Mohammad Darab

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: Erland Sommarskog (b ):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

Erland: The cloud is certainly not a fad. Fads don’t last this long. At this same time, the cloud does not really seem to take off like Microsoft and others want us to believe. I work very little with the cloud myself, and I have only had one client that was cloud-based. All my other client seem to be on-prem, although there is more than one for which the cloud would make perfect sense.

So, yes, I think there will still be work for earth-based people five years from now, but I think more and more people will start to look into the cloud, and they will be dragged into, whether they like or not. It may even happen to me!

Continue reading “Interview – Erland Sommarskog”

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: Sunil Agarwal (b | t):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

Sunil: Most businesses are moving to cloud to leverage ease of development, deployment and operationalizing which ultimately leads to lowering the cost and the competitive advantage. I expect many new development projects will gravitate towards the cloud but the IT landscape will be hybrid with some legacy, not all, applications still running on-premise either due to business regulations or compliance issues. IT expertise will remain in demand even in cloud worlds but the shift will be towards more value add expertise like troubleshooting rather than the routine activities like installing software, upgrading hardware and such.

Continue reading “Interview – Sunil Agarwal”

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: Drew Furgiuele (b | t):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

Drew: I think we’re well enough into the era of cloud computing that everyone should at least know not just what a cloud provider like Azure or AWS is, but also what different services they offer. It’s not enough anymore to say “oh yeah, I’ve worked with the cloud.” I think most people who want to explore this space should be at least to say something like “I’ve stood up a database as a service in Azure” or “I’ve built a VM in EC2.” And if you can’t, there’s still plenty of time to start learning. Oh and by the way, more and more services are coming to cloud providers each and every day. I don’t think that NOT knowing these things puts any kind of expiration date on your current job, but if you’re looking for new opportunities, you might start to find yourself at a disadvantage.
Continue reading “Interview – Drew Furgiuele”

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: Matt Gordon (b | t):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

Matt: I certainly think they’ll be in a tougher spot than they are today. As a consultant, I’m seeing an increase in customer cloud adoption so logic follows that anybody dismissing the cloud as a fad is going to have a tougher and tougher time finding places that do not have any data resources in the cloud. That said, there are still companies running SQL Server 2000 so I’m sure there will still be DBA opportunities somewhere for folks who believe the cloud is a fad. Those opportunities, however, are likely to be a career dead end.
Continue reading “Interview – Matt Gordon”

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: Chris Yates (b | t):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

Chris: In a tough spot might be a stretch, but I do think it is something that all data professionals need to invest time in. While many companies are made great strides to get to the cloud there are still many financial institutions and other areas of business that have not got to that point yet. I am, and always will be, a huge proponent of never quit learning and the cloud is definitely the future.
Continue reading “Interview – Chris Yates”

I decided to start a series of blogs where I interview key people in the SQL Server community. Instead of me asking technical questions, I plan on asking about their outlook on the future, books they read (non-fiction and/or technical), and their overall thoughts on where technology (mainly SQL Server) is headed. You can find more interviews here.

Next up: John Q. Martin (b | t):

Mohammad: Do you think people who dismiss the cloud as a “fad” or just don’t take it serious enough to learn about it (i.e. Azure, AWS, etc), will be in a tough spot to find a job 5 years from now?

John: The trend I am seeing is for more of a hybrid data platform environment where there is a diverse mix of SQL Server both on-premises and in cloud platforms. I am seeing more and more companies look at the Platform as a Service offerings that are on offer such as Azure SQL Database, Amazon RDS for SQL Server, and Azure SQL Database Managed Instance. The latter option with its high degree of parity with the retail SQL Server product makes the jump from managing full blown SQL Servers to PaaS semi-manged platforms a lot more viable.
Continue reading “Interview – John Q. Martin”