SQLSaturday #59 Speaker Interview Series #4 – with Janakiraman Sattainathan

So far, we went Way out West, NYC local, we were waiting there in Allentown  😉, and now were going down south to Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak with Janakiraman Sattainathan, as our speaker interview series continues.  Let’s read on to learn more about Jana.

RP:  Please tell us a little about yourself, your background, your career and your involvement in the SQL Community.

JS: I work as a Database/Application Architect at Transamerica Reinsurance, having been there for the last 10 years of my 17 year career.  My work centers primarily around the database be it Oracle or SQL Server.  I am an active member of my local Charlotte SQL Server User Group.  I have had the wonderful opportunity to share what little I know with the SQL community via the SQL Saturday events held in some of the cities in the east coast. These events also have helped me learn a lot as well as shape me as a budding speaker, not to mention the acquaintance of some of the great minds in the field.

RP:  What is your area of expertise?  How did you become a DBA/SQL Professional?

JS: I enjoy working with large volumes of data and tackle the challenges that it presents.  I love tuning, optimization and data analysis. I have been fortunate to have the “database” as a central part of my various job roles.  Other than learning on the job, I took MCITP certifications for Database developer and administrator in addition to Oracle Certified Professional DBA to enhance my knowledge and gain industry acceptance.

RP:  What advice would you give your fellow colleagues who are trying to become more senior professionals?

JS: Try as best as one can to keep up with the current technology. Certifications are an easy way to quickly know the new features and apply them when a situation calls for it. Make use of free training like SQL Saturday(s) and become an active member of your local user group(s). Make full use of the numerous online training resources like 24 hours of PASS which are also free. Get help from your employer to buy books, training material and suggest sponsoring for industry events like PASS Summit. Least but not least, subscribe to online newsletters related to your area of interest.

RP:  As I see the question all the time, what do you tell folks who want to get more involved in the SQL Community?

JS: You don’t have to be an expert to share your knowledge. One can start with answering questions in popular online forums at whatever level of expertise they choose to. If you are good at writing, you can publish articles in SQLServerCentral, CodeProject or any such forum. If you like speaking, local user groups are a good place to start and so are SQL Saturdays. Following the big names of SQL Server in the online space like Twitter, Linked in would offer a glimpse of what they are up to. It is easy to follow their trail than to make one from scratch especially when one is starting out.

RP:  What are 3 of your favorite features in SQL Server 2008/R2?

JS: Frankly, I have not cracked open SQL Server 2008 since we are still on 2005 at work although I did look at the new features related to partitioning on a VM setup on my laptop.

RP:  What are you working on currently?  (Projects, Books/Articles, Speaking circuit, etc.)

JS: I am thinking about coming up with a presentation on the new features in querying that are barely used on a day-to-day basis and show how they can be very effective and efficient when substituted for old ways of getting at data.  I have not been very active recently and need to ramp up.

RP:  What are some of your other interests, hobbies, etc. when you’re not being a DBA/Engineer/BI professional?

JS: Biking and Tennis: I just got a $700 tennis ball machine to improve my barely-existent back-hand and am also working on my terrible second serve.

RP:  What are you looking forward to, or, what excites you the most about presenting at our SQLSaturday event in the capital of the world, NYC?

JS: I am travelling all the way from Charlotte NC to NYC because it has a special place in my heart. As an Indian American, NYC is where I first started my professional life in the USA. It has been more than 10 years since I have been to NYC and am really happy that I got an opportunity to present. I can’t wait to see the city, attend the event and as a nice side-effect, show my family around New York.

RP:  Give us a preview of the topic and session you have planned for us at SQLSaturday#59

JS: Partitioning – This is one of the least used technologies in SQL Server which offers the most performance and manageability benefit. The session will pack a lot of information and demos possible within the hour.  Please refer here for more information.

RP:  Anything that you would like to add?

JS:  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at your event. I also want to apologize since a lot of the local speakers might have been overlooked due to the volume of speaker response for NYC event from non-locals and MVP’s. 

I am eagerly looking forward to the event.

        RP:  Same here!  Thank you, Jana, we appreciate your participation, and glad you can make it up here for the event!

You can catch all the speaker interviews on this upcoming event, on the Pearlknows Blog, as well as the SQLSaturday#59 event home page.