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.
Mohammad: Where do you see SQL Server technology evolving to 5 years from now? More cloud focused?
Pinal: This is a great question. I personally believe just like any other technology, in premise hosting of SQL Server will remain in place as much as the cloud adoption will grow. I do not see cloud technology replacing in-premises installation in the next 5 years. As a SQL Server Performance Tuning Consultant, I get the opportunity to work with lots of different organizations and I noticed that quite a lot of people still using the old technology as SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. They are willing to pay a very high amount to tune their server to run faster, rather than migrating to newer versions. May be after 10 years or so we will see strong shift and focus on the cloud.
Mohammad: Do you ever see the traditional SQL Server DBA role being replaced/eliminated?
Pinal: DBA’s role is evolving. I see quite a lot of people talking about this subject. Just like any other role, new responsibilities and new skills are going to be added in the Role of DBA and old one will be eliminated. It is going to be like that onwards for not only DBA but all the jobs. I think it is just our fear to learn new stuff, once we overcome it, it will be easier to migrate to the new job definition of DBA.
Mohammad: What are you most proud of doing/accomplishing for the SQL Server community so far in your career?
Pinal: I think it has to be building my blog https://blog.sqlauthority.com. I have been blogging every single day for the last 10 years and every single day I am equally excited to learn and write new stuff.
Mohammad: What non-technical/non-fiction book/s would you recommend? If you only read technical books…what do you recommend?
Pinal: I love reading books. I pretty much read everything from fiction to business books. It is difficult to list one or two books to read so I am going to list three books, which are my all time favorite books.
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
Mohammad: For someone who’s career focus has been on one aspect of SQL Server (i.e. Database Engine), do you think it would be wise for them to become a “jack of all trades” by starting to learn, SSRS/IS/Azure, etc. or remain focused on their area of expertise? In another words, which would you say is more valuable? mile wide / inch deep or inch wide / mile deep?
Pinal: I can’t talk about others, but I have figured out that it is impossible to be successful as jack of all trades. I have been focusing on SQL Server Performance Tuning aspect of SQL Server for many years and I still learn something new every single time when I am going out for consultation. I think it is a good idea to know what is going around you, but it is important that you know one thing very very well. For me it is SQL Server Performance Tuning but for you, it can be any one or two things.