Never forget, we’re making buggy whips. And everybody we know drives little buggies and they need our buggy whips. We’ve got a special talent, a unique knowledge set, and it’s fulfilling a defined need. So we’re all set, right?

Well, other than that Stanley Steamer over there. And maybe that Ford. Oh, and there’s a Grant.

I worry about this stuff all the time. I know SQL Server. Before that, back in the day, I worked on Paradox, PAL & OPAL. I learned and programmed in Visual Basic, Java, C# and .Net. I’ve made sure that I’ve explored, let’s see, Hadoop, Mongo, MySQL, and others, structured and unstructured, relational and non, you name it. Why? Because, I want to keep an eye out for the automobiles that are going to ruin my nice little buggy whip manufacturing business. I make money on these buggy whips and that feeds my family.

Now, here’s my current question/thought/worry/thingie… How does business analytics fit into this? Is there a path that I may need to explore that moves me from working primarily within a focused technical sphere to working with PowerWhatever? Is that a path that people take? Or, is that actually leaving the technology path to become primarily business focused? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Yesterday we did Oracle. Today we’re doing SQL Server. Tomorrow we’re working on Hadoop. Next week… Wouldn’t it be data vNext for the data professional? Or is it that the data pro’s path lies, at least what appears to me, outside of a pure technical scope?

I’m not sure. But it’s something I’ve realized I might need to at least explore a little before I dismiss it out of hand. I may sound a little snide or scornful, but I’m not trying to be. I absolutely recognize the size of the analytics market. It’s vast. And, I’m actively concerned. Does this represent a horseless carriage? I am unsure, but I’m also a little nervous. It feels like I would be abandoning technology, to a degree (recognizing that this too requires technical know-how). Technology (buggy whips!) has been my primary driving force, even when I was in the Navy.

But, we all do have to worry about this. You absolutely don’t want to be trying to sell those buggy whips when everyone is buying cars. If you do think the next step is analytics and you’re ready to go down that analytics path, I can help a little. I’ve got a discount code that will get you into the PASS Business Analytics Conference for a reduced rate. Just enter BFFGF when prompted. This very well could be the right choice to avoid the whole buggy whip problem (until the next time, because it’s buggy whips all the way down). Or, if you just want to get your feet wet, check out the BAC Marathon.

In the meantime, I think I’ll explore how this DocumentDB thing is working. I’m just not sure I want to give up on technology to focus primarily on the business just yet. But I’m seriously curious what others think about this. Is analytics the logical next step for the data pro? Is that a horseless carriage?

The post Oh Look, A Horseless Carriage appeared first on Home Of The Scary DBA.