In the context of the GDPR and data breach epidemic, I spent about 50% of my time from Nov 2017 until May 2018 supporting Redgate customers to manage their data privacy concerns. It was a great learning experience for me and I’m looking forward to doing plenty more “compliant DevOps” work during the rest of 2018 and 2019. I’ve also…
Author Archive for Alex Yates
DLM Workshops are evolving
When I started DLM Consultants I went to market with three packaged services as well as an option for bespoke consultancy. It went very well and we are still here two years later. The team has grown (more on that in an upcoming blog post) and through that growth we have developed the ability to take on bigger and more…
Simple query to return columns that have been classified as sensitive in SQL Server
A few months back, in response to new regulations like the GDPR and a growing concern about data breaches and other data privacy issues, Microsoft released a new data privacy feature in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Since SSMS 17.5, users have been able to use new classification functionality that sniffs out any of the columns on your database with…
Show me your Code of Conduct or I don’t go
A quick declaration: I’ve been thinking about which events I should and should not be attending this year. There are so many, it’s hard to choose. One of the issues that I’ve been becoming increasingly aware of is the importance of a code of conduct to so many people in our industry. Many folks feel uncomfortable attending events if there…
Speaking Mentors
I’m one of the organisers of SQL Relay and I’m always looking for new speakers. There aren’t enough new people speaking at community events and that’s sad. It doesn’t promote fresh ideas and thinking. On Wednesday evening last week I was thinking about this and I was feeling generous so I casually made an offer on Twitter as I left…
RIP Swag Bags (and some other changes for SQL Relay 2018)
In 2016 I wrote about how I was stepping in to some pretty big shoes, taking the baton from Steph Locke to manage the sponsorship for SQL Relay 2017. Joining the SQL Relay organising committee was my first experience as a conference organiser. Queue clichés… No, I didn’t realise quite how much work it would be. No, I didn’t realise…
My SMART objectives for 2018
Two years ago I wrote about why new year’s resolutions suck and why set myself some SMART objectives for 2016 instead. SMART objectives have the following five attributes: S pecifc M easurable A ttainable R ealistic T ime-related I’ve used SMART objectives in business because they are good for motivation and accountability. Most new year’s resolutions are broken because they fail to possess some of these attributes.…
Your branching strategy should mirror your reality
People have their religions about the “right” way to do branching. Unfortunately, the real world is rarely that simple. There is the “always develop on main” tribe, who attest that branches are evil and anything other than working on main means you aren’t doing continuous integration, which makes you evil. There is the “do all your work on branches” tribe,…
DevOps, Culture and Trust
The slide above is from my DevOps 101 session. Sometimes people need reminding. DevOps is about five things: C – ulture a – utomation l – ean m – etrics s – haring First, and with a capital letter, comes Culture. Let’s talk about why. Dysfunctional teams As a consultant, the engagements I find frustrating are where a customer asks…
Doing the right thing
I enjoyed solving problems and helping people achieve great things. I got a lot of scope to achieve this in my role because our software was pretty awesome – but at the end of the day the measure of my success was how many licences I could help to sell. I wanted the measure of my success to be how…