13Mar 2019 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Database Development Gone Wrong

Redgate Software
I recently shared a story about how I was personally responsible for a development project going off the rails (and oh boy, did it go off the rails). It's a very painful story to share since I was the principal bad guy. However, I learned a lot of lessons from it. Now, it's your turn. Redgate Software (yes, my employer), is running a contest between now and March 20, 2019. We want to hear your story about database development gone wrong. It can be a horror story like mine, or just a simple story of the pain involved when developing databases ('cause there's always a little pain). Inspiration! What, the chance to $150 or more isn't inspiring? OK, how about this, here's Kendra Little's story about her database development... not…
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19Sep 2018 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Databases and DevOps, It’s Not Just Me

Redgate Software
Anyone who subscribes to my blog or my YouTube channel as well as anyone following me on social media knows that I talk about DevOps and databases a lot. I can't help it. I have a real passion for the topic. I sincerely believe we should all be taking advantage of the ways we can improve what we do offered by DevOps. It's not just me. Gene Kim on DevOps If you haven't read book The Phoenix Project, you should. Go get that done. I'll wait. You back? Good. Loved it right? One of the authors of the book will be presenting a webinar with Redgate Software (my employer) on Tuesday, September 25th on 2018 at 17:00BST (that's 11:00 CDT here in the US). He'll be joined by Steve Jones…
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30Jul 2018 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Identifying HIPAA, PCI & SOX Data for Masking

Redgate Software
Working for a company based in the UK (still currently a part of the EU) I had a lot of motivation to learn about the GDPR and what it means for data professionals. Further, the understanding that, through treaties and court precedent, the GDPR can apply to companies around the world also motivated me to learn about the privacy and protection mechanisms that it required. However, there is privacy and protection much closer to home from the data and security definitions in HIPAA, PCI and SOX. I've been doing a bunch of research on all these to better understand how they, along with the GDPR, and a whole slew of new legislation coming from around the world, will impact the database. More specifically, I've been trying to understand how best…
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16Jul 2018 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Databases and DevOps, Tools are the Easy Part

DevOps
Moving your database development, deployment and management into a DevOps methodology does involve choosing and implementing tools and tooling. Tools are a necessary aspect of DevOps because, one of the fundamentals of implementing a DevOps approach is automation. To automate, you need the right tools. However, tools and automation, while they represent a lot of work, are actually the easy part of the process of moving into DevOps. What's the hard part? Changing how you do things. Change is Hard One of the fundamental questions you need to learn when you start to implement a DevOps approach consists of a single word: Why. "We always manually run a script in staging prior to running it in production." Well, why? Why can't that be automated? Is there a reason that the…
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