Bob Cramblitt, based in Cary, N.C., writes about issues that impact the day-to-day work of IT and database professionals. He can be reached at info@cramco.com.
The sale of a favourite software company can be disheartening for users, creating concern that the tools and team you love will vanish. Red Gate's Luke Jefferson and Matt Dickens, and Cerebrata's Gaurav Mantri, discuss how they plan to avoid acquisition pitfalls.… Read more
A lot of the buzz around the DBA in Space campaign has centered on the hosts of the snazzy, 60s space-noir webisodes created by Red Gate and The Mill. Simple-Talk sent intrepid reporter Bob Cramblitt to the Rodenberry Launch Center to interview the two hosts, Brad McGehee and the fetching Miss Friday.… Read more
Grant Fritchey, The Scary DBA, has now taken the leap from being a Simple-Talk author and FoRG(Friend of Red Gate) to being employed by Red Gate as 'product evangelist'. As Bob Cramblitt finds out, it means that Grant gets more time to do what he enjoys doing; talking and writing about SQL Server topics that fascinate him, such as query tuning, execution plans, performance monitoring and backups.
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Tracy Hamlin has been elected by judges and the SQL Server community as the Exceptional DBA of 2010. The annual awards program, hosted by SQL Server Central and sponsored by Red Gate Software, drew the largest number of community votes in its three-year history. In the interview, Simple-Talk contributor Bob Cramblitt talks to Tracy to uncover the essence of an exceptional DBA.… Read more
If you could design an Exchange email archiver from scratch, what would you do differently and how would you bring it to maturity? Bob Cramblitt talks with three principals from the new Exchange Server Archiver 3.0 development team and gets the inside story on the soul of a new archiver.… Read more
Lutz Roeder handed over responsibility for development of .NET Reflector to Red Gate nearly eighteen months ago. "What's been happening since then?", one might ask. The answer is "Rather a lot," as we found out when we sent Bob Cramblitt to the .NET team, also known as the "Managed Heap," to find out.… Read more
It started out as an experiment to try to explore different ways of creating a software tool that people would want. It ended up as a tool that Red Gate is giving away to the SQL Server community in return for the contribution to the project of so many of Red Gate's friends within the community. But was it easy to do? Bob Cramblitt and Richard Collins went to find out by talking to Tanya Joseph, who managed the project that turned the concept into a product.… Read more
Josef Richberg is an exceptional person: The Judges of the Exceptional DBA Award were quickly proved right in their decision to choose him, when he subsequently showed extraordinary resilience and determination in the face of an unexpected diagnosis of cancer. His determination to deal positively with a difficult life-event is surely a source of inspiration to all of us.… Read more
Josef Richberg, a DBA with HarperCollins Publishers, has been selected by judges and the DBA community as winner of 2009's Exceptional DBA Awards, sponsored by Red Gate Software. Freelance writer Bob Cramblitt spoke to Richberg about the role of the DBA and the importance of sharing knowledge with the community.… Read more
In late May, before nominations opened for this year’s Exceptional DBA awards, I wrote about the top four challenges facing DBAs and wondered if the challenges mentioned in this year’s nominations would be different from those in last year’s. Those nominations are now in, and I’ve once again had a chance to review them. The … Read more
An interview with William Durkin. When he has the time, William finds it useful to work as a pre-release software tester. His most recent testing work was for Red Gate's SQL Backup 6.0, just released this month. … Read more
With the kickoff of nominations for 2009’s Exceptional DBA Awards about two weeks away, it’s a good time to revisit the challenges faced by last year’s nominees and solicit opinions on whether they are still valid. As a communications consultant in 2008’s Exceptional DBA Awards team, I was able to review all the nominations. I … Read more
Sometimes, it is a great relief when a user of your software gives it a tough test and then reports that it just works automatically without the users even knowing about it. Once again, Exchange Server Archiver just quietly gets on with its job.… Read more
.NET Reflector is not just a handy adjunct to Visual Studio for developers to browse their assemblies and understand classes and methods; Sometimes it can have a vital role. Many developers have told us that, occasionally, it had 'saved their bacon'. We were intrigued and decided to find out more by offering prizes and cash for ".NET Reflector Saved My Bacon" stories.… Read more
Simple Talk asked freelance writer Bob Cramblitt to sit down with the two people behind the agreement that Red Gate will be responsible for the future development of .NET Reflector, and discuss with them what it means to the community and the future of Reflector.… Read more
Red Gate Software's approach to testing is famous for its precision and thoroughness. So what's it like to be a tester in such an exacting environment? David Atkinson, Red Gate's test manager, gives us a glimpse behind the scenes.… Read more
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