{"id":939,"date":"2009-03-05T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/paul\/post\/Is-SQL-Server-just-plumbing.aspx"},"modified":"2015-06-22T16:41:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T23:41:28","slug":"is-sql-server-just-plumbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SQL Server &#8216;just plumbing&#8217;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">One of the opinions that was expressed yesterday by our developer friends (a bunch of Regional Directors &#8211; and look, Kimberly&#39;s the featured RD today on <\/font><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">http:\/\/theregion.com\/<\/font><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">) is that SQL Server is just plumbing. Consider the developers (or app architects) as plumbers. They see SQL Server as a few pieces of copper pipe joining a few parts of the app together, with maybe some flow control in there somewhere, like below. (You might need to right-click and select &#39;show picture&#39; &#8211; I don&#39;t know why &#8211; I just do databases :-))<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"><\/font><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"> <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">There shouldn&#39;t be anything in a piece of simple copper pipe that impedes the water flow, right? That&#39;s what you&#39;d think. The problem is that mental model of a simplistic data store is wildly inaccurate. What they think of as a bunch of simple copper pipe and some taps is a really a very complicated machine, like below. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" \/><\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"> <\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">There should really be another step in the software development lifecycle &#8211; during the design phase, there should be a question that says &#39;are you doing anything with SQL Server? (Y\/N)&#39;. If the answer is &#39;no&#39;, the lifecycle model continues. If the answer is &#39;yes&#39;, then STOP and consult a DBA or database-savvy developer. Just like working on a house, most people will call a plumber rather than mess around with pipe-work themselves.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">Kimberly&#39;s going to pick this topic up big-time on her blog &#8211; keep watching <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/kimberly\/\"><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">there<\/font><\/a><font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\">!<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<font face=\"verdana,geneva\" size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the opinions that was expressed yesterday by our developer friends (a bunch of Regional Directors &#8211; and look, Kimberly&#39;s the featured RD today on http:\/\/theregion.com\/) is that SQL Server is just plumbing. Consider the developers (or app architects) as plumbers. They see SQL Server as a few pieces of copper pipe joining a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is SQL Server &#039;just plumbing&#039;? - Paul S. Randal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is SQL Server &#039;just plumbing&#039;? - Paul S. Randal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the opinions that was expressed yesterday by our developer friends (a bunch of Regional Directors &#8211; and look, Kimberly&#039;s the featured RD today on http:\/\/theregion.com\/) is that SQL Server is just plumbing. Consider the developers (or app architects) as plumbers. They see SQL Server as a few pieces of copper pipe joining a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paul S. Randal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-05T12:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-22T23:41:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Randal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Randal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/\",\"name\":\"Is SQL Server 'just plumbing'? - Paul S. Randal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-05T12:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-22T23:41:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/ffcec826c18782e1e0adf173826a7fce\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is SQL Server &#8216;just plumbing&#8217;?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/\",\"name\":\"Paul S. Randal\",\"description\":\"In Recovery...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/ffcec826c18782e1e0adf173826a7fce\",\"name\":\"Paul Randal\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b6a266bba2f088f2551ef529293001bd73bf026bc1908b9866728c062beeeb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b6a266bba2f088f2551ef529293001bd73bf026bc1908b9866728c062beeeb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paul Randal\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/3.209.169.194\/blogs\/paul\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/author\/paul\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is SQL Server 'just plumbing'? - Paul S. Randal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is SQL Server 'just plumbing'? - Paul S. Randal","og_description":"One of the opinions that was expressed yesterday by our developer friends (a bunch of Regional Directors &#8211; and look, Kimberly&#39;s the featured RD today on http:\/\/theregion.com\/) is that SQL Server is just plumbing. Consider the developers (or app architects) as plumbers. They see SQL Server as a few pieces of copper pipe joining a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/","og_site_name":"Paul S. Randal","article_published_time":"2009-03-05T12:02:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-22T23:41:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Paul Randal","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul Randal","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/","name":"Is SQL Server 'just plumbing'? - Paul S. Randal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg","datePublished":"2009-03-05T12:02:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-22T23:41:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/ffcec826c18782e1e0adf173826a7fce"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/img.alibaba.com\/photo\/218996360\/NLD_Y_Type_Internal_spiral_multi_effect_distilled_water_machine.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/is-sql-server-just-plumbing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is SQL Server &#8216;just plumbing&#8217;?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/","name":"Paul S. Randal","description":"In Recovery...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/ffcec826c18782e1e0adf173826a7fce","name":"Paul Randal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b6a266bba2f088f2551ef529293001bd73bf026bc1908b9866728c062beeeb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b6a266bba2f088f2551ef529293001bd73bf026bc1908b9866728c062beeeb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Paul Randal"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/3.209.169.194\/blogs\/paul"],"url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/author\/paul\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}