New SelectViews Show
SelectViews: On the show today, several tips from things being seen in the field, can a DBA be too good? Upcoming events, small business/consulting tip, accidental DBA tips and much more.
[Watch the Show Here]
Previously:
[Watch Here] (Part 3) Chris Shaw, Stephen Wynkoop explore the top 10 SQL Server scripts
[Watch Here] (Part 2) Chris Shaw, Stephen Wynkoop explore the top 10 SQL Server scripts
[Watch Here] (Part 1) Chris Shaw, Stephen Wynkoop explore the top 10 SQL Server scripts
On Choosing a Direction with SQL Server Expertise…
I had a good email swap with Daniel talking about different ways to go with going after a specific set of skills with SQL Server. I thought I’d share it here as a start to this conversation. Please be sure to send in your thoughts as well, here.
Daniel: "I think you have to start with what you see your career doing in the next 5-10 years. Are you staying or planning to stay with your organization? If so, the skillsets that will provide the best upward mobility/stability (depending on what you are looking for) will be specific. For my organization we have a small staff supporting about 100+ servers and at least half of those are SQL variants of some sort. The skillsets that are of value here are far broader and more generalized then I would imagine other larger orgs. Our "tracks" seem to be development/architecture and support/admin. I am mentoring a smart person who started off (and still has the title of…) Office Specialist but has been developing light desktop applications for about a year and a half now. Their preference is to stay in house with their career for as long as allowed so is following the dev/arch track and making great headway.
If you are planning to be "mobile" with your career then I think it depends on your strengths. I think it would break down into the following categories:
Database Architecture (design develop implement systems and integrations)
Hard Core DBA (performance, monitor, maintain)
Business Intelligence and Reporting
Disaster Recovery and High Availability
These categories kind of blend into each other at the edges but are different in scope, focus and objectives. Of these though I believe that what is in highest demand and will continue to be so is the Hard Core DBA. there will always be a need for the "do it all" DBA that keeps the boat upright and moving forward. At every level there is a demand for a thorough understanding of the functions of a good DBA. Security, compliance, data protection and master data management and data integrity as well as performance will always be where the rubber meets the road. "
I wrote back to Daniel with some questions about his take on the cloud. My questions – "Do you see “cloud” stuff impacting this hard-core dba stuff? If so, what kind of timeframe?
This is one area I have been thinking through quite a bit lately; if databases are moved to the cloud, what does happen to the hard-core DBA duties? Sure, we still need design, still need BI stuff – and I’m sure DBA-related tasks, but will the hard-core be just handled?
Of course the second half of the question is probably as meaningful – the timeframe if this were to become mainstream (cloud-based databases). THAT one I have no confidence in predicting or talking about at this point. We’ll have to have several major breaches and issues with cloud that get handled “right” as people start to use it. Then more will consider it worthy and start moving, but I do think it will change the landscape."
…and his response: "I think we will see the cloud playing a major role in the next 2-5 years… It will take this long to be mainstream and that is when things will trickle down to impacting the data center in most organizations.
As for the duties I think that the cloud only represents a distributed collection of data stores and an organizations responsibility to the cloud will be much greater then it was to the responsibilities were to the organization initially. Take for example Google Maps as a source of data that can be leveraged in everyday applications. Initially the requirement for performance and availability only supported internal services to end products that Google provides. In time the data became the service and the availability requirements were driven by not only internal requirements but also of those customers that consume the data as a service. The DBA duties did not weaken but rather became part of the clouds requirement of google as a participant in the cloud as a data provider as well as consumer.
This, I think, will become more the pattern. As we become consumers of the cloud the duties of the providers will become of greater importance. My prediction is that the more we become consumers of the cloud the more we will become providers to the cloud. Much as the business path of Google has proven."
Great food for thought as you head into the weekend.
Webcast, Wednesday:
Managing a Crisis
Do you have a plan for your next Crisis? What should you look for? Presented by: Chris Shaw
> Register Now
> 9/9/2009 at 12:00pm Noon Pacific