07Jun 2018 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL in the City Streamed: June 2018

DevOps, Redgate Software
Next week, Redgate Software, will be putting on SQL in the City Streamed. These events are a great way to learn about SQL Server, the Microsoft Data Platform, privacy and protection, the GDPR, and, of course, DevOps. All of that, with some great information on Redgate tools and how they can help tossed in there. Agenda Scroll down at the link and check out the agenda. We're covering a pretty wide range of topics this time. I have the keynote, and I'm not going to tell you what it's about yet. OK. I'll tell you a little. Twist my arm. I have a message about DevOps that I think is very important. When it comes to the database, we frequently think about development and deployment as nothing but change, and…
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09Apr 2018 by Grant Fritchey 25 Comments

GDPR, Database Backups, and the Right to be Forgotten

DevOps
I've said it before, but it bears repeating, there is no cause for any kind of panic when it comes to the GDPR. None. There are however, a number of concerns. One of those concerns is, well, concerning. How does the right to be forgotten within the GDPR impact database backups? Let's discuss what we know. The Right To Erasure Each of the articles within the GDPR lays out a topic. Article 17 is pretty darned clear about the topic: Right to erasure ('right to be forgotten') Basically, the individuals, also known as the data subject, also known as natural persons, in short, people, can request that you remove their data from your system. The first sentence lays out the gist of the idea quite well: The data subject shall…
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02Apr 2018 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Buggy Whips 2.0

DevOps, Professional Development
I recently found myself rereading a very old blog post of mine, from the very beginning of this blog, discussing Buggy Whips. I'll save you the long read, I was learning new tech, it made me second guess my working assumptions, I was curious if I was manufacturing a buggy whip while watching an automobile drive by. 2008 to 2018 Well, I'm still here. In fact, Feature Driven Development has disappeared from the lexicon and the project that it was introduced to took years longer than anticipated, performed horribly, and had to have a major redesign and rework to be fundamentally functional (all after I left the old organization). So, my fears that database design was a thing of the past were just that, fears... right? Yes and no. Here…
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19Mar 2018 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Query Monitoring and the GDPR

DevOps
I've been reading the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and discussing the ramifications of the beginning of enforcement with lots of people. The implications of it all are fascinating. The real serious issues remain primarily a business problem, with business defined solutions. However, there are technology issues that we need to think about. For example, performance metrics are going to be impacted by the GDPR. Private Data and Monitoring Queries First and foremost, let me say something I've said before. The vast majority of the focus around GDPR has to come from your business. Second, the bulk of your work and focus must be on ensuring core functionality in support of the GDPR. Third, the attack vectors and leaks for GDPR are not going to primarily be around something like…
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26Feb 2018 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

GDPR: Your Hair Is Not On Fire

DevOps, Professional Development
Along with a lot of other people, I've been attempting to call people's attentions to the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that was created two years ago and becomes effective in May of this year. The regulation defines processes and practices around the privacy and protection of personal data of any EU citizen. While the regulation is defined by the EU, since it's applicable to the data of EU citizens, the applicability is anywhere that data may exist, even in other countries. So, the GDPR applies to you and your data if you have EU citizens data in your databases. Different countries have trade treaties in effect with the EU which will allow the EU to enforce this, even though you and your data are located somewhere else. None…
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02Jan 2018 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Snow, Heathrow Airport, Disaster Recovery

DevOps
I recently flew from Boston to the UK through the Heathrow airport. It just happened to be on the day that the UK got about 1.5 inches of snow (sorry, 3.8 centimetres, according to Weather Underground though, just 15mm, not sure about that). I spent a little more than four hours sitting on the runway at Heathrow before I was able to get out of the airplane. It was a frustrating and tiring experience, but it made me think about disaster recovery. Having a Disaster Recovery Plan Most of us have a Disaster Recover (DR) plan. Of course we do. Well, probably. Well, we take backups. Well, we occasionally take some backups. Well, we're pretty sure someone within the organization may have taken a backup once... somewhere... probably. Heathrow Airport…
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09Aug 2017 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

IT/Dev Connections 2017

Database Lifecycle Management, DevOps, SQL Server 2016
I'm very honored to be able to announce that I am going to be speaking at IT/Dev Connections in San Francisco. I'm not just speaking there, I'm presenting an all day seminar on the tools needed for query tuning. The title does say SQL Server 2016, but most of the tools I'll cover can be used be used from SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2017. I'll also throw in a few SQL Server 2017 tools just to spice things up. If you're looking for a lot of information about how to get your query tuning done, I'm here to help. I'm also going to be talking about two other favorite topics of mine, DevOps and Monitoring. Please check it out and join me at this event.
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10Jul 2017 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

The Choices We Make

DevOps, Professional Development
If you keep your head up and look around you'll see the choices people make all the time. I saw a recent example online in this story about two experiences, shopping at Home Depot vs. Lowes (very minor NSFW warning due to language). I don't want to get into a debate about the two stores. That's not the point. The point is, we all have two sets of priorities that we have to serve. The first set of priorities are the ones immediate to us, the rules and regulations we create and enforce around our jobs. The second set of priorities are the ones that are at least a step removed from us, the service and services we supply to our "customers". Make no mistake, we're all serving customers to…
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05Jul 2017 by Grant Fritchey 24 Comments

I Love Entity Framework

DevOps
I love Entity Framework. I also like (not love) nHibernate. That's right, as a DBA and data professional, I'm telling you I love Object/Relational Mapping tools (ORM). I think this is a technology set that the DBA needs to more tightly embrace. Let me tell you why. Most of the Queries I know that the biggest pushback against Entity Framework (EF) and it's fellow ORM tools is that they generate crap code. I know this to be true. I've seen it. ORM tools can, and do, generate seriously poor T-SQL. That's not to mention the N+1 problem and a few others. However, as you see from the article in that link, these problems and how to avoid them are very well defined. You don't have to suffer from the issues.…
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15Jun 2017 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

T-SQL Tuesday #091 – Round-Up

DevOps
Thank you to everyone who participated in T-SQL Tuesday #091 which was on databases and DevOps. As I anticipated, this brought out quite a bit of variety on the posts. This is because DevOps is still... not quite cooked...(?) in many peoples minds. I think with the range of posts we saw here, it'll be a lot more clear to those who are just getting an introduction to it. Here are the posts (in no particular order) and a few comments on each: Databases and DevOps: Rob Farley - I like Rob's approach to this intro to DevOps. He's a consultant. It'd sure be nice if you had the protections that DevOps offers in front of your systems before he starts recommending changes. What Playing at Minecraft has Taught Me…
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