From newbie to DBA

I'm was originally a software engineer which specialized in data acquisition. I have done programs for collecting data from radar systems in the military to prices from stock exchanges. 

When catching large quantities of live data you need a fast and safe data storage and for that I have always, since 1994 anyway, used MS SQL Server. The SQL Server (of any brand) gives the possiblity of throwing a lot of data at it and you don't need to worry about the rest.

When the databases got bigger we just bought a bigger server. It was cheaper than me spendig time optimizing and understandig how to really utililize the true power of the SQL Server.

But about a year ago the data caught up with me. On the project I have been working on since 2006, the amount of data was now so big that my time was cheaper than a new server. I figured a raise would be in order to leverage this but my boss didn't :)

So now I needed to figure out how to really use the SQL Server - after having abused it for 16-17 years. I needed to be a DBA - I think thats the right term :)

In this blog I will try to descripe the steps I went and still are going throug in order to get better performance and to gain knowledge to become a DBA.

In 11 days I'm going to SQL Pass Summit i Seattle and this trip really put action to an old dream about writing a blog. I need to have a place to collect my ideas and troubles anyway so why not share it with you :)