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The Voice of the DBA

The CDO

One of the cornerstones of GDPR compliance is appointing someone as a data protection officer for your organization. This person is responsible for ensuring that your systems and data are safe and protected, and presumably, complying with the various articles in the GDPR. Article 37 notes that both a data controller and data processor shall designate a DPO in certain cases.

That makes sense for companies working under GDPR jurisdiction, but for those of us outside the EU, do we need a senior level data executive? I wonder. As I've been researching the work by others and working with various clients and customers, it seems that some companies do have an executive, not necessarily in charge of protection, but in charge of data.

This week, I'm wondering if any of you have a Chief Data Officer in your organization. I've heard a few people say that if you do, it's a sign of maturity in your organization, where data is treated as a truly strategic and important asset. You likely have some sort of data quality metric, you many have master data management systems in place, and the organization constantly looks to extract more value from the data they store.

I don't know if this is a sign of a more mature organization, but I do know that having some resources in place to ensure data quality, mapping your data estate, trying to ensure some level of consistency are signs of more data maturity. I know many of us realize data is important, and certainly our employers want our systems to run smoothly, but do they really make an effort to use data wisely? If so, then I think the company is mature. If not, maybe they're letting opportunity pass by.

Lots of us data professionals do look for opportunities to better use data, to build useful reports, and find new patterns in data. Whether there's a Chief Data Officer or not, many of want to explore data and make use of information we find. I think if our organization supports that, we'll enjoy our jobs more. If not, then maybe the job is just a job for many of us.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums


The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn. feed

The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music.

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Featured Contents

 

Powershell To Get Active Directory Users And Groups into SQL

Lowell Izaguirre from SQLServerCentral.com

Use Powershell to query AD for Users, Groups and GroupMembers More »


 

SQL Server Closure Tables

Additional Articles from SimpleTalk

SQL Server has a couple of different ways to represent hierarchies, but they do not allow storing any additional information that is important to the relationship between objects. In this article, Phil Factor explains how to use closure tables to overcome this deficiency. More »


 

Deliver GDPR-compliant data to SQL Server teams

The GDPR makes it essential for SQL Server teams to maintain a living data catalog and to put in place controls and processes up front to protect personal data. But this doesn’t mean you need to lock your data away or slow down your development processes. More »


 

A strategy for implementing database source control

Much has been written on the benefits of having a database under source control, though many articles are clear on “why” but conspicuously vague on “how”. In this ahis article, David Poole describes what was required of his organization's database source control solution, how they approached the challenges, and how using Redgate SQL Source Control as a template helped. More »


 

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Why Don't I have a Preferred Replica?

Andy Galbraith from SQLServerCentral Blogs

The client reported that the log file on their main database was growing unusually large, and when they checked the... More »


 

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Python Jupyter Notebooks in Azure

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral Blogs

There’s a new feature in Azure, and I stumbled on it when someone posted a link on Twitter. Apologies, I... More »

Question of the Day

Today's Question (by Steve Jones):

I have a set of data like this:

 CREATE TABLE CastTest ( Myval VARCHAR(20) ); GO INSERT CastTest ( Myval ) VALUES ('A') , ('My Test') , ('123') , ('123.5') , ('20180301') , ('Mar 23, 2000'), ('Jan 1, 2000'); GO 

I decide to filter my data by a date, but I'm worried about the data conversion. I try this code. How many rows are returned?

 SELECT CAST(Myval AS datetime) FROM dbo.CastTest AS ct WHERE CASE WHEN TRY_CAST(ct.Myval AS datetime) IS NOT NULL THEN CAST(ct.Myval AS datetime) END > '2000-01-01'; GO

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Yesterday's Question of the Day

Yesterday's Question (by Steve Jones):

When you install SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services with R and Python, how many new users are added to SQL Server by default?

Answer: 20

Explanation:

By default, there are 20 local users created for your SQL Server Machine Learning Services instance.

Ref: Install SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services - click here


» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

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