A recurring theme in this month’s articles featuring Data Palette is art and architecture. David Graham, Director of Software Engineering, is a true architect, who sees his work, leading the development of Data Palette, as an art.

“A programmer takes specifications and types in code. An engineer designs a system, its architecture and components, and talks to users on usability. An engineer is responsible for the whole vision. We hire engineers at StrataVia, not programmers,” says David.

It was a chance meeting with Venkat Devraj, through a mutual acquaintance, and an introduction to Rainier Luistro that marked David’s move to a career where he could work with computer systems as a business element. “They were so excited about the company and product that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be part of it,” he says. “Now I am responsible for something that many people use, and I want to affect as many people as I can through my work.”

David is pleased to be involved in something important to make the life of a DBA easier. “We are automating time-consuming, mundane administration tasks so DBAs are freed up for interesting design and performance work.” He says he and the rest of the team are not “people who like to write ‘clever’ code that doesn’t have an affect on anyone. We're here to make people's lives easier.” David’s driving principle is ‘usability’, and he takes feedback from DBAs down to the smallest level so that even the design of the screen layout is right. “The team here is very open and relaxed and we have a great time creating the product. It’s fun to work with really smart people who make each other better,” he says.

Data Palette doesn’t only help DBAs; managers at all levels in the business benefit as well. “With the report dashboards they can see the environment, whether it is overburdened, and then make business decisions,” says David. “Without correct information executives can’t make strategic decisions on, say, building up data centers. When the technician advises a new server is needed, Data Palette backs that up with information.”

David gained his expertise at IBM and through spending many evenings and weekends volunteering on open source projects. “I gained lots of experience working with the Apache Software Foundation, one of the largest open source groups, and for a time I was a major contributor to Struts, the most popular Java Web application framework.” He didn’t have as much time to do these things when he started at StrataVia. He remembers “sleeping on the floor of the office, waiting to hear the email signal the arrival of new specs when Venkat and team were in another State, building the features for the pilot at [a Fortune 100 company]”. Although David put most other things aside for nearly three years to work on Data Palette, he is proud of the way it has worked out. And he did find time to get married last year.

With the launch of Data Palette and a bit of a breathing space, David can spend more time on one of his other interests – researching new technologies and programming languages like ‘Ruby’ that was created in Japan 10 years ago. “Learning new technologies and languages changes the way you think about problems,” he says.

David drives through life. Once he and a colleague worked on a problem till 4 in the morning and then started the 70-mile drive home. “There was a snowstorm, I got home about 6, slept till 11 and then started working again.” That kind of drive in a person has driven Data Palette, which, in turn, drives David again when Venkat forwards him a ‘this really helped’ email from a customer. “Those notes make it all worthwhile.”

Alison J. Macmillan
DataBuzz Editor

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