Bad Meetings
I've spent a good portion of this week in meetings with the rest of my podcast crew from Red Gate. I normally don't like long meetings, thinking that they often degenerate into either long arguments, or social discussions, wasting the time away that could be spent finishing other work.
Like editorials :)
Andy Warren actually noticed a blog posting from me and posted his own notes on what he sees as ways to avoid bad meetings. I think he has some good ideas in there and you should send them to your boss.
But this week, our first meeting of Red Gate publishing, has been very productive. It's been mainly a brainstorming session, thinking of ways to improve the Red Gate publishing operations, try out new features and enhancements and build a better community.. Keep an eye out for changes in the coming months.
The Cost of the DBA
We spent Wednesday this week at the Colorado code camp in Denver. Bryan Oliver presented a session on the role of the DBA, and how SQL Server DBAs are generally perceived by management. He cited a Gartner report stating that, on average, Oracle DBAs are paid $30K per year more than SQL Server DBAs, and challenged the DBAs in the audience to consider why that might be. Why do Oracle DBAs command more respect than SQL Server DBAs? Why are they regarded as more productive? What do they do differently?
The issue of productivity is an interesting one. In this newsletter, we have a link to Simon Sabin's blogs where he bemoans the lack of progress in providing SQL server DBAs with the tools they need. So is a lack of good tools holding SQL Server DBAs back? Are Oracle DBAs more productive because they have more and better tools at their disposal and more inclination to use them?
Or is it just a problem with mindset? Are Oracle DBAs better at reporting what they do to management, at positioning themselves as valuable members of the business and not just the guy who keep s the server running
Or is it just a case of Porsche mechanics versus Ford mechanics? I'd be interested to hear what you think.
100GB
It's a strange number, but apparently Intel, among others, are investing in a company building 100GB storage chip, essentially a large SSD drive. It would retain data without power, and might fundamentally change the way SQL Server and other database systems are built. Imagine 4 of these in your database server?
Intel has also promised a six core CPU by the end of the year, upping the total cores in a standard 4 socket server to 24. With the new Resource Governer in SQL Server 2008, this means you'll have much more control over performance in your instances.
Steve Jones
Tony Davis
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
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or now on iTunes!
Today's podcast features music by Incompetech. Kevin Macleod has some great compositions in all genres of music. Check him out at www.incompetech.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.
