Who Needs DBA Skillz?*

Everyone who works with a database.
Pretend you're a developer, Oh! You are? Well, okay, this should be easy then....
You have a project on your schedule and it requires creating a database store. Simple! Create some tables and put records in them. Right? Maybe not. Ask yourself a few questions:

• Do you know what the best design is for the type of data you need to store?
• Did you consider how you will need to retrieve it?
• Do you know how to enforce Referential Integrity? What - You haven't heard of RI?
• What will you do if the data becomes corrupted?

These are but a very few questions that anyone with Database Administrator (DBA) skills would be able to help with. But why are they important? On a very basic level, The DBA is the specialist who can keep the database running smoothly, ensure the servers are healthy and recover data in the event of a mishap or catastophe. It doesn't matter really what database platform you work in, these factors remain the same. Companies who choose to not have a staff member dedicated to their databases and underlying infrastructure open up the door for a lot of potential issues.

So what if you don't have a DBA at your company? What can you do to make sure any applications you create continues to perform well and can be recovered with as little pain as possible? Read. Research. Implement. And if all that fails, check out the #sqlhelp hashtag on twitter. Real-life DBAs can help; and they will :)

  

*This is my first t-sql Tuesday post and I thank Adam Machanic (blog | twitter) and Paul Randal (blog | twitter) for the topic this month!

How I Became a Database Administrator

Thanks to my buddy Ted for Tagging me. (See his blog here, or find him on Twitter @onpnt)

My journey to the position of DBA starts off much like those of others: I graduate from college (with my degree in Psychology) and start looking for work. As a new graduate with a piece of paper to prove it, all I have to show for experience are the odd jobs I held while in High School and College. Fortunately, for me anyway, those jobs were always in an administrative role instead of fast food. Taking my diploma and my admin/customer service skills into the workforce I found myself employed – as a ‘secretary’ as they were called back then.

Fortune smiled upon me once again, having more than half a brain, and I ended up being the Go-To Person in the office when someone couldn’t get their computers to behave the way they expected: network issues, printing, using applications, you name it and I fixed it. Evenutally, I had the good fortune to take a class on how to use Microsoft Access. As my first introduction to the word ‘database’ and learning about datastorage and querying, I was hooked! As fate would have it, my Administrative Assistant position was no longer needed and I was in search of another opportunity.

I went back to that company where I took the database class. They were hiring! For the next three years, I worked as a Software Trainer. I began teaching VBA and .net classes and had my first taste of SQL Server teaching T-SQL. As I started to talk more with my students, I realized I wanted to get out there and use the skills I had been teaching everyone else. This leads to my first Real Job™ as a developer for a booming Dot-Com and what I like to call the “Sold My Soul” years. As much work as it was, this opportunity did give me the stepping stone to becoming a DBA, though. About 4 weeks into my first full-fledged .net developer position, the DBA walked out. When management looked around the room and said, “who here knows anything about databases? Ah, yes – Wendy! You’re our new DBA” well, the rest is history.

Formal training has not existed since that first Microsoft Access class. Sometimes it reminds me of the saying “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”; other times it’s a struggle to make sure I keep up and learn whatever I can whenever the opportunity strikes. Fortunately there is a wealth of information on the interenet and many wonderful resource books. However, I learn best in hands on situations. This makes conferences that much more valuable for me. While I have attended a TechEd here and there, my preferred conference is SQLPass (www.sqlpass.org). It’s refreshing to be a contributing member or a professional community.

I still haven’t reached my personal professional goal, and while I can’t reveal what that is, I promise to share it when I do!