About

The Short Version

I, Ember Crooks, am the principal author of this blog. Lately in my career, I’ve been exploring new database directions. I spent a year working for Shopify and learning MySQL, and I am now focusing on Snowflake. I am a Snowflake employee, but the opinions here are purely mine, and do not come from or reflect on my employer in any way. I use none of the considerable resources I have at work for anything on this blog. I use either free trial accounts, or accounts I pay for out of my own pocket. I do not reveal anything here that is not publicly available.

This blog used to be called db2commerce.com, but has been moved to datageek.blog. I have 20+ years of experience working with Db2 on Linux, UNIX and Windows platforms in a consulting role. IBM has named me an IBM champion from 2013 to 2023 and IBM Gold Consultant from 2014 to 2021. I’ve been blogging since 2010, with five or more years of that consisting of weekly blog entries. I hope to engage more guest bloggers to express more viewpoints than just mine.

I live in Denver and have been happily married for more than 20 years and have two (grown)boys. In my spare time, I enjoy sewing and reading.

The Long Version

I started a blog about Db2 and WebSphere Commerce called db2commerce.com back in 2010. I was inspired to start that blog by two major factors. First, I could find almost nothing specific to the database aspects of WebSphere Commerce outside of the official IBM documentation in the Info Center. I figured if I was searching for it, others were too. Second, someone I was mentoring to learn Db2 started a blog, and I thought if they could do it, I could too.

The blog quickly morphed to cover all kinds of Db2 topics. Writing the blog did incredible things for my career. First of all, it forced me to research a large number of topics in great detail to be able to write about them. This increased the depth of my knowledge about Db2. It also vastly improved my writing skills, which weren’t terrible to begin with. I learned how to organize my thoughts and present a topic logically, in a web-friendly way. I learned how best to link to other information. Some of the earlier posts I find a bit embarrassing, but they are still there for all to see. The blog led to promotions at work and the opportunity to speak at conferences, both nationally and internationally. It was a major contributor to obtaining IBM Champion and IBM Gold Consultant statuses. But more important than any of the rest of it, the blog provided another source of information to help DBAs figuring out how to do their jobs. I heard from readers thanking me for the information. In a world where many of the aspects of my day-to-day job consist of helping businesses make more money, this has been my way of giving back and as corny as it sounds making the world a better place. I have not made direct money off of that blog – the little bit of ad revenue or donations for it has not even covered the hosting costs. Not monetizing has been a conscious choice that I feel allows me to create better content.

After 20 years of developing a deep Db2 expertise, I started looking at ways to broaden my skills. I wanted to look into other aspects of the Data Engineering role in a world where Data Science is becoming huge. I started to learn other RDBMS platforms and learn about NOSQL platforms as well, along with data cleaning techniques and more. I learned more about Data Science and Data Analytics. As my learning technique now includes writing, I have expanded the blog to cover both the Db2-specific work and the new skills. I hope I never stop learning. I feel that even when learning, the process of working through basic topics can be a useful kind of blog entry.

On a personal level, I am a mom to two wonderful boys, and have been happily married for more than 20 years. My husband is also in a technical field, and is a great supporter. I live in Colorado. My hobbies include reading, sewing, bicycling, and skiing.

My LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ember-crooks/8/a9b/25a