Azure SQL Database

Björn Peters challenges us this month to write about Azure SQL Database, describing all our experiences and opinions about it. I’m not sure either you, the reader, or I, the writer, have enough time for that, so I’m going to give you a quick version.

…and that is – yes, you should be using it.

Yes, because I think you should embrace Azure SQL Database. For all kinds of reasons.

Not least, because this week the SQL to probably my favourite movie is being released. I haven’t seen it yet, but from the trailers, I’m going to assume that Mr Incredible feels like he’s been left on the shelf while Elastigirl (not even branded as “Mrs Incredible”) goes out to save the world. That’s all I know (okay, except that Jack-Jack is discovering his powers), and I won’t be updating this post with any further information once I’ve seen it.

You see, in the first movie, the supers have been forced to retire and join the real world. As their secret identities become their only identities, they lose touch with who they are. Edna tells Helen to show Bob that she remembers who he is, because he feels like the world has forgotten. The kid on the tricycle doesn’t know what he’s waiting for from Bob – something amazing, he guesses. Bob is too…

Of course, Bob gets hired by Mirage, and gets to relive the glory days, discovering purpose again briefly. But it’s short-lived as it turns out Syndrome is developing technology to give everyone superpowers. And when everyone’s super, no one will be.

This is a fear that I think many database professionals have been dealing with in recent times, as the cloud has become increasingly prevalent. Infrastructure as as Service takes away the need to buy hardware. Platform as a Service takes away the need to install SQL Server. As for NoSQL, well, that’s about as blunt as it gets. Those superpowers that database professionals have developed over the years are being taken away as the world comes to realise that it’s better to put those duties in the hands of cloud providers like Microsoft.

I’m not saying that Microsoft is like Syndrome – keen to be a sidekick but only until they can grow into a nemesis, destined to try to steal our children until we throw a car at them (okay, I think that analogy falls down fairly quickly) – I’m saying that in this time of rapid technological advancement, which isn’t about to slow down, trying to hold onto the past is pointless. In the movie, if Syndrome didn’t develop that technology, someone else would have done. Hopefully they wouldn’t have used it to make the supers redundant, but rather to develop the supers (which I suspect is a theme in Incredibles II). I think it’s interesting that at the climax of the first movie, the family leverage technology to beat the giant evil robot. They can’t do it by themselves, but need to leverage the technology to be stronger.

We need to leverage technology, and not get depressed about the fact that the world is changing. Learn to use Azure SQL Database, rather than shying away from it. Understand the great things that you can do with it, and how it will enhance your environment. This technology is not to try to make you redundant, it’s to help you beat problems you didn’t have to fight before.

So remember who you are. Confront your problem. Fight. Win. And call me when you get back, darling, I enjoy our visits.

@rob_farley