I remember first hearing about the IDERA ACE program a little over a year ago (in 2017). Previous to that, I had no idea that companies existed that helped out the SQL Server community. As soon as I read-up about the ACE program I emailed asking how I could apply. Of course, I had missed the 2018 submission deadline by a few weeks. So I had to wait an entire year to apply…
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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: 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.
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Review: Stellar Phoenix SQL Database Repair
Review: Stellar Phoenix SQL Database Repair
Of the several issues encountered with SQL Server — SQL Server gets slower with time, generation of reports becomes tedious, SQL Server crash, performance issues and more — the most troublesome for DBAs is the crash or failure of SQL Server. Reason being, the repercussion is a damaged or corrupt SQL Server database.
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From System Admin to SQL Admin?
I received the following reader question today and want to reply via a blog post:
Hi, Nice website, the interviews are pretty cool. I am a system admins, I want to transition to the database world, it seems that based on what I’ve been reading AWS and Microsoft SQL developer certifications are the way to go. Could you guide me in terms on putting a list together of which certifications I should own along with what skills/knowledge I should obtain in order to be able to secure a job for now and well into the future? Best Regard
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.

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.
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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.

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.
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Interview – John Q. Martin
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.
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What is the CLIUSR Local Account?
Recently I had to patch nodes in a failover cluster and encountered a very strange situation. I decided to post about it just in case someone else out there encounters the same issue.
How to do a SQL Vulnerability Assessment in SSMS
Making sure that your SQL Server environment is secured can be cumbersome and tricky. In SQL Server 2012 (and later), Microsoft introduced a tool called, “SQL Vulnerability Assessment“, which helps in finding potential database vulnerabilities. It’s a great tool to help proactively improve your SQL Server database security.
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How to Enable Instant File Initialization SQL Server
There are few features in SQL Server that are disabled, or turned OFF, by default that, in my opinion, should be turned on/enabled. One of those features is something called “Instant File Initialization” (You can read about the other one here).
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BEST SQL Server Indexing Course
Understanding how SQL Server indexing works is crucial for diving deeper into SQL Server internals and overall becoming a SQL Server “badass” :) Having said that, it’s definitely not an easy topic to pickup and comprehend.
How I Overcame My Fear of Public Speaking
One of my goals for 2018 was to start speaking at events (i.e. User groups, SQL Saturdays).
A handful of people (including attendees) have asked how I picked the locations to speak at (i.e. OC, Albuquerque, Dallas and Pensacola). Below is the logic (or lack there of) that went into picking the locations:
- Orange County, California – C’mon. Any excuse to go to California :)
- Albuquerque, New Mexico – Breaking Bad
- Dallas, Texas – My cousin lives there
- Pensacola, Florida – A dear friend/mentor of mine will be speaking there as well (Tim Radney)
How I Overcame My Fear of Public Speaking
As I sit in my hotel room after giving my 4th (and most likely last SQL Saturday event for 2018), I was wondering how I overcome my fear of public speaking?
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SQL Saturday Pensacola 2018 – Full Circle
Back in 2015, I attended IEPTO1 by SQLSkills. It was there that I met Tim Radney. I remember asking him for advice on the best way to get out there in the community, etc. He said, “start a blog, then start speaking at user groups and SQL Saturdays…”
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BEST SQL Server Logging, Recovery, & Transaction Log Course
There is a great comprehensive training video series by Paul Randal called, “SQL Server Logging, Recovery and the Transaction Log.” This is a Pluralsight 7.5 hour brain dump of everything Paul Randal knows about logging, recovery and transaction log.
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A Rickshaw and SQL Saturday Dallas 2018
This past weekend I was honored to speak at SQL Saturday Dallas. I had the chance to meet some awesome #SQLFamily, a few of them I have interviewed for my blog. Mindy Curnutt (organizer), Tim Mitchell, and Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman.
I initially picked Dallas because my cousin lives there and thought it would be a great reason drag him along with me to attend his very first SQL Saturday event. Continue reading “A Rickshaw and SQL Saturday Dallas 2018”