SQL Server Experts: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
 | We started out hoping to talk to one or two SQL Server experts, to get their perspective of SQL Server, their work, and what it takes to be a SQL Server DBA/Developer. The response to our questions far surpassed our wildest expectations. We have received responses from the "Who's Who" of the SQL Server world. Our discussion with the experts will cover how they got introduced to SQL Server, their views on SQL Server, their work, and their advice on a SQL Server career. The discussion is posted as a three part series. Part 1 and Part 2 are posted today and Part 3 will be posted tomorrow |
Part 1: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
Part 2: Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer
Part 3: Becoming a SQL Server MVP and other Career Choices.
Let me start by introducing the expert panel.
Cristian Lefter: Founder and President of the Romanian SQL Server User group, Cristian is a developer turned database administrator who currently owns MicroTraining, specializing in SQL Server consulting and training. Cristian is a frequent contributor and reviewer for SQL Server Professional, ASPToday, Microsoft e-learning among others. To SQL or To SQL ? There's No Question is his motto.
Andrew Fyer: A Microsoft evangelist, no really, Andrew is literally a Microsoft evangelist, part of the Microsoft Technet Team, his official title is IT Pro Evangelist. His areas of expertise are SQL Server, the database engine, Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services, coupled with ProClarity and its successor Performance Point. He blogs at "SQL Server Relational and Beyond"
Namwar Rizvi: Author of SQL Tips, Namwar's passion is software. Namwar has all the technical certifications from Microsoft and has delivered projects across multiple industries using Microsoft technologies.
Brent Ozar: A Database Administrator by day and a traveling geek by night, Brent believes database management is the best thing in the computer industry. Brent loves to share his knowledge, according to him "helping is the key to being a successful DBA". Brent is the domain expert for Quest Software and in his job, he helps database administrators at various companies. Brent loves to travel, you can see where he is headed in Dopplr. He can be reached at brentOzar.com
Denny Cherry: The resident SQL Server Expert in SearchSqlserver at Techtarget, Denny has managed SQL Server installs, including a 175 million users installation at MySpace.com. Denny specializes in system architecture, performance tuning, and replication. He is currently a Sr. Database Administrator and Architect at Awareness Technologies. He blogs at SQL Server with Mr. Denny.
Brian Kelley: A SQL Server columnist and author, Brian is an infrastructure architect for AgFirst Farm Credit Bank. Brian writes for Sql Server Standard and he blogs at Sql Server Central about databases, infrastructure and security. He is the president of the Midland SC, chapter of PASS.
Chris Shaw: Founder of the Colorado Springs SQL Server Users Group, Chris is the founder and Director of SQL on Call, a Colorado Springs based company that provides remote DBA services. Chris has worked in companies like Yellow Pages Inc, Ford Fairlane Motor Credit, Wells Fargo and AT&T Wireless. Chris is currently writing a weekly column on Database Team Management. His weblog.
Pinal Dave: Author of over 600 SQL Server Articles, Pinal is a Database Administrator and a Web Application Architect. Database also his passion and hobby. He is a frequent column writer in SQL Server Magazine. His "Journey to SQL Authority" blog is an excellent source of SQL articles that is a must for novice and experts alike.
Now to our discussion.....
1. How and When were you introduced to SQL Server
Cristian: 2000 as a developer I had to build a web application based on ASP and SQL Server.
Andrew: 1998. I was working for Marks & Spencer (UK store chain like Macy's) who were very Microsoft centric. They were rolling out a project using SQL Server 6.5 and I found it very easy to adapt my access and CA-Ingres SQL skills to this.
Namwar: I started working in SQL Server in my university days (1998) and SQL Server 6.5 was my first experience. Since then I am implementing solutions of various kind and have used all versions of SQL Server i.e. 7/2000/2005 and now 2008 in its beta and release candidate cycles.
Brent: I started working with SQL Server in the late 1990's. I wrote a web application that stored its data in Microsoft Access, and after a while, I realized that Access wasn't going to be my long-term solution. I looked at the next step, and Microsoft made it relatively easy to migrate that application up to SQL Server. I've never looked back!
Denny: My first introduction to SQL Server was Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 back about 1997 or so. I started using Microsoft SQL Server professionally as a DBA and Database Developer around 1999 or so. We had build several business processes in Microsoft Access, and the transaction logging within Microsoft Access was causing the Access databases to fill and corrupt them selves every couple of days (we were pumping 10s of thousands of rows through the Access database every minute). We had a trial edition of SQL Server 7 available to us, so we decided to upgrade the systems to SQL Server. I never looked back after that.
Brian: I was introduced in 1998 with SQL Server 6.5. We were using it to be a back-end for web applications.
Chris: In 1995 I was working with MS Access for an antifreeze recycling company. I was offered a job because of my Access skills but I would have to learn SQL Server. I took the job and since then I have been a dedicated DBA. That company was Yellow Pages Inc.
Pinal: I was introduced to SQL Server 5+ Years ago, when I started my job as web developer.
2. Why would you recommend SQL Server vis-a-vis other databases
Cristian: It's cost effective and does the job.
Andrew: Two things - It gives you a bigger bang for your buck, you get all this useful stuff (reporting and full text searching for example) with it that fits together very easily and it is really simple to manage.
There's a huge community behind it so if you are in trouble someone has the answer, and with 12% of all jobs on the leading UK job board wanting SQL skills you have a good choice of careers or candidates depending on which side of the interview you are on.
Namwar: There are many reasons for recommending SQL Server but most important are:
Lower TCO: You can have lower cost of ownership along with enterprise quality performance even you can have SQL Server Express free which can provide you excellent database backend in small applications.
Excellent Tool Set: You have a vast set of tools like SSRS, SSAS, SSIS etc. You can design your solutions in native Visual Studio
.NET Integration: Native integration of .NET platform
Brent: SQL Server scales from a handheld PDA all the way up to multi-terabyte data warehouses. At one of my employers, our sales force had thousands of Windows Mobile PDA's across the country, all running the SQL Server engine. Every sale went into the handhelds, got consolidated into central OLTP SQL Servers, and eventually fed into a multi-terabyte SAP BW data warehouse running - you guessed it - SQL Server. I got involved with all levels of that deployment and had a fantastic time. Being a DBA is a ton of fun no matter what platform you pick, but SQL Server gives you the best chance to get into any organization and start contributing immediately.
Denny: I recommend Microsoft SQL Server over enterprise database platforms for a few reasons. One is cost, another is features, and the third is ease of use.
While MySQL is free to install and use, MySQL DBAs and support can get quite costly as the number of DBAs is much smaller than Microsoft DBAs, especially the number of top tier DBAs is much smaller than Microsoft DBAs. Oracle, is just expensive plain and simple. Especially when you start adding in features like Replication, and the annual maintenance costs.
Feature wise Microsoft SQL Server can easily hold it's own with the big boys of the RDBMS world, and at a fraction of the cost.
As for ease of use, Microsoft SQL Server is the only RDBMS where people actually use the tools regularly. Most Oracle folks use Toad for query writing and basic Administrator, and MySQL folks use phpAdmin to manage the database platform. Microsoft's T/SQL implementation is very complete, and very close to being fully ANSI compliant. In my opinion T/SQL is very easy to learn, and work with where I didn't like working in PL/SQL at all.
Brian: I like SQL Server because of its flexibility and its capabilities. I think SQL Server 2005 took a huge step in establishing SQL Server as a definite player in the enterprise market. However, which database platform to use is determined by a multitude of factors and SQL Server may not be the best fit for a particular situation. If a shop generally works in Microsoft technologies, then typically SQL Server is the best fit.
Chris: The cost per transaction in an enterprise environment is smaller then any other database server in its class.
Pinal: It is Microsoft Technology and very easy to use. Support, online documentation and integration with Windows Operating system is excellent when using SQL server.
Continue to Part 2 of our discussion with SQL Experts, Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer.
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