This year has been a whirlwind so far, thanks to the Idera ACE program. For those that don’t know what that is … What is an Idera ACE? (According to Idera) “ACEs (Advisors & Community Educators) are active community members who have shown a passion for helping the community and sharing their knowledge. We help the ACEs pursue that passion by sponsoring travel to select events and offering guidance for soft skill training.” Requirements to become an Idera ACE: Enthusiastic members & leaders of the SQL community Accomplished contributors to the SQL community Good speaker, writer and presenter Demonstrated a passion for educating fellow community members Being an ACE has been…
-
-
Last week, Bill Wolf aka @SQLWareWolf and I somehow got onto the topic of High School pictures. So in jest, I decided to post mine and hash tagged it with #SQLHSPics on Twitter. I challenged others to do the same, only really expecting @SQLWareWolf to respond in kind. I was floored with over 100 picture responses from #SQLFamily. Many of them went searching through attics, yearbooks, called relatives, and other great lengths to be part of it. As always the response was heartwarming and hysterical to say the least. The reason why I am taking the time to blog about it is to reiterate how great it is to be part of this…
-
For those who don’t know Idera Software sponsors a SQLChat on Twitter once a month. This month I got the privilege to host and had come up with a topic and questions for discussion. Below are the questions and answers I provided as well as some from others that chimed in. I think these are worth noting and give some valuable information especially to newbies of the SQL Community. Q1: How have you benefited from networking with SQL professionals? My Answer: As a lone DBA networking has gained me “co-workers”. I now have people to bounce ideas off of. I use these connections daily. Many have gained job opportunities based on…
-
It’s that time again where everyone writes their post PASS Summit Blog and tells of the great time they had with SQL Family and all the exciting new things they learned. While those are both very true for me as well, I want to talk about how it felt to go to Summit as a new leader in the community. This year I became a Chapter Leader and spent Tuesday at Summit in the PASS Chapter Leader and SQL Saturday meetings. It was an honor for me to walk into those meetings and collaborate with such a phenomenal group of people. It was even more remarkable to be called out…
-
I am thrilled to announce that I have been chosen as one of the 2016 Idera ACE’s. It is truly an honor to be part of this great program and give back to the SQL community. What is an Idera ACE? According to Idera. “ACEs (Advisors & Community Educators) are active community members who have shown a passion for helping the community and sharing their knowledge. We help the ACEs pursue that passion by sponsoring travel to select events and offering guidance for soft skill training. Requirements to become an Idera ACE: Enthusiastic members & leaders of the SQL community Accomplished contributors to the SQL community Good speaker, writer and presenter…
-
Being a Lone DBA gives you so much exposure to so many facets of SQL Server. Since I am just one I get to work on Replication, Administration, Security, Business Intelligence, Disaster Recovery, Reporting Services, Integration Services, Analysis Services, Database design, Development, Performance… you name it I get to dabble in it. However, being able to work on every facet also means I will never be a Master at any of it and that’s okay by me. For a Type A personality, like me, this is a hard thing to come to terms with. I‘ve learned with time to be fine with not knowing everything. I relish in the fact that…
-
My first time speaking at a SQL Saturday is now behind me. I cannot wait to do it again. The support from the SQL Family leading up to and after the event was nothing I expected, it was beyond AMAZING. From high fives in the halls to virtual hugs. I had my own cheering section. I was a little nervous and talked probably too fast at times, I am sure, but I hear everyone does on their first time out, right? (Evidently, I say that a lot) The good part was that the audience looked to be truly engaged and listening to what I had to say. I even had…
-
As most of you know, I have been a Lone DBA for 15+ years and during that time I have learned a thing or two about how to survive on my own in relatively large environments. One of those things is knowing when to admit you cannot do it all. Working alone on 56 servers you can imagine how the workload can seem insurmountable. There are times when in one week I will do 70+ tasks, not including project work and daily monitoring. To manage and get this type of workload accomplish you have to learn to work smarter not harder. That’s when you have to enlist help and hire…
-
I will be speaking at my first SQL Saturday on September 26th in Spartanburg SC. I am so excited to have been selected to give my session on Survival Techniques for the Lone DBA. After a year of, not so subtle hints from the SQL Family (John Morehouse (b|t), Rie Irish (t), Melody Zacharias (b|t), Mike Fal (b|t), Argenis Fernandez (b|t) , Kirsten Benzel (b|t), Andy Yun (b|t), Lindsay Clark (t)), I submitted my first session and got selected. I will be finally standing up before a room of colleagues and talking about my experience as a lone DBA for the last 15+ years. What did I just do? Unless…
-
I’ve wanted to write about this for months, now that I have a blog I can finally do it. Earlier this year, I found out, thru Twitter that fellow SQL Family member Larry Toothman (@IowaTechBear), had suffered a stroke. Having never met Larry in person, but having spoken to him on occasion via Twitter I wanted to let him know that people in his SQL community wished him well. That morning I tweeted that I was going to collect money for flowers to send him on behalf of the SQL Family. Unfortunately, we soon got word that Larry was on life support. A few days later he passed away. Within those…
