SQLPeople

I wrote my first DOS-based applications using Alpha IV and Clipper. Windows application using Access 1.1 and have loved dealing with data ever since.

1. Everyone’s an accidental DBA (or database professional) – what’s your story? How’d you become a SQLPerson? I applied for a job as an ICT System Engineer in 1999 and was sat closest to the SQL Server when the phone rang. A 10 day course on SQL Server 7 a couple of months later and [...]

I transitioned from the Burroughs mainframe to PC platform with the following 2 products, Clipper and FoxPro. I was introduced to SQL Server 6.5 at a Fox Software event in Milwaukee. I was hooked on the product as a developer. I do not do much development anymore as others on our team specialize in that but I spend the majority of my time in the DBA role.

I started managing an Access database for my father’s welding company in 2000 (I’m a pretty good welder – if I may say so). I learned SQL through ASP development soon after, and began doing independent database design and development throughout college. I’ve been working ‘officially’ as a SQL Server DBA for the last 8 years.

Started working in a company writing VB6 and .Net against SQL server. Over the years I slowly found myself leaning more and more towards the SQL and further away from the application. When I finally got a large project in data warehousing which was new to me at that time. I dove in and have never looked back.

I guess you could call me the ultimate accidental DBA – because it has been accidental several times. Back in the 1990′s when I was working my way though college, I ended up at a local trucking company. They had this character based database system called PICK. Not many people remember what it is. Since I knew a little about computers, I got stuck running backups on their PICK system. So I taught myself PICK and learned how to care for the data and write code in BASIC. It had it’s own query language that was remarkably like SQL. So I was doing DBA work without even knowing it.

I started working with SQL Server back in 1999 with SQL Server 6.5 and 7.0. Since then, I’ve been working with Siebel (based on SQL Server), MS Dynamics CRM (SQL Server again) and SharePoint. Over the past 3-4 years I’ve been building Data Warehouses on SQL Server 2008 R2.

By accident, quite frankly! Seriously though, I was a hardware/network admin at a manufacturing plant where they had a time and attendance application that was running rather poorly. After having read the manufacturer’s specifications for the product, I quickly determined that my predecessors had grossly under-built the machine. It was SQL2000 and had only 1Gb of RAM…