The year is 1999, somewhere in Cambridge, UK. Kathi, a member of the Data-Philes team, is reading a memo sent from her manager. The memo talks about someone who disrupted a project management meeting in London. He claims he is from 20 years in the future. Chris walks in.<\/p>\n
Chris:<\/strong> Kathi, have you seen the latest assignment from Simon? If we leave now,\u00a0 we can be at the facility where the time traveler is being held in a few minutes. Maybe he can share some of the news about 2019, like where to buy the best flying car.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> A few minutes! Do you have a transporter that I don\u2019t know about? Chris, obviously, this man is suffering from delusions. There is no reason interview him. Instead, I just heard that SQL Server 7 was released, and I would like to spend some time checking it out.<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Ya know, Kathi, you don\u2019t even need a DBA when you use SQL Server 7.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Ugh. I need to start brushing up on Oracle. All the SQL 6.5s will probably be upgraded within a year, and I won\u2019t have a job!<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> There is something really odd about our time traveler. You wouldn\u2019t believe\u00a0some of the things he said at that meeting!<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Like what?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Well, first, he said that the way the company builds software is all wrong.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Aren\u2019t they using Waterfall methodology?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> That\u2019s just it. They are using it.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> So, why is that wrong?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> He says that in the future, companies will embrace something called\u00a0DevOps. Instead of building the entire project and releasing it all at once, they will\u00a0deploy code daily, maybe even several times a day! Developers and operations teams, including DBAs, will work together to make sure that deployments run smoothly.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> DevOps? That sounds like science fiction! Obviously, this man has watched a\u00a0few too many Star Trek episodes!<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> It gets better. He started talking about cloning databases to save space and\u00a0time for developers.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> See, there you go. Why would anyone care about saving space and time?\u00a0The biggest database I\u2019ve worked with was just a few gigabytes. Yes, it\u2019s a pain to copy for developers and setting everything up takes a few days, but we only have to do it a couple of times a year. We are careful to keep the database stable and not let too many changes sneak in.<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> That\u2019s what\u2019s so amazing. He said that, in 20 years, it will not be unusual to\u00a0have terabyte databases! With cloning<\/a>, even a terabyte database can be delivered\u00a0to a developer in seconds! And, it doesn\u2019t take up much room on the dev\u2019s hard\u00a0drive.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Like I said: too much Star Trek! And, of course, when we need to set up a\u00a0brand-new environment, it only takes a few months to order the hardware, build it,\u00a0and get everything installed. It\u2019s not a big deal as long as there is space for the new\u00a0server in the basement server room.<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Virtualization will be popular, too, so you won\u2019t have to order hardware for\u00a0every project.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Well, SQL Server will never run on a virtual machine!<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> He also mentioned that the company should do everything they can to\u00a0prevent data breaches, especially since so much data will live in the cloud.<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> What is a data breach? Data in the cloud? Now I know this guy is\u00a0delusional. That sounds like something from a Star Wars movie or maybe The\u00a0Matrix.<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Evidently, in the future, it is not unusual for the data from a major company\u00a0to be stolen. Names, addresses, credit card numbers, all that in the hands of\u00a0thieves! If only they would use their powers for good and not evil!<\/p>\n Kathi:<\/strong> Is there any way to protect this type of sensitive information in the future?<\/p>\n Chris:<\/strong> Yes, he mentions that companies can use data masking software<\/a> to sanitize\u00a0personal information before giving the databases to developers.<\/p>\n