Month: April 2018

Where should my new tech path lead?

I’m a BTOODBA (Bitter Twisted Old Oracle DBA)…and a pretty darn good one if I say so myself. I’ve loved working with Oracle since version 7.0 Parallel Server (what a mess that was!) on OpenVMS (loved VMS). I’ve been responsible for small databases, large databases, very large databases. Oracle Apps (now known as e-Biz…I think), Agile (not the methodology, an actual Oracle product), RAC, Golden Gate (near zero downtime server migration!), Exadata…too many to remember.

Where to go now? AWS? CassandraDB? MySQL & PHP? Chef? Java? Oracle?

Whatever technology I learn, the bottom line is and will always be…

How can I help people?

The best projects, the best work, the best effort for me has always been when I can help others with their work lives. We spend a great deal of our workday interacting with computer systems. And when those systems are slow or poorly designed or give wrong results (OR ALL 3!), we get stressed, angry, frustrated…and unhappy & unproductive.

When I can help make the systems act consistently, achieve acceptable performance, provide right data at the right time…and help reduce stress and frustration, make people’s work lives a little happier…I am doing what I need to do.

So where to go?

to be continued…

Adventures in AWS land

I admit it…I’m a BTOARCFODBA. I learned computers on BASIC, COBOL, and  a wee bit of Pascal. Add in a smattering of DCL (Digital Control Language) and SQL.

Along the way (c. 1996), I entered the world of Oracle (7.0 to be exact) and became an Oracle DBA. Eventually specializing in diagnosis and optimization. While I have a accomplished a great deal in my career, I feel somewhat stagnated…time to explore new technology.

Amazon Web Services are definitely a skill in demand, so here I go…