TSQL Tuesday #89 -My Learning Steps to Azure
April 11, 2017
I thank Koen Verbeeck (b|t) for hosting TSQL Tuesday #89. Topic for this month The times they are a-changing inspired by the blog post Will the Cloud Eat My DBA Job? by Kendra Little.
I was glad to see this topic was chosen. I clearly remembered reading this blog post and thanking kendra for writing it. It had very clear points about why DBA’s should not feel threatened about emerging cloud technology and what DBA’s need to do to re-align skills for embracing cloud. This type of apparent threat happened before and cloud will not be the last one.
Personally about a year ago I decided to do something about it. I realized, listening others talking about cloud/Azure is not going to cut it for me. I need to do it myself and that is how I learn best. Here are some things I did as a starter and hope this will help someone who wants to start today.
Opening a Free Azure Account
For me doing hands on is the best way to learn anything. I opened an account in Azure using my MSDN subscription. Which gives $50/month. I can also use my company account. You can get free credits of up to $500 in a year. I blogged details about it here.
Start Learning Myself
I started reading and practicing in small bites. For example, how to create a SQL server (logical server), create a SQL database, create a storage account, firewall settings, creating different objects in SQL Database. I learned how to migrate SQL database from on premise to Azure suing different tools. After getting comfortable with basic Azure terms and SQL Database related functions I finished a course DAT220x Delivering a Data Warehouse in the Cloud at EDX. Also finished Microsoft Azure Fundamentals course at Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Teach Others
I decided to teach others about what I was learning. By teaching others, I was challenged to strengthen my knowledge. I was able to identify gaps in my learning and reinforce those areas. First talk I gave was at North Boston Azure Cloud User Group. Details of that talk is here. I am honored and humbled that I was invited to deliver the same talk to few other groups.
What is Next for Me
In order to advance my learning, these are the few things I am planning in near future.
Learn more about Azure storage.
Teach others about Azure storage.
Enroll in Orchestrating Big Data with Azure Data Factory.
I think we (traditional DBA’s) need to train ourselves and embrace cloud instead of hiding and thinking nothing will change. I am fortunate that at my full time job the company has a mandate of moving to cloud. My journey of learning cloud and company mandate worked out perfect for me. There are enough tools available around us that once we decide to learn and ready to put the effort we can make progress. I am grateful to #sqlfamily for helping me in this journey.
