“The atmosphere here is very personal – it almost feels like family”

From major bank to family business

I joined OptimaData as a DBA Consultant at the beginning of 2017. Before that, I worked at a major bank—an environment where bureaucracy ruled and every change took weeks, accompanied by endless paperwork. At OptimaData, things couldn’t be more different. Everyone works together in the same office, including Edco and Gerard. Need something? You just ask, and it gets taken care of. Colleagues are always willing to help one another, and the atmosphere is very personal—it almost feels like family. Management organizes outings, and we have Christmas parties where partners are invited too. In short, it’s a smaller and much more enjoyable work environment.

English in a Dutch Environment

I was the first native English speaker at OptimaData, but that has never been a disadvantage. In the IT sector, so much happens in English: training sessions, documentation, technical specifications. On top of that, OptimaData has international clients and a diverse team. If you’re in a meeting with a Spanish and a Polish colleague, you naturally switch to English.

And the cultural differences? They’re minimal. Sometimes we laugh about Dutch expressions or lunch habits—think milk and bananas!—but overall it’s all quite similar to the United Kingdom.

From Oracle to open-source

Before joining OptimaData, I worked exclusively with Oracle—a closed database system with its own infrastructure and its own way of doing things. Large companies, such as international banks, use Oracle, but they also have the big budgets needed to cover all the extras Oracle charges heavily for. With a large IT team, you can dedicate people to specific tasks like servers and backups.

At OptimaData, I mainly work with MySQL and PostgreSQL. On a basic level, these systems resemble Oracle, but the differences become clear when it comes to advanced features such as high availability. To ensure 24/7 access to a MySQL database, you set up multiple databases that communicate with each other. We use Galera Cluster, which allows one database to fail while another automatically takes over.

With open-source databases, you have to look beyond the database itself. You need knowledge of different technologies and how they interact. With each client, we learn new tricks that we can apply to future projects.

From databases to adventure

In my free time, I enjoy sailing. That started a few years ago after I moved to the Netherlands. I sail with friends on a small 35-foot yacht, but I also do tall ship sailing. Last year, I sailed from Iceland to Scotland—an incredible experience. This year, I’ll be making a trip from Cornwall to Spain, crossing the Bay of Biscay. Once in Spain, we’ll continue on foot along the Camino de Santiago.

Historical Sword Fighting: Back to the Source

Another passion of mine is historical sword fighting. Most people only know modern Olympic fencing, but that’s a highly evolved form. The historical sword fighting we practice is based on the original techniques and weapons from earlier centuries. We study manuscripts from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries to reconstruct the sword fighting of that time. We examine the weapons used and the social conventions of the era. The manuals are in different languages—English, Dutch, German, Spanish—which we translate and interpret.

Surprisingly, this whole process is quite similar to my work with databases. There too, you go back to the manuals, try to understand them, and put them into practice. Often you discover that not everything works as described. Through trial and error, and collaboration with colleagues in the fencing or database community, you find the best solutions for the challenges that come your way.

The future

In ten years, I hope to be retired, but until then I’m happy to stay at OptimaData. I feel completely at home here and have no desire to look for anything else. The constant changes in technology keep the work exciting and challenging enough. Think of the shift toward cloud-native databases, the rise of Kubernetes for containerizing database environments, and the increasing automation of database management. Add to that the growing role of open-source solutions and artificial intelligence in database administration—developments that continuously demand new knowledge and skills. So, I certainly won’t be bored anytime soon…

Want to Know More?

Curious about the opportunities and challenges at OptimaData? Or would you like to know how we can optimize your database environment? Feel free to get in touch—we’ll be happy to help!