The end of the year (I’m not rushing it, just getting ahead of the curve to get your early thoughts), is when people start thinking through what’s coming up and what to expect. I’m curious what you would see as the top 3 things or so that you’d expect to see happening in the data space in 2018. Drop them […]
Editorials
Are VMs the Gateway Drug to the Cloud?
As I was reading through various comments today on the site, and going yesterday’s post, I noticed an interesting comment: Relinquishing time-honored onprem tactics maybe forced upon us by the volume and cost of moving that volume in the cloud. For some reason, this really struck a thoughtful chord with me. It’s very true – the “cost” of moving to […]
Blind Trust of AI for SQL Server… Even Now
With so much happening with AI and so many instant wins, it’s easy to remember to step carefully into the darkness. I’ve been seeing and hearing so many more questions, stories, suggestions and other feedback about “it said to do “X”, so I did… what do you mean that might not have been the best solution?” There are so many […]
Thinking Through the Code of Ethics
I have to admit I was surprised how well the code of ethics has stood up over 11 years. (Here’s a link to the current rendition). Sure, there are things that I’d like to re-visit, but I was glad to see that most of the key elements were things that would still apply today. The one that was called out […]
The DBA Code of Ethics
In April of 2006, we worked out a code of ethics for DBAs. I wanted to post it here and get your feedback. I think it pertains fairly well, even after more than 11 years. What would you add or change? This cannot happen in a vacuum though. It takes your feedback, your comments. I’ll do my best to pull […]
MINIX On Intel CPUs
Intel CPUs have a proprietary operating system built into the chip in recent years. This OS is based on the open systems MINIX version of Linux, and is embedded in the CPU, where you have zero interaction or access. What is it doing, and why should you care? The purpose of the MINIX OS on the Intel CPU is to […]
How Do Systems Learn, When the Questions Aren’t Known?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re quickly gaining on having information that we can use to help address some of the issues going on in the world. Almost predictively. You can tell because so many time we’re able to look back on an incident and see the information bits that we known and draw conclusions about whatever is […]
Spring (er, Fall) Cleaning For Your System
Recently, we’ve been going through our systems in anticipation of a move to a new SQL Server environment. Partly because of the version upgrade, partly because it seemed originally like the right thing to do. Now, after we’ve been starting to investigate further the process of figuring out the unused items, and the breadth of the issue, it seems even […]
Shadow Analytics – A Risky Reality
Shadow Analytics – where end-users are extracting data, doing calculations on and relying on that data, and storing and using it in ways that don’t necessarily tie back to the data origins very well – came from the need to move more quickly than their IT teams can move in allowing access to data and information. Here’s some more information […]
Of Databases and Backwards Compatibility
Caught this post about a presentation by Simon Sabin (@simon_sabin) talking about treating your databases and the integration with them like you would an API. It’s an apt comparison – and the ideas are really interesting in the post. Of particular interest was the concept that, as you roll through updates and changes going forward, you can maintain some great […]