T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog gathering for the SQL Server/Data Professional community  It is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (B|T) and is not limited to just things around the SQL Server database engine. Each month a blogger hosts the event and anybody who wants to contribute can write a post about that month’s topic. You can find a list of all topics at http://tsqltuesday.com/.  

This is the 89th MONTH for T-SQL Tuesday’s, which is a great representation of the #sqlfamily and how we love to share our knowledge and opinions.

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic is about how the global shift to the Cloud and/or automation will affect today’s DBAs and comes from Koen Verbeeck (B|T).

Let me be upfront.  As a DBA, I do not fear the cloud.   After all, there really isn’t the cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer.  I don’t shudder in terror when someone mentions moving to the cloud, rather I embrace it if it made sense for the project/problem at hand.  I think the cloud can solve issues such as hardware limitations, licensing or budget constraints.

While I have messed around with the cloud to some extent, it is still a database sitting on a SQL Server.  It just happens that the server isn’t in my local DR center.  I don’t view this any different if I have to work on my DR server which is located many miles away.

I work for a fairly slow moving financial institution.  This does not me we don’t adopt new technology but the leadership is very careful when deciding to move in a certain direction. Since we service rural America farmers, these decisions could have a huge impact on the ability of our customers to operate.    The cloud, at least from a database perspective, is not something that I think is even on the radar.  I believe that we will get there eventually, but not in the next year or two I would imagine.

Of course, this also means that I don’t get the shiny new cloud toys to play with either.  I have had the ability to work with the cloud some years ago on a side project, but that was very limited.  It was also at a time where Azure was fairly young and not as robust as it is today. Learning new skills around the Cloud is on my to-do list and one of these days I’ll get to it.  I think with the help of MSDN, it’s a lot easier to play around with new technologies.

As far as automation is concerned, I’m all for it.  I tend to have a Make It Suck Less (MISL) mentality and will automate anything under the hood that I can.  This just makes my day to day job easier which in turns allows me to focus on what I enjoy doing.  Architecting and digging around the internals of SQL Server.  This is my passion, well that, and presenting/teaching.

There really isn’t that much of a change for my current day to day job.  I would look forward to the ability to do more with it and expand my knowledge base, though.

Let’s face it, whether it is a database in Azure or SQL Server running on an Azure VM, it’s still a database and it is still SQL Server.  Either way you slice it, there needs to be a DBA somewhere in the picture to make sure things run smooth.

As far as the robots, well, I’ve got a bat for when SkyNet takes over.

© 2017, John Morehouse. All rights reserved.