September 21, 2015 at 10:04 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Data Sprawl
September 22, 2015 at 6:53 am
There's two issues I've seen with your posting Steve.
As a normal developer, you can't go from MS to Linux with ease. Unless you have spent serious time understanding the differences, strengths and weakness of the platforms, CLI and the tools, you will not instantly do quality, professional level work. It awhile to master the thousands of details that make a RDMS/language/utility/environment perform well and reliably.
Additionally, listing OSS experience on a resume for a Windows position or vice-versa is a instant disqualification or red flag when apply for a good percentage of jobs. (Bitter pill of personal experience...) There's too many entrenched managers that still see the software world as religious battleground. (You can thank Ballmer, Stallman and the fan boys for that...)
I do encourage admins and developers to spend some quality time learning different OSes, RDMS/NoSQL and programming languages. With virtual machines, free software and insane amounts of documentation, there's nothing lacking except some personal commitment of time. Many of the OSS languages and utilities are cross platform and can help solve problems faster, including that of a limited budget.
September 22, 2015 at 7:12 am
[font="Verdana"]Learning new technologies/tools but related ones is good but as per suitability of business/job.
Being expert in specific one RDBMS/NoSQL/Hadoop is mostly advantageous rather than being not the master of any. Putting a brain in much burden and availability of alternative options; just kill the attention of the person?...![/font]
September 22, 2015 at 7:13 am
I'm moving in a different direction, that of compliance. I'll be involved in how we handle the data, how we protect it, the laws and the common sense of it all.
September 22, 2015 at 7:47 am
Abrar Ahmad_ (9/22/2015)
[font="Verdana"]Learning new technologies/tools but related ones is good but as per suitability of business/job.Being expert in specific one RDBMS/NoSQL/Hadoop is mostly advantageous rather than being not the master of any. Putting a brain in much burden and availability of alternative options; just kill the attention of the person?...![/font]
I agree. All the new technologies are exciting and interesting to investigate but there is only so much time in the day!
I believe being knowledgeable in one or two technologies is preferable.
Garrie Powers
IT Developer
Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit at UCL
Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology
September 22, 2015 at 10:18 am
chrisn-585491 (9/22/2015)
There's two issues I've seen with your posting Steve.As a normal developer, you can't go from MS to Linux with ease. Unless you have spent serious time understanding the differences, strengths and weakness of the platforms, CLI and the tools, you will not instantly do quality, professional level work. It awhile to master the thousands of details that make a RDMS/language/utility/environment perform well and reliably.
Additionally, listing OSS experience on a resume for a Windows position or vice-versa is a instant disqualification or red flag when apply for a good percentage of jobs. (Bitter pill of personal experience...) There's too many entrenched managers that still see the software world as religious battleground. (You can thank Ballmer, Stallman and the fan boys for that...)
I do encourage admins and developers to spend some quality time learning different OSes, RDMS/NoSQL and programming languages. With virtual machines, free software and insane amounts of documentation, there's nothing lacking except some personal commitment of time. Many of the OSS languages and utilities are cross platform and can help solve problems faster, including that of a limited budget.
Didn't mean to imply it's easy to do, but rather if you've used *nix and windows and OSX, you move between them without an issue. There's no "reset".
As far as resumes, I haven't seen that. I've put a variety on my resume in the past and get calls (and interviews) for them all. I have tended to shrink down and limit what I put on the resume to what I want to do. However I have had friends with .NET and Java on their resumes, and get lots of calls. Maybe your industry or area?
September 22, 2015 at 10:54 am
I have used a number of OS's, programming languages and variants of RDBMS over the last thirty years. At one time I was using Windows XP, OSX and RedHat, programming in C, VB6, Lisp and two variants of BASIC using Oracle and MSSQL databases. Whilst I can switch relatively easily I find that it is easy to make syntax errors if you do so too frequently. I particularly found it was best to start fresh with LISP in the morning and see the work through as the "reverse polish" needed a different mind set. Whilst I look at new technologies I do not go to deeply into them unless they are relevant at that particular time.
September 22, 2015 at 11:13 am
Interesting comment about issues with language syntax. I write in 3 different languages (SQL, VB.Net and C#) regularly and a few others as time permits (java, R and python) and I swear I can't keep the syntax straight.
September 22, 2015 at 11:14 am
Hi Steve,
Agreed that we should continuously educate ourselves and at least maintain the skill of being able to learn new technology quickly. (And doesn't that just describe our career perfectly anyhow?) 😛
As others have alluded to; there is already a title for the person you are describing that I believe has been around for centuries. It has two ways to be interpreted. The original "Jack of All Trades" was meant as a compliment. But for some valid reasons the derogatory "Master of None" was added to the title. I think that the evolution of that title aptly sums up the pro's and con's of the suggestion. The dilemma is to discover to which interpretation the hiring manager is a subscriber. :ermm:
September 22, 2015 at 11:39 am
Used to be that most database records were manually entered into a terminal by employees who were paid by the hour. Today, the proliferation of the web, applications, devices, and cheap storage means that organizations are hoarding as much data as they can and deciding what to do with it later.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 22, 2015 at 12:58 pm
The SQL Server DBA should consider letting the application developers use Cassandra or MongoDB for their object persistence storage. Keep it local on the application server and let the application team manage it. There is a difference between a shopping cart and an actual purchase order.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 22, 2015 at 2:35 pm
Hadoop will be easier once SQL Server 2016 is released. They have included in the CTP the PolyBase technology that allows SQL Server to directly query a connected Hadoop cluster (or Azure Blob).
Overall, its a really nice technology.
The more you are prepared, the less you need it.
September 22, 2015 at 2:44 pm
The more data technologies you use the more you see the borrowing of ideas.
In fact it becomes easier to switch between technologies once you grasp the underlying principles. Then you reach the epiphany that what you learn on one platform has a near equivalent on another.
I've been discussing the idea of web front ends persisting data to a multiconsumer persistent queue such as Kafka. Sadly Service Broker doesn't seem to be as flexible as we need. We need !multiple systems and technologies to be able to persist and consume from the queue but don't necessarily want to put a SQL Server start and endpoint into the architecture
September 22, 2015 at 3:04 pm
I think the whole concept of continual learning is a good one. It's something I do myself.
Also, it never hurts to understand the basics (or sometimes more) of other products. For instance, knowing Oracle doesn't hurt when working in SQL Server unless you get the functions mixed up. Knowing how *nix works certainly doesn't hurt the Windows administrator.
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