SQL Data Partners Podcast

One of the advantages to a small conference is the ability to take attendee feedback and put it in place during the conference.  We actually made time for the attendees to pick topics they wanted to discuss and this episodes comes from one of our attendees Aaron Hayes. It can be very tempting to think of the good life of consulting.  I almost liken it to playing the lottery--what am I going to do with all that time and money?  While the odds on successful consulting are a bit higher than the lottery, just saying you are a consultant won't automatically bring in the clients. The reasons data professionals get into consulting are varied and in this episode we are joined by Randolph West and Jonathan Stewart, former podcast guests, to talk about the reasons we started consulting and some of the challenges along with our decision. From my own personal experience, working for yourself--whether you consider yourself a contractor or a consultant--is very rewarding but demanding work.  There is no one to tell you want to do, but there are very few security nets as well.  One of the most important ideas I can suggest for those who want to own their own business is--forget the technology, how are you going to help other people?  If you are ok with the idea of focusing on others, then there are great opportunities in store. Do you have thoughts about jumping into technology?  Let us know in the comments below.   The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/20/episode-114-how-do-you-start-consulting. Have fun on the SQL trail!

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."  Those words are attributed to Issac Newton and they are fitting for the way I was feeling recently as I thought back to those who have helped me in my career.  While we might always want things to be better, as technologies we have it pretty good.  There are unnumbered people who have dedicated untold amounts of time so we can have the tech available to us.  We take a moment to think about those who have paved the way for us to be where we are now. Whose shoulders are you standing on?  Let us know in the comments below.   The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/11/giants/. Have fun on the SQL trail!

When listener Mel Vargas first suggested the topic of patching, I was not sure this would work as a topic; however, the Equifax story had just developed and there are many other security related issues that could be prevented with patching.  Match that with our guest, Robert Davis, who just happened to publish some articles on patching and I decided we needed to do this episode. I should never have doubted this as topic.  While we are a bit more protected in SQL Server than others, the security threat is still real and this is something everyone has to go through.  Robert presents us with some interesting details on how he goes about patching and we think you will find the episode compelling. The shownotes for today’s episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/04/episode-112-keeping-up-with-patching/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Sometimes just getting approval to attend a conference is a challenge, but getting the green light isn't the only thing you should plan for.  Sure, you want to learn some things--but a google search can teach you too.  In fact this week we are hearing about new features and functionality from the Ignite event--and I am catching all of it in my bunny slippers. Why attend a conference then? Conference season is upon us and Steve and I share some thoughts on why we attend conferences and some of the strategies we have used in the past. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/09/28/episode-111-how-do-you-prepare-for-conferences/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

As you work with other people, you will experience resistance when you suggest changes and want to implement something new.  Why is this? One podcast listener shared an experience where a problem was occurring.  The suggested a solution.  The idea was rejected.  No solution presented itself and the idea was submitted various times.  When nothing else was working, the idea was finally implemented. The suggested change successfully helped the situation.  Victory! Later, another issue arose and a similar suggestion was made.  The expectation was the suggestion would be well received; however, this was not the case.  The idea was still met with hostile resistance. Have you faced a situation like this before?  Why wasn't there an trust built because of the first recommendation? Our conversation for today's episode centers around the idea of building trust on the teams you work with.  As most our listeners are in the data platform space, we thought it would be a good idea to reach outside our community to folks we might receive the most pushback from--developers.  We are happy to have Richard Campbell on the show with us today.  Richard is the co-host of the .NET rocks podcast and you might recognize him from one of his many Channel9 videos. We chat with Richard about how we can build trust and some common ways we attempt to show authority can backfire on us and actually cause more problems.  We talk about some of the ways those we trust have gone about earning our trust.  I know you enjoy this episode. The shownotes for today’s episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/09/20/episode-110-how-do-i-build-trust-with-my-team/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

In episode 64 we interviewed Patrick Thomas, the program manager for the MCP program which includes certifications.  There continues to be quite a bit of discussion around certifications, so it only makes sense that we give our take on the matter.  Both Steve and I are certified, so this may give away some of our thoughts. Certification is a tricky thing.  Much of the value you get out of a certification is dependent on where you on in your career and what your next step is going to be.  This is going to be different for every person, so this decision is one that only you can make.  This can make a decision on which certification to get and even when to get it a challenge. Our conversation really revolves around what a certification will get you and what it won't help you with.  Do you agree with our list?  Let us know!

After a brief hiatus, we are back on the air to continue the conversation and let me tell you--we have a great conversation lined up for this episode.  The discussion around what will happen to the relational database, and by extension us as administrators continues to get quite a bit of traction.  Even within SQL Server, we are starting to see more features that don't fit the traditional relational mode and a podcast listener inquired about getting our thoughts.  As I thought about a guest for this episode, I didn't want to get someone tied to a product.  They, like me, would be biased and I wanted to get someone a bit removed from the situation. Our guest today is Andrew Snodgrass, the research vice president at Directions and we chat about the future of the relational database and what the future of the data environment we manage might look like.  I hope you will find his insights valuable as an outsider.  While we don't get into the specifics of what databases are mostly like to be around, Andrew does give us administrator some idea's on what technologies we should start exploring. What are your thoughts around the future of the relational database?  Join the conversation and let us know!

Data analytics is all anyone seems to talk about anymore.  We've even caught the bug at SQL Data Partners and have started working with data platform MVP César Oviedo from Costa Rica.  César has been helping us on some projects and we thought it was time we introduced him to everyone.  On the Spanish front, he has been very busy putting out YouTube videos and publishing content for BI LATAM (Latin America).  We invite him on the show to introduce himself and our conversation turns to the idea of BI for the little guy--smaller organizations that need to take advantage of analytics and how the ecosystem is changing to support them. We are happy to introduce César to you and know you will enjoy hearing from in this episode and future episodes. The shownotes for today’s episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/08/02/bi-for-the-little-guy/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

User: What was that record before it was updated? Me: I don't know.  Maybe I could restore a backup? User: Really? You have to do all that? It is just one record. Me: (under my breath) Yes, a record YOU updated. If you have ever had a conversation like this you know how difficult it can be to implement auditing of records as they change.  With temporal tables, a new feature, we have the ability to track point in time information about a record without the huge expense of setting up auditing and tracking.  While you won't want to use this on every table, when there are tables with sensitive data you want to audit from time to time, this feature will come in handy.  We are happy to have Randolph back on the program with us to talk about this new feature. The shownotes for today’s episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/25/episode-106-temporal-tables/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

How can you tell when a change is enough of a change?  How do you know you didn’t make too big of a change?  Steve and I discuss some thoughts around what you might look for when you make certain changes.  Some of the components we cover include Max degree of parallelism, cxpackets, virtual log files, the number of log files for a database, backup retention and memory. The shownotes for today’s episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/18/enough/ and have fun on the SQL trail.