SQL Server Upgrades – Why do we wait to upgrade?
It’s T-SQL Tuesday time again and this month it’s being hosted by Steve Jones, of SQLServerCentral. Â I forget when these Tuesdays come around. I forget despite Kevin Chant’s best efforts to keep me on track. Having read Kevin’s post on Tuesday and also Steve’s write up on the event I decided to write some thoughts down. I’m a day late I know but I ran out of time yesterday.I’m going to address one of Steve’s questions in his post “Why do we wait to upgrade?”
Why do we wait to upgrade?
There is a short answer here but let me tell you a story instead.
Graham is leading up IT in a large public sector organisation and has been doing so since ~ 2000. He has been through the e-government strategy, austerity, and now the pandemic. All the while his department has been keeping his business running and as the dependency on IT in the business has grown so has Graham’s position in the organisation. When he first took on the job as Head of IT he reported to the finance director. His job was to stick to a budget and not spend more than he was given.
Over the course of that time, Graham’s role has changed. He is now much more than just a cost centre. IT and technology and data are driving the organisation forward, Graham is now on the board of the organisation and reports to the CEO. He is now the CTO. He has a great team, of IT Support, Developers, Data analysts all driving value from technology and data and he knows the data platform is getting old.
It’s on SQL Server 2012. Why is an organisation that is driving forward with the data revolution on an old data platform?
There is nothing wrong with what we have got
The short answer to that question is there is nothing wrong with what we have. SQL Server 2012 does exactly what the organisation needs it to do. All his applications are really essential to the running of the business. The database server does it what it needs to and keeps working – it’s been that way for ten years we don’t need to change, at least not yet.
The problem is, Graham doesn’t have a problem
At least not yet. He know’s it going out of support in July. He’ll worry about that in July.
Yes, his DBA team led by wonderful Berry Wand are pushing him saying that they need to upgrade, SQL Server 2019 is three years old. SQL Server 2022 is due out this year, but as yet no release date has been confirmed and while Graham agrees some of the new features would be nice to have, not necessary essential at this exact moment, so not driving that change.
When SQL Server 2012 goes out of support yes he will be worried about security patches and not getting any, but he’ll upgrade then. Or worst case he’s stump up for extended support if he needs it
Until then though inertia will keep everything as is…because it works.
Why does he think this?
Graham thinks this because:
- upgrading introduces change, which can introduce risk, which can introduce disruption to his business. He wants to avoid this and doesn’t want any awkward board meetings
- He’s done this before and t didn’t end well. he remembers ten years ago when he moved from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2012. It went OK but there were teething problems and it caused some disruption
- As you can see Graham’s in house team might not upgrade and migrate very often so he doesn’t necessarily have lots of experience in doing this on his team
It’s a loss not a win for Graham
What’s a loss not a win? Well in Graham’s shoes he can agree to the move and its causes problems and he gets in the neck from his peers on the board or it goes swimmingly well and Nobody notices or cares. Everyone will notice if it doesn’t
Why do we really wait to upgrade?
People wait to upgrade because the old version does a particularly good job.
Yes, there are new features in the new product version. Using those features might mean architecture and application changes, so they won’t be available instantly. The driver for change really come from versions going out of support. SQL Server 2012 will go end of life in July 2022. Do you still have SQL Server 2012? Even then organisations can seem reluctant, but the support deadline is often a cliff edge and the main driver for change. July 2022 is not far away if you’re looking to migrate your old SQL Server 2012 instances and you have a team of great DBAs but haven’t been through the migration process in ten years like Graham, you might consider getting some external resources to help your team out with your migration. Someone who has done this many times before – can help make the transition smooth and reduce the risk of things going wrong and also mean Graham doesn’t have to explain why he has out of support software driving his critical business applications in the September board meeting
T-SQL Tuesday #147 Invitation – Upgrade Strategies
Useful Links
Four SQL Server problems you might be suffering from – PetchaKutcha Style
How to Write SQL Queries – Simple Single Table SELECT Queries
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