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: Rob Sewell (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?

Rob: I think you can compare it to something like COBAL where a 60 year old language is still in force today or Fortran where there are still plenty of job openings. There will be jobs for longer than 5 years but I think there will be less and less opportunities that are solely on-premises. I believe that it is really important that any person who is working in IT gains knowledge and experience in cloud technologies and their capabilities to be able to have a long and fulfilling career.
Continue reading “Interview – Rob Sewell”

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: Randolph West (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?

Randolph: You’ll need to have at least a passing knowledge of one or more cloud vendors to remain competitive in the future. It’s taken a while to get to this point, but as I predicted in 2009, the excuses to avoid cloud are less compelling than they’ve ever been (excluding legacy and legal restrictions of course).

The two biggest players are Amazon and Microsoft, and they have made storage offerings attractive and cost-effective. In my opinion, storage is the gateway drug to the cloud.

Hybrid licensing and easier pricing models also help convert capital expenses into operational ones. The subscription model is predictable for vendor and customer. The future is cloudy.

Even Oracle is embracing it, which is remarkable given Larry Ellison’s comments a few short years ago.
Continue reading “Interview – Randolph West”

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: Andreas Wolter (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?

Andreas: Fair question. First of all, from what I see that number of people is declining a lot. Even in Germany ;-)

And then it depends on the person and their specific job. I guess from a certain age on, it really doesn’t matter a lot, because those jobs will not disappear overnight. The shift towards cloud is already happening since a couple of years and will continue to do so.

Then there are highly focused experts, and they will always find work in the traditional server landscape. But if you are just an average IT guy with a long time till pension, you really need to get cloud on your skillset.

Newcomers really should learn to design for the cloud.
Continue reading “Interview – Andreas Wolter”

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: Robert L. Davis (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?

Robert: It already is harder to find a job if you have gained no cloud skills or experience. Even companies that are still operating on-premises only realize that the cloud may be something they can take advantage of are looking for employees that already have those skills to help them make the right decisions. Along similar lines, companies not already taking advantage of the cloud are bringing in consultants when in the past they would have hired a full time person for a position because they need someone with cloud knowledge and experience. Continue reading “Interview – Robert L. Davis”

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 Morehouse (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: I don’t believe so, no.  While the cloud is definitely changing the landscape of the traditional database administrator I think that on premises installations of SQL Server will be around for many years to come.  The cloud is slow to being adopted in several sectors, namely financial and health care.  Both of those sectors have strict guidelines around data security (as they should) so I think organizations are weary of it. However, with that said, I do think that individuals will be missing out of future career opportunities by not having some level of understanding of various cloud technologies.  I myself recognized the shift in this landscape and recently took a new job with a new company in part to explicitly gain more exposure to Microsoft Azure. Continue reading “Interview – John Morehouse”

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: Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman (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?

Kellyn: As I’m very multi-platform, I think the answer depends on the platform, the technology and the business you work for. Continue reading “Interview – Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman”

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: Rie Irish (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?

Rie: I don’t think so. They might not be able to get a flashy job at a fast-moving software company, but there will always be companies or industries that move more slowly than technology. The banking & hospital administration industries are a prime example of those that don’t respond quickly to leaps forward in technology and are far more likely to have reservations on the security of the cloud. My advice here would be to become familiar with the technologies. If you aren’t pursuing a job in that realm or your current job isn’t likely to need it, then a working knowledge is enough to keep you “in touch.” Then, when it becomes necessary, you’ll have a bit of a head start on where you need to be. Continue reading “Interview – Rie Irish”

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: Amit Banerjee (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?

Amit: The world even today is about hybrid cloud. There are aspects of a public cloud which are very appealing like elastic compute and storage that open up a vast variety of opportunities for businesses around the world. This allows companies to leverage PaaS services built on top of a virtually infinite compute and storage and allows them to monetize their data assets and gather critical insights for their business. This wouldn’t have been possible traditionally without expensive investments in hardware. “Not enough hardware” is not a valid reason for the inability to solve a technology problem anymore. As we know the world today, it is hybrid and the lines between on-premise and public clouds are being blurred day-by-day! They are probably not going to be in a tough spot in about 5 years but will definitely have an advantage if they know about on-premise environments and the cloud. Disclaimer: I work Microsoft who is one of the major public cloud players in the world today. Continue reading “Interview – Amit Banerjee”

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: Andy Yun (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?

Andy: Yes and no.  Do I see cloud adoption growing tremendously?  Absolutely.  Do I see it completely replacing on-prem infrastructure?  No.  As such, I don’t think one who chooses to dismiss the cloud will definitely be in a tough spot, but they may be more challenged. Continue reading “Interview – Andy Yun”

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: Louis Davidson (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?

Louis: As someone who has been focused on relational programming, I don’t really care about cloud or on-premises, my hope is that they both work close to the same. What I hope is that in 5 years from now, when I type a query such as the following, or maybe a lot more complex with 100s of joins, aggregations, etc: Continue reading “Interview – Louis Davidson”

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: Bob Pusateri (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?

Bob: I definitely see SQL Server becoming more cloud and/or service-focused with time. I think we’re seeing that already with now-yearly releases for on-premises. I think in the next five years we’ll continue to see new development in many cases be cloud-focused from the beginning. There will always be organizations and use cases where the cloud just doesn’t make sense or isn’t an option though. These are things like old code that just won’t play nice, or databases with massive levels of size or activity where cloud pricing just isn’t economical. Continue reading “Interview – Bob Pusateri”

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: David Klee (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?

David: I see SQL Server technologies evolving in numerous directions, but the overarching theme will be cloud. Just look at the current release cycles for on-prem SQL Server. It’s a compiled and boxed version of the SQL Server features that are already released in Azure SQL Database in the previous months. Even the Linux release is (IMHO) partly because cloud-based SQL Server platforms are looking for a smaller footprint operating system. The bigger question for me is – are your applications ready for the shift? Most business-critical app vendors that I see are not yet even supporting SQL Server 2016, let alone newer versions. The limitations of DBaaS also are too much for many of these applications. But… they’ll get there, and you must be ready. Continue reading “Interview – David Klee”