Improving Skills at Work (2022-12-17 DBW)

Database Weekly for December 17, 2022 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [Database Weekly]( The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News by SQLServerCentral.com Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge Editorial  Improving Skills at Work A large part of the success I've had in my career has come from growing my skills, both technical and soft, throughout the years. I've always been driven to learn more and improve my ability to accomplish the tasks I've been assigned. Or those that I've sought out and tackled. A little initiative has been valuable in many successful reviews in the past. There is a shortage of skilled IT workers. There are numerous job openings that I see in many companies, at least outside of some of the large tech firms. Many of those have been laying off workers, especially in some of their divisions that haven't been as successful as expected during the last few years. At the same time, a lot of companies are becoming more discriminating about who they hire. They don't just need bodies, they need skilled bodies that can do the work they are struggling with, often in the DevOps, cloud, and data analysis areas. While a lot of you reading this newsletter will have data skills, are they the ones companies need? Do you understand Git, DevOps, builds, and pipelines? Are you familiar with cloud technologies and gluing systems together remotely? Can you handle python, Spark, Power BI, or business requests to do something with AI/ML? I'm often not surprised that many senior data people don't have exposure to these technologies and aren't sure how to gain skills. I am surprised that more employers aren't upskilling existing people or reskilling them in new areas. It seems far too many companies don't invest in their people, even in today's world where hiring is both very expensive and time-consuming. It's also frustrating when you can't find qualified candidates. There's [a good article on upskilling and reskilling]( and the importance of having a plan inside your organization. This goes hand in hand with a number of presentations from companies at the various [DOES conferences]( over the years. The successful companies that embrace a digital transformation (whatever that means), DevOps, and the Cloud have ways to bring their current employees along. They invest in their people, requiring them to grow, but assisting them on the journey. Not everyone wants to move to the cloud or DevOps or AI/ML. That's fine, but my view is you have to embrace some change in your career if you want to create new opportunities for yourself and have choices in your future roles. If your company doesn't do enough to help you grow into new roles with new skills, maybe send them this article. Make a business case that you can do more with some help, and you're willing to invest some effort yourself to grow. Managers know hiring is hard, and if you've been a good employee, I think they often are willing to invest in you. If they're not, then many you ought to think about that a bit and find out what you can do better so that they will invest in you. Not everyone makes it through corporate transformations, but many do if they are flexible and put in some effort. Steve Jones - SSC Editor [Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums](  The Weekly News All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. Vendors/3rd Party Products [Setting up for Team-based Database Development using Flyway Desktop]( This article provides a simple demonstration of how a small team of developers might set up a Flyway Desktop project to manage, automate, and control database development. [Enabling digital transformation – and data modernization – with DevOp]( Where does data fit into the digital transformation story? Discover how and why it deserves a place in this fascinating piece from Pramod Sadalage, principal consultant at Thought Works. [Dealing with the Bits of a Binary Value in SQL Server]( In this article, I want to talk about a topic that you may never need. The only time I have really had need to look at the bits in a byte pattern. In (what is now) ancient versions of SQL Server didn't have such self-describing columns like in its metadata objects like it does now. [Subqueries in MySQL]( A subquery is a type of query that is embedded—or nested—into a data manipulation language (DML) statement. The data returned by the subquery is passed into the DML statement and incorporated into its overall logic. The subquery itself is typically a SELECT statement, although you can also use a TABLE statement or VALUES statement. Even so, the SELECT statement continues to be the most common choice for subqueries, and that’s the one I focus on in this article. AI/Machine Learning/Cognitive Services [Advent of 2022, Day 15 – Getting to know MLflow]( From TomazTsql In the series of Azure Machine Learning posts: MLFlow is an open-source framework for registering, managing and tracking machine learning models. It is multiplatform, bringing consistent model training and... 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The post Accelerating what-if analysis with machine learning... [Enabling DIY-AI for business]( From Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories Thank you for joining us on “The cloud hub: From cloud chaos to clarity.” Do-it-yourself (DIY) AI is mutually beneficial for IT and business teams in an organization: DIY... [Advent of 2022, Day 12 – Creating jobs]( From TomazTsql  Administration of SQL Server [How do I check my cross DB ownership chaining?]( From SQLServer-DBA.Com What is DB chaining?What are the limitations of ow... [Locking and Blocking]( From Steve Stedman In SQL Server, locking and blocking are mechanisms that are used to protect data integrity and consistency by controlling access to data by concurrent transactions. Locking is the process... 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This tool helps me and my team to ensure that we proactively detect any issue with SQLServers even before users can reach out to us. [6 Common Mistakes Made With SQL Server Backups]( From StraightPath Solutions SQL Blog People are always saying things about the importan... [Trace Flag 8904 - Disable Inline Database Log Flushes]( From MS SQL Server Blog A log cache block holds log records for the databa... [T-SQL Tuesday 157 – Finishing off outstanding tasks]( From Kevin Chant Reading Time: 2 minutes For this months T-SQL Tuesday contribution I want to explain why I tend to spend a lot of time finishing off outstanding tasks r... [T-SQL Tuesday #157: End of Year Activity]( From FLX SQL T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party hosted by a different community member each month, and this month Garry Bargsley (blog | twitter) wants to know what activities we... [Lesson Learned #248: Working with sp_wait_for_database_copy_sync and SQL Auditing.]( From Azure Database Support Blog Based on this public documentation Auto-failover groups overview & best practices - Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Learn , we received several questions about how to identify if any data has... [SQL Server Wait Type: XE_LIVE_TARGET_TVF]( From Steve Stedman Wait statistics, in the context of SQL Server, refer to the amount of time that a query spends waiting to access data in the database. When a client application... Azure Databricks, Spark and Snowflake [Seeding Files With dbt]( File seeding is a useful way of maintaining and deploying static, or very slowly changing, reference data for a data model to use repeatably and reliably across environments, whilst benefitting from source control. [MSSparkUtils is the Swiss Army knife inside Synapse Spark]( I've been reviewing customer questions centered around "Have I tried using MSSparkUtils to solve the problem?" [SELECT Something New in Snowflake]( Sometimes you think you have something down. With years of SQL Server experience, you would think you’d know at least the basics of the SELECT statement no matter the relational database. Well, my friends, you’d be wrong. [The Missing Piece in Your Software Cycle — An Isolated Testing Data Environment for Spark]( A typical routine of a data engineer includes writing code, choosing and upgrading the compute infrastructure, and testing both the new and changed data pipelines. Most of the time, engineers looking to test the changes they wish to apply need to run their tested pipelines in parallel to production. [SELECT Something New in Snowflake]( From Sherpa of Data Sometimes you think you have something down. With years of SQL Server experience, you would think you’d know at least the basics of the SELECT statement no matter the... Azure SQL [How to migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL Database offline using Azure Data Studio | Data Exposed]( From Azure SQL In this episode of Data Exposed with Carlos Robles and Anna Hoffman, we will discuss the recent public preview release of the Azure SQL Database offline migrations using the... [Azure SQL News Update: A Year in Review]( From Azure SQL Read the 2022 recap of all the Azure SQL and SQL Server news or catch the live episode! If you missed the episode, you can find them all at... Azure SQL Managed Instance [Initialize a Managed Instance replication Subscriber with a backup]( From Azure Database Support Blog Initialize Transaction Replication subscription from a Backup (on-premise to Managed Instance) Initialize with Backup sample script  This article provides you with a sample script for creating a transactional replication with the... 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[The cloud is key for financial services undergoing digital transformation]( From Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories Technological advances are transforming everything from transportation and manufacturing to financial services and healthcare. These advances make digital transformation imperative for organizations to adapt to shifting marketplace realities. Nine...  [RSS Feed]([Twitter]( This email has been sent to {EMAIL}. To be removed from this list, please click [here](. If you have any problems leaving the list, please contact the webmaster@sqlservercentral.com. This newsletter was sent to you because you signed up at SQLServerCentral.com. Note: This is not the SQLServerCentral.com daily newsletter list, and unsubscribing to this newsletter will not stop you receiving the SQL Server Central daily newsletters. 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