Monthly Archives: December 2011

Does the Role of the DBA Need to Evolve?

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This editorial was originally published in Database Weekly.

The November 2011 edition of Popular Science magazine was devoted to data. In fact, the special issue was called “Data is Power: How Information is Driving the Future”. The focus of the issue was how we can use data to transform the world. According to the magazine, in 2010, there was about 1.2 zetabytes of data, and that by the end of 2011 there will be about 1.8 zetabytes (a zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes). That’s a lot of hard drive space. And just think of the hard drives required to back all of this data. I think I am going to invest in some hard drive company stock right away.

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DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 14

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Part 2 of Question 14—The follow up to the question.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

As the previous episode was the climax, this final episode is the denouement of the series. It starts out with the real Brad welcoming the audience to episode two of DBA in Space at the Lunar Surface Exhibit of the Roddenberry Launch Center. Of course real Brad has been in stasis for the past month, and hasn’t yet realized that any time has past, so Miss Friday has to tell him it’s really the last episode. This seems to distress real Brad, but he knows what will cheer him up, Jar Jar. So real Brad begins to look for Jar Jar around the set. Miss Friday doesn’t want to surprise real Brad too soon about Jar Jar’s demise, so she changes the topic and directs a message to the audience, recapping her experience of forcing an alien hoard to retreat, a slight exaggeration, but she wants to impress his boss over at the NSCC. Brad is really confused after hearing Miss Friday talk about aliens, as he still doesn’t understand what is going on. In fact, real Brad decides he might be better off not knowing what really happened.

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DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 13

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Part 2 of Question 13: The follow up to the question.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

While there are fourteen episodes, this episode was the climax of the two subplots. It was also a complex episode with many different scenes. We learn right away that Miss Friday is alive and locked in the IT storage room. It is dark and she is talking into a hand held video camera in order to document her situation for her superiors at the NSDD. In the initial scene, she appears to be trying to communicate with someone from the outside, but with no luck. Suddenly, she realizes that someone (the audience) can see her and she tells the audience that she is in a locked room, but apparently alien Brad has fiddled with the password and she can’t get out.

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A DBA is a Data Professional

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By Grant Fritchey
http://www.scarydba.com/

A DBA (Database Administrator) is a Data Professional tasked with managing an organization’s data using some sort of database software, such as Microsoft SQL Server. They are concerned with gathering, storing and presenting data to data consumers, which includes virtually anyone in the modern world. For example, managers use data to plan for the future, employees use data to make daily decisions, and Internet users (virtually anyone who uses a computer or smartphone) use data they find to comparison shop, learn new skills, listen to music, and keep up with the news. No matter where you look, virtually all the data that exists anywhere is managed by Data Professionals.

Here’s a quick break down of the various jobs that fall under the umbrella of Data Professional. While exact job titles will vary from organization to organization, most Data Professionals fall into one of the following disciplines.

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Meet the DBA in Space Judges

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Judging any contest is difficult, as you want to be as fair as possible. So coming up with the final 15 contestants for the DBA in Space competition was not an easy job for the judges. But as you have probably already learned today, they have made their decision, and the final 15 will go before a vote of the public to decide which lucky DBA will have an opportunity to fly into space.

Red Gate Software invited three people to be the judges, which included Simon Galbraith (Joint CEO of Red Gate Software), Buck Woody (well known DBA and former NASA employee), and Graham Coxon, an (English singer-songwriter whose former band, Blur, were responsible for composing the call signal for the Beagle 2 mission to Mars in 2003).

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