Two weeks ago was the PASS Summit and Ignite where Microsoft announced a whole slew of new technologies in and around data, analysis, and data management. From the release of SQL Server 2019 to the amazing technology behind Big Data Clusters, our industry is changing and growing faster all the time. Yet, for a lot of people, getting good, tested, backups in place is a struggle. Understanding how, when and why to do query tuning is a bit of a mystery. When these people look at technologies like Kubernetes, it’s not a miracle of modernity, but an almost impossible dream. For a lot of people, just getting the fundamentals working within their organization is their principal goal.

Fact is, that’s OK.

Not everyone is going to be setting up a Kubernetes service or automating spinning up thousands of containers as a fundamental part of their data management. If you’re one of these people, don’t feel despair at the mountain in front of you. Instead, rejoice in the opportunities you have. You need to get your backups in order? Excellent, now is the time to learn some automation, so you can check out PowerShell and the DbaTools open source software. You want to get the changes being made to your system under control? Cool, check out Git or GitHub and learn about source control.

Learning is learning. Expanding your knowledge, your skillset, your capabilities, this is what matters to future proof your career. It doesn’t matter that you’re not on the bleeding edge of technology using the tools and services that are going to get released next week. What matters is that you, and your organization, are progressing on the maturity path. You should be taking advantage of the fact that a path through the jungle has been cut by others. Eventually, you’ll get your head out from under and you’ll also start to learn all the new shiny.

Always be making progress on the road. Don’t assume you’ve got all the knowledge you need. None of us do. Strive to do more and be better. Yeah, I’m telling you to work harder. Same thing I tell myself all the time. Just remember, it doesn’t matter how far down the learning path you are, just that you are on the path and are actively learning.