x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Voice of the DBA

A series of episodes that look at databases and the world from a data professional"s viewpoint. Written and recorded by Steve Jones, editor of SQLServerCentral and The Voice of the DBA.

technology tech news

All Episodes

03:19

50 Years of Microsoft

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/24

I get the Gates Notes email periodically and I always find it interesting to read. Like Bill Gates or not, he is a very smart individual and has thoughtful things to say. Even when I don't always agree with him, I enjoy hearing his view and have enjoyed seeing him deliver presentations. In fact, one of my career highlights was at SQL Saturday #175 - Fargo, held at the MS campus. Bill Gates was speaking to employees that day and we were allowed to watch the Q&A from the balcony. Later, I saw him

en

03:13

The Return to the Office Debate

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/22

At the end of last year, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a long time. We were chatting and this person mentioned that they were looking for a new job. They had been laid off and needed something. This is someone with a lot of experience and skill, so I wasn't worried for their career or future. At the time, they mentioned they had gotten an introduction and interest from Amazon, but they weren't interested in a position because of the return-to-the-office (RTO) mandate that Amazon was

en

02:32

Staying Employed

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/20

The revolution with GenAI has been quite the ride since 2023 and quite a few people have been concerned that their employment status might be in jeopardy. I can certainly understand that, especially in light of the tight budgets, widespread layoffs, and executive views on AI technologies. There was an article recently talking about AI taking over some jobs with a few tips on how to stay employed. While tech workers weren't mentioned as being vulnerable, repetitive data-heavy jobs, such as data entry

en

02:48

Database First or Application First

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/15

One of the challenges in software development is coordinating database and application changes when one depends on the other. I find many software development teams struggle with this, especially in today's environments when no one wants to take a system offline. While some companies can stage and manage deployments, many of us find our systems need to keep running 24x7 with minimal outages (if any). Lots of you work in environments where your software is changing on a regular basis. Plenty of you

en

03:18

How Much AI Code Would You Use?

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/13

I saw an article recently that a quarter of the Y Combinator startups have 95% of the code in their repos being AI generated. The article notes that if no other startups had any AI generated code (no idea the likelihood here, then about 24% of their code for startups is GenAI written. 24% Is that high or low? If you think about all the code you've written in the last year, how much of it could be reasonably generated by AI? All the queries, schema changes, test code, dummy data insertions,

en

02:55

Part-Time DBAs

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/08

Some of you reading this are database administrators (DBAs) who manage systems as their full-time job. Others of you might be developers, analytics people, or someone else who has another job, but you get stuck with managing the database somehow. I've seen a receptionist and a dental hygienist act in this role. We may call you the accidental DBAs, though that doesn't imply you are good or bad at managing databases. I got into this line of work as an accidental DBA who was also a developer. No

en

03:03

Using Feature Flags

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/06

The use of feature flags in software development has become more and more prevalent over time, especially as teams move to DevOps-style development with frequent releases. I've often thought that using feature flags allows technical people to separate out the deployment of some feature or change from the release of that to users. There are a number of articles on this style of work (feature flag driven development, Why Use Feature Flags?) as well as a discussion at Reddit. I am a big believer in

en

02:28

A Domain for Data

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/03

A domain is a set of possible values (among other definitions). I use this word a lot in my work, often with a problem domain (the thing you're trying to solve) or the domain of possible values (like the US States and Territories list). That last one is interesting, as this is often the set of data we stick in some reference or lookup table to use in a form on a screen. There is a domain as part of the SQL specification, which I never knew about. I was reading an article from Joe Celko on the

en

03:26

Database DevOps Metrics

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/04/01

The DORA organization is dedicated to helping others build software better and faster, at a higher quality, and in a way that is more efficient. They continue to compile and publish the Accelerate State of DevOps report every year, which is a fascinating read. As a part of the report, they have identified four key metrics that identify high performing organizations in terms of software. These are divided into two areas: throughput and stability. Throughput measures are change lead time and

en

03:01

Is GenAI Coming Faster Than You Think?

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/30

If you're a fan, no. You're chomping at the bit, waiting to get everyone using GenAI models in their work. If you're skeptical, then you might think it's never coming to take your job, be a personal assistant, help you with coding, etc. Pick the task it won't help you with. A more nuanced view, which is similar to mine, is from Kendra Little, in which she says AI will eliminate DBA Jobs Faster Than You Think, I'm not quite as pro-AI as Kendra, mostly because I see so many companies that are slow to

en

03:19

The Inefficiencies of Kubernetes

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/27

en

03:35

The End of SQL Server 2019

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/25

Well, not really the end. I doubt anyone running SQL Server 2019 is going to stop (or upgrade) just because mainstream support ended. Actually, I wonder how many of you know that SQL Server 2019 passed out of mainstream support on Feb 28, 2025. I do think the 6 or 7 of you running Big Data Clusters likely knew this was the end of any support. I saw a report in the Register on this, which includes a survey of which versions are still running. This is from an IT asset firm and matches Brent Ozar's

en

03:35

Monoliths and Microservices

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/24

en

03:06

More Supply Chain Attacks

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/21

en

03:08

Lower Your Attack Surface Area

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/19

It's no surprise that our systems are under attack by all sorts of criminals. Some organized, some opportunistic, some just aiming for vandalism. We need to protect our digital systems to prevent issues, and a part of better protection is reducing the number of places that are vulnerable. Those places include databases. This article discusses the rising costs of data breaches and the increased frequency of attacks. It also examines the increasing number of regulations that are demanding proof of

en

02:21

Tracking Table Sizes

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/07

en

03:34

The Job Outlook for Database Professionals

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/05

This is a strange time for many technology professionals and their employment. It seems many organizations have open positions and are struggling to fill those slots with qualified candidates (one look at this). At the same time, many other organizations have followed the large technology firms (FAANG, MSFT) and laid off large numbers of their staff in the last year. At the same time, with the hype and rapid growth of GenAI systems, we have companies that are looking to machines to fill some of

en

02:57

A Poor Data Model

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/03/03

Recently there was some online complaints about social security numbers (SSNs) in the US being duplicated and re-used by individuals. This is really political gamesmanship, so ignore the political part. Just know that social security numbers appear to be one of the contenders used in many data models. I found a good piece about how SSNs aren't unique, and have a mess of problems. Despite this, many people seem to want to use SSNs as a primary or alternate key in their database systems. They also

en

01:56

Your Biggest Data Model Complaints

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/02/28

I've been working with databases for a long time and there are no shortage of things I've seen other people do that I don't like. Sometimes I shake my head a little. Sometimes I might groan inwardly (hopefully not aloud), and sometimes I might make an effort to convince someone else to do something differently. Sometimes I'm really annoyed (or angry) and don't even know what to do. Read the rest of Your Biggest Data Model Complaints

en

03:15

Why Not Use AI?

Voice of the DBA ·

2025/02/26

Erin Stellato, a program manager at Microsoft, asked a very interesting question on LinkedIn: "why do you *not* want a Copilot in SSMS?" That got me to stop and think a minute. Why don't we want to use an AI to help us? It's a good question, given the hype and (maybe) potential of the technology. While it might not help you now, or with your specific thing, it might help others, so are there good reasons not to use AI technologies, like the GenAI LLMs? Read the rest of Why Not Use AI?

en

320 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs