This editorial was originally published on Dec 30, 2005.

I saw a blog by Dave Rosenberg and it was interesting in a few ways. First of all, Dave works for OSDL, which promotes the use of open source software.

There were a number of basic things that you could probably guess like costs are important, blogs aren't, and more. But there were two things that I really thought made sense to a SQL Server guy.

The first was that security was mentioned as a big item, but more importantly, one of the examples was "don't build SQL Server apps using sa." I've preached against this many times, but still developers want to do it. And I don't understand why it's so hard to just create a login and get away from the all access development. Especially given the security issues across all platforms in recent years.

The second one was something that I think more CIOs should stand behind and not just "talk" about. Hiring and maintaining staff was listed with this comment: "This is my number one issue."

And it should be. Retaining staff is a big deal, especially as more and more systems are integrated or even running side by side in new and innovative, and most often, complex ways. Having some knowledge of the journey that got you to a place is important and it's hard to rebuild that in new people. Making good hiring decisions and then making an effort on a regular basis to be sure those people stay is important in all businesses, large and small.

Not that you won't have to turn over staff at times or cut your losses. After all, not every person fits in every job and circumstances certainly change.

It should just be the exception rather than a regular practice.

(update, Info World has removed the original blog)