Voice of the DBA

S12E36 Barely Reviewed Code

Years ago I was giving a talk on software development and asked the audience how long it takes to review a PR that has 10 lines changed. Answers were in the minutes to tens of minutes range. I then…

S12E35 AI Database Central

SQL Server Central has been a great success over the last 25 years. We've helped a lot of people improve their careers with the Microsoft Data Platform, primarily SQL Server, but we've published…

S12E34 Prompt Requests

One of the challenges of AI-assisted coding agents is that they tend to produce A LOT of code. Even in refactoring or migration changes, the AIs can work quickly and generate such a volume of code…

S12E33 Is Your Time "Free"?

We do a lot of research at Redgate Software, often contacting customers or Ambassadors and asking questions, getting feedback, listening to their challenges or criticisms. We take that information…

S12E32 Doing the Little Things

I wrote a blog about sitting at LHR recently and watching planes take off. That's been a fun thing for me to do when I'm stuck at the airport. I can see a plane roll down the runway every 35-45s…

S12E31 Everything is the right question away

When I was young and needed to learn about something, I had to go to a library or a bookstore to get information. I often started by looking through an encyclopedia. I had to wander between entries…

S12E30 Hidden Heroes

A few weeks ago I was in Bletchley Park, at the facility where the Allies decoded and broke many of the German Nazi messages in World War II. It's quite a facility and museum, and I hope to go back.…

S12E29 Changing Data Types

Recently I was working with a customer that is trying to smooth out their database development process. They noted that a lot of changes tend to take a significant amount of time and impact their…

S12E28 Breaking Down Your Work

I saw an interesting LinkedIn post on Kyler Murray and how he goes about approaching the game of American football. I don't know if this meme is true, but certainly, his efforts to prepare have been…

S12E27 Multiple Deployment Processes

We had a Simple Talks podcast recently where we discussed roll forward vs roll back. You can watch the episode and listen to our thoughts, but one interesting place was when we talked about…

S12E26 A Full Shutdown

I have the opportunity to work with a variety of customers on their database systems, often with the focus on how they can build and deploy changes to their databases. Often, they have a process…

S12E25 Not Just an Upgrade

S12E24 Writing as an Art and a Job

I remember listening to an interview with Rick Reilly in the mid 2000s. He was the back page columnist for Sports Illustrated for years as well as a writer in various pieces. He talked about how he…

S12E23 Rollback vs. Roll Forward

The Advocates at Redgate Software had an interesting discussion about deployments in databases and how you go forward or back from the point at which you discover a problem. You can watch the…

S12E22 Having a Little Fun at SQL Server Central

S12E21 Testing is Becoming More Important

Many of us know that testing our code is important. The adoption of unit testing by many software application developers as a normal course of business has dramatically improved the quality of…

S12E20 Can You Let Go of Determinism

Why do we reboot machines when something goes wrong? I'm sure all have done it, and I would guess quite a few of you have found situations where this seems to fix issues, but there isn't an…

S12E19 Doing Good at SQL Server Central

This is part of a few memories from the founders of SQL Server Central, celebrating 25 years of operation this month. We did photoshoots at Redgate many years ago. We had a bunch of props, including…

S12E18 Engineer Lessons

Many of you reading this have a number of years working with technology. You might have 1 year or 20 years, but you've likely grown and learned along the way. Some of you may also know someone who…

S12E17 Expanding into Print

This is part of a few memories from the founders of SQL Server Central, celebrating 25 years of operation this month. When we started SQL Server Central, our goal was to build a great resource that…