I haven't written a blog post (here) in over 5 years, so what better time to start things back up than a T-SQL Tuesday? Big shout out to Koen Verbeeck for hosting this month, and picking a great topic: Back to on-prem?

As someone that just ended a 10+ year stint managing a hybrid environment, this topic is very near and dear to me. I went back and fourth on what to write about for this one. There are a lot of great topics. Reliability and observability almost won out but instead I landed on maybe an unexpected topic: soft skills.

soft skills

I feel like this phrase has sort of been dragged through the dirt, but it's a good shortcut in most people's brains to the stuff I want to talk about: building relationships and building up your teams image.

relationships

One of the most important things I ever put work into as a DBA was building relationships (people that know me personally know how often I talk about these topics). Talking to the platform teams, the developers, the PMs, the folks in support, VPs, C-suite, finance, infosec... the list goes on. When you are a DBA you are maintaining some of the most critical infrastructure in the business, so you get access to almost every person in the company. So if you email your CISO to set up time to talk compliance, they are likely going to accept. If you reach out to some app teams to talk self-service and speeding up dev/test workflows, they are probably going to be open for some meetings.

Relationships are important in any DBA role, but I find it's even more important when you have actual boxes on the floor in a data center, or are moving through a major change like a migration back on-prem. Suddenly (though this is actually changing in some cases) you have to worry a LOT about CAPEX. You need to justify those big upfront costs and really think hard about ROI. It changes how things get prioritized and that can lead to huge amounts of friction as everyone is just trying to get their jobs done. Being in these situations forces a lot of hard conversations. But that means it gives you a lot of new opportunities to build up (or improve) relationships with folks making the decisions in your org.

To be clear I am not talking about ladder climbing here, or manipulating others to make yourself look better. I am talking about communicating with a broad range of teams, meeting them where they are at, and figuring out where your goals align. For example: You need a new high-performance backup target but are having a hard time justifying it to the business. In this scenario it's hard to sell on technical merit alone. But talk to your CISO about data protection needs and you might find some common threads you can use to prove the business value and get what you want while also making your CISO happy. Again, you are meeting your CISO (in this case) where they are at and finding where your goals align. This increases the business value, potentially gives you a new ally inside the c-suite, and overall increases the level of trust the organization has in you.

building your teams image (and your own)

A natural side-effect of building relationships across your organization is that it also builds up the reputation of your team. Even if you aren't a manager. When I was a manager I was thrilled whenever someone on my team would take the initiative to make connections in other departments. Once those connections are made, you can start pulling in other team members and overall increase the impact your team has within the organization.

I think the days of DBAs being in the back room have been over for a while. DBAs should be out working with the business to move the business forward. Everyone on the team doesn't need to do this of course, but it's more important than ever when moving back on-prem to make sure your team has a seat at the table. If you do good in this respect, your team will be seen as an advisor to the business, instead of just a team of techies working behind the scenes.

Taking initiative to build up your teams image also looks great from a career standpoint, so it's a win-win. If you are the type that wants to be an IC for the rest of your career, that is 100% fine (I personally just made the transition back to IC from management myself), but if you get good at highlighting the worth of your team and those on it, you are setting yourself up for the next step in your career if you want to take it. Worst case you just end up working on a team that people trust and depend on, with team members that see you as a leader.

final thoughts

Writing this post it really struck me that these are NOT the answers I would have given 10 years ago. I would have focused 100% on the technical realities of making the move. I think that's a mistake, I don't think enough people think about, and really embrace, the people side of the equation. So if you find yourself in an organization moving back on-prem (or going through any large infrastructure change really) seize this opportunity to make those connections and improve your career, your team's careers, and the outcomes the business is looking for.