A community of more than 1,600,000 database professionals and growing

The Voice of the DBA

The Value of Data

This editorial was originally published on Sept 25, 2014. It is being republished as Steve is out of the office.

How valuable is your data? It's a good question, and certainly the type of data your organization has along with the business in which you are engaged will make your data more or less valuable. More and more we find the differentiation between companies is in the way they collect, manage, and use the data available to them. So much in business is based on guesses, but more and more the guesses have some basis in data. We are starting to see those who make decisions in business feel some need to justify or support their choices with data.

Is data the new oil? Oil was arguably the most important commodity of the twentieth century (and perhaps still is). The SQLRockstar wrote a piece with that same title, with the idea that knowing more about how valuable data can be will make you more successful in business. The post is based on the review of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, and talks about some of the challenges of using data to make decisions.

I certainly believe in the power of data, and that more data often gives us more insight into how the world works, as well as allowing us to draw some inferences about the future. Not necessarily better insight, but certainly more. I do think that computer extrapolation of patterns to the future is vastly overrated as most of our algorithms are far too simple, using too little data and discounting the increasing effects of small variables as scale increases. In short, I don't think we're anywhere close to a Foundation-like computer that can help us predict the success of new products, much less the future of a country.

However I think that using analytics to make small decisions, and help guide our directions is important. We will still need humans that apply their internal supercomputers to interpret data, and continue to evolve the algorithms, and I hope that more and more of you are gaining deeper industry insight in your particular field. After all, many of us data professionals will be needed to help guide analysts in gathering, transforming, interpreting, and displaying data in ways that allows us to make decisions with more confidence.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

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

The industry standard for comparing and deploying SQL Server database schemas

Trusted by 71% of Fortune 100 companies, SQL Compare is the fastest way to compare changes, and create and deploy error-free scripts in minutes. Plus you can easily find and fix errors caused by database differences. Download your free trial

Benchmark your Database DevOps maturity level

Get a better understanding of how advanced your current processes are, receive recommendations for improvements, and see how your maturity level compares with that of your peers. Complete the Database DevOps Maturity Assessment

Featured Contents

What is the Machine Learning Server? Level 2 of the Stairway to ML Services

ginger.grant from SQLServerCentral.com

In Level 2, we look at the architecture and structure of the Machine Learning Services server process. More »

Free eBook: Understanding SQL Server Concurrency

Press Release from Redgate

When you can’t get to your data because another application has it locked, a thorough knowledge of SQL Server concurrency will give you the confidence to decide what to do. More »

Calculating Employee Attrition with DAX – Part 2

Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com

In part 1, we described the requirements for calculating attrition and also demonstrated one method that doesn’t rely on writing DAX code at all. In the second part of this tip, we introduce alternative methods of creating a calculation in DAX to calculate the number of employees that have left the company. More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Loopback available for Windows Containers

Andrew Pruski from SQLServerCentral Blogs

The April 2018 update for Windows brought a few cool things but the best one (imho) is that now we... More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - When Simple Parameterization…Isn’t

Grant Fritchey from SQLServerCentral Blogs

I’m desperately working to finish up a new version of my book on Execution Plans. We’re close, so close. However,... More »

Question of the Day

Today's Question (by Steve Jones):

I have a simple vector that is created by

 x = c(1:20)

I decide to break this into 4 intervals with this:

 cut(x, 4)

What is returned for the levels?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers.
This question is worth 1 point in this category: R Language.

We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer.
To submit a QOTD, simply log in to the Contribution Center.

The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. Get your copy from Amazon today.

Yesterday's Question of the Day

Yesterday's Question (by Steve Jones):

Which object is used in SMO to perform the scripting function for SQL Server database objects?

Answer: Use the Scripter object

Explanation:

There is a Scripter object that is used to produce the code.

Ref: Scripter - click here

» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.

SQL Server 2017 : SQL Server 2017 - Development

SQL Query to pull data - Hi, i have two table named "Objects" and "Attributes". Object Table Structure and Data: Attributes Table Structure and Data:

Performance Question - Hi there, I have a performance question here: how can I rewrite below highlighted area? I am getting Lazy spool in execuation...

SSIS Buffer Error - Hi, I am trying to execute a package and I am getting the following error messages: Error: A buffer failed while allocating...

Error Processing Cube from SSIS package run as a SQL Job - Hi, I am trying to upgrade a SQL server with Analysis Services to SQL 2017 cu5, 14.0.3023.8, (I tried CU4 before...

SQL Server 2016 : SQL Server 2016 - Administration

OLA script dont delete old trn file - Hello, I'm using Ola Hallengran scripts for maintenance. I have a SQL SERVER 2016 Enterprise edition and this DB is under always...

Registered servers - Hello - If someone creates the registered servers, can I use them to save time not to again add them one...

SQL Server 2016 : SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL

Return rows where value doesnt exist - Hello Everyone, I have a slight problem so I hope you can help. I have a table with orders joined to...

Storing multiple variations of the same data? - Can anyone weigh in on why you would want to store multiple variations of the same data? In all of...

Openrowset update issue - Hi I have a problem using OPENROWSET to move data from Server A to Server B correctly. I have the following requirement...

Importing from XML to SQL 2014 - This is my 4th day on SQL so I am a newbie. I created a query to import from an...

SQL Server 2014 : Administration - SQL Server 2014

sp_send_dbmail - Error when passing @query parameter. - Hi All, When I send mail using "sp_send_dbmail" it works fine. But it fails when I set "@query" paramerter, fails with below...

SQL Server 2014 : Development - SQL Server 2014

SQL Query Help - Separate Column - Hi All: Need help with SQL Query. I have a column named Participants with Names and email addresses in one single column....

SQL Server 2012 : SQL 2012 - General

Log shipping and database backups - Hi all We've got a few databases that we want to start log-shipping from. Normally, we'd use replication but the 3rd-party software...

SSMS Solution queries prompt HRESULT E_FAIL error when trying to connect to servers - This is a weird one that I haven't seen until recently. As in after I upgraded my PC from Windows...

SSMS Slow Open - Is it normal for SSMS 2012 to take about 42 seconds to open on a workstation? Windows 7 Enterprise x64 Intel(R) Core(TM)...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 - General

Stored procedure running in loop is taking time to load . Is there any alternate way to run in a single execution ? - Hi All, I have an application where we will be showing the invoice and Plan backup reports for each recipient in...

SQL Server 2008 : T-SQL (SS2K8)

TSQL - Return rows based on the value in another row - Hello, I hope someone may be able to help? I have table which holds relationship data where most of the relationships are...

SQL Server 2008 : SQL Server 2008 Administration

?Logon to server '%Servername%' failed SQL Server issue) - Dear All, As said in subject i am getting Frequent Event Logs in my SQL Server fro

Reporting Services : Reporting Services

Data Driven Subscription Time Outs - Once a month on the first of the month I need to burst an SSRS report out to ~200 email...

Reporting Services : SSRS 2016

Changing Domains and can't change service user - I am having a weird problem while testing a domain name change - I can't restore the encryption keys. The long story: We...

This email has been sent to newsletter@newslettercollector.com. To be removed from this list, please click here.
If you have any problems leaving the list, please contact the webmaster@sqlservercentral.com.

This newsletter was sent to you because you signed up at SQLServerCentral.com.
Feel free to forward this to any colleagues that you think might be interested.
If you have received this email from a colleague, you can register to receive it here.