements going on around us this isn't necessarily something to be worried about and it's actually quite an exciting time for us with lots of new these avenues to explore.

That's all fine but how do we go about gaining these new skills and will it be cost-effective to do so? Keeping our skills up to date has been of paramount importance to IT professionals and traditionally it's been down to the individual to shell out for courses and training material just to stay constant. Now there has been a bit of shift in regards to training and thankfully it has swung very much in the favour of those seeking to learn the technologies that are now becomign more common place.. 

Behind this shift are the very same organisations advancing and pushing their platforms into the commercial spaces. The bottom line is that as well as offering these technical solutions they also need people to be able to both use and support them. The more people that can do that the more adoption rates increase and with pay-as-you-use services such as the cloud this is vital.

In a nutshell, this means that they're giving us lots of training, mainly for free!

I don't want to sound like a TV/radio advert and say things like "THIS OFFER WON'T BE HERE FOREVER" but there is a little bit of truth to this. Whilst there are skills shortages in areas such as the cloud platforms these really won't last forever, particularity with adoption rates on a such a steep upward curve. Whilst I'm sure any free training options won't disappear, it does make a lot of sense to get on board now.

One option that I would certainly recommend you go look at is Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials. Although the same suggests is very development focused it's definitely been designed and put together for anyone working in Microsoft's Data Platform. 

There's a bunch of goodies to download such as Visual Studio (surprise, surprise!), Developer Editions of Microsoft R and SQL Server, plans for Office Online and Power BI and crucially a trial subscription for Microsoft Azure.

Then there's the training options:

Now the image is a little blurry (maybe there's some copy and paste courses for me?!) but this is what you get:

3 months of online training with Opsgility (Microsoft Azure training),

3 months of full access to Pluralsight (um, everything!) ,

2 month subscription to Linux Academy (makes sense with SQL 2017 etc),

3 month subscription to WintellectNOW (for developers) and the various courses offered by Microsoft's Virtual Academy.

That is a lot of free training material and when you factor in all the resource available already out there like tutorials, labs and of course the community contributed materials, all in all it makes for one superb learning platform.

Choice is great but I would also recommend pausing for just a second before you hit the activate button on the training modules! Before you do make sure you have a good look at what courses are on offer, what interests you and start to formulate a plan for your learning. It doesn't have to be a strict timetable but being smart upfront will avoid any waste, after all, if you activate each training option at once and you are already pushed for time then some bits will be missed, it's bound to happen (and that would be a shame).

It is worth mentioning for those wondering if it's similar to an MSDN subscription then yes, it's very similar to a cut down version, last time I looked MSDN offers some of the same but for double the subscription period so if you want a paid option, or your organisation will pay for one then it might be worth going down that route.

It's a good time for many reasons; SQL Server 2017 now has a generally availability date of the 2nd of October and with it's native support for Linux, languages like R and Python then as always training is going to be really important and right now there is a lot of material out there for us to start exploring new areas and that is exactly what organisations like Microsoft want (and need), and as such they're heavily supporting it.

It's a really important time to be involved in the data platform right now and with things changing very quickly it makes a lot of sense to be both keeping up with changes and learning more about them. I'll post again shortly and explain some of the areas that I am focusing on but for now, I highly recommend if you haven't already take the time to learn a bit more about Azure or Linux or whatever appeals to you to advance your career as a data professionals.

As always, really interested to hear others views.

The future of the DBA role.

For quite some time now there has been a lot of talk on the various social media platforms regarding the future of the DBA role and whether or not it still has a place in the not so distant future.

I've actually wrote this post a few times but it's always ended up being a very lengthy read of epic proportions so I've decided to hack it to bits and get straight to the point(s) and hopefully open it up for some more discussion because I think it's a very hot topic still and I'm really interested to hear peoples opinions on where the role is heading.

Lets get straight to the point; is there a place for the DBA role? The answer to that is most definitely yes, whilst databases exist there will always be the need for administration, but as core administrative tasks are being automated there will be less for DBA to do along these lines.

One example I hear of why the DBA will still be very important is performance tuning, after all in cloud platforms you are literally going to pay for poor performance but then with the likes of automated index management and the arrival of the adaptive query processing family in SQL 2017 we can see that the time we spend on tuning activities could well be shrinking as well.

This is really where the concern is coming from but perhaps this is the wrong way of looking at things. Instead of worrying about what we're going to be doing, or rather not doing, we should be looking at how the technical landscape is changing and looking at the opportunities that lay within it.

Now I'm not saying for that we should all become data scientists (and nobody else is by the way), data science is hard but it is a great example of an emerging area within the data platform that we may seek to explore for own careers, in fact there is no real reason why anyone shouldn't spend at least a bit of time familiarising themselves with the technology and its capabilities. This goes for a lot of functionality now present within SQL Server; it's native support for R and Python, the likes of Always On and In-Memory OLTP becoming more prominent and the rise and rise of PowerShell automation, we can even run on Linux now and of course there is that cloud thing that everyone is talking about.

All of these technologies are integral parts of the Microsoft's vision for an ever widening data platform and as organisations look to implement them and leverage their advantages it is the DBA that can be at the forefront of this technical transformation, if they want to be.

This for me is the real point. The changing technical landscape is only a threat to those unwilling to explore new areas and learn new skills and this certainly doesn't apply exclusively to DBA's, whatever your involvement in IT this technical shift effects you and to put it bluntly, you can either go with it, or be left well behind. 

For DBA's there could be some areas that are out of the comfort zone, perhaps the Dev/BI stacks or architecture but thankfully there is an abundance of training material out there which doesn't cost a small fortune or in some cases anything at all, not to mention all the support coming from within the technical communities. The decision really is yours how you'd like to advance.

Now it is fair to say that organisations won't be simply moving to a new platform overnight, after all how many companies are still on SQL 2005 for example (if you need upgrading, give me a call) but rather than sit back and worry about what might happen and even worse do nothing about it, it's time to start looking at how the emerging technologies can benefit not just the organisations that you work with but how they can benefit you as a data professional.

Why I became a SQL Consultant.

This post is kind of a follow up to my recent "How I became a..." article that I wrote about my early days of a DBA. You can read that post and plenty of others from database professions on this page provided by Kevin Hill. The posts are seriously good reads and although needless to say, I cannot recommend them enough!

This post though is centred on the biggest and most difficult decision that I have ever had to make about my career and that is to quit working as an employee and become a consultant. I've been wanting to write this post for some time and because lately I seem to be getting asked at least half a dozen times a day why I made this decision now seems an ideal time to get it out there.

Firstly I need to paint a bit of a picture of my situation prior to making this change. I was in a great place; brilliant role, fantastic manager (you're welcome), using lots and lots of technology, pretty much everything you could want. Which of course does beg the question, why did I decide to move away from this?

Don't get me wrong, I'd had this sort of vague aspiration for a long time, largely because of the amazing people out there doing seriously great things already and whilst they were (and still are) a big influence on me it wasn't just a case of "hey I want to do that" and off I went. 

I did a lot of thinking about what I enjoyed the most from working with SQL Server and how I could take that forward. For me the most appealing thing has always been helping people get the most from their SQL Servers. As a DBA this can take many forms; it could be installing and configuring SQL Server as part of an entire enterprise solution, or it could be an upgrade to a newer version, performance tuning, bug fixing, implementing HA/DR, training, mentoring etc etc. The point being that whatever I was doing or whoever I was working with the motive was always the same, to make a particular SQL platform better in some shape or form.

Which is exactly how I think as a consultant.

In fact as a consultant I operate in a very similar way only now it's on a larger scale. I still have exactly the same motives as before but whereas in a permanent role I was working within a single instance, now my driver is to help as many organisations as I can with their data platforms. 

In many ways it's like scaling out a database (bear with me) but rather than distributing data I'm distributing my services and (hopefully) doing more work. Of course that comes with its own set of challenges which I will go into on another post.

Since I made the move to consultancy the #1 question I have been asked is why, hence this blog post and the answer is always the same. I've always loved working with SQL Server, with different people and different systems etc so becoming a consultant was a way to expand on that and reach out to even more people and help them achieve what they want with their data platforms.

If you'd like to know more about the consultancy and the services we provide then you can follow this link and by all means if you have any questions, feedback then by all means get in touch, be great to hear from you.