Breaking News - Embarcadero Unveils DB Optimizer for High-Performance SQL Profiling and Tuning
Embarcadero Technologies announced that it is releasing DB Optimizer, a new tool that allows developers and database administrators to maximize database performance by detecting and reconciling SQL coding issues. DB Optimizer is intended to enable quick discovery, diagnosis and optimization of poor-performing SQL, thus eliminating performance bottlenecks and improving the operation of production databases and applications.
“Optimization is a critical part of the development lifecycle. By adding DB Optimizer to our core product portfolio, we can fully address the customers’ need to maximize overall performance whether they design, build or run databases, independent of the platform or tools they are currently using,” said Greg Nerpouni, product manager for Embarcadero, in making the announcement. “DB Optimizer enables developers and DBAs to drill down into SQL-related issues at a detailed level, while allowing users to focus their attention on the areas that boost productivity.”
DB Optimizer includes graphical visualization of wait-time analysis to easily pinpoint the SQL causing poor database performance; hyperlinked drill-downs to locate detailed activity information for an individual SQL statement; and explain plans for a better understanding of SQL execution and the performance costs.
Specifically for Oracle Database, there are real-time Quick Fixes to automatically flag and correct inefficient SQL, as well as batch tuning of DML statements, stored routines, entire SQL files and the System Global Area. DB Optimizer supports DB2, Oracle, SQL Server and Sybase databases.
“DB Optimizer is the first of several tools that will enable customers to address complete end-to-end application performance all the way from clients, into servers and through to the database,” said Michael Swindell, vice president of products for Embarcadero. “By bringing together DatabaseGear and CodeGear tools and technology, Embarcadero is delivering a complete portfolio of platform-independent optimization tools for both application developers and database professionals.”
Late last month, Embarcadero, which is a privately-held company of Thoma Cressey Bravo, completed the acquisition of CodeGear from Borland Software Corp. Embarcadero said it will support CodeGear's customers and partners and will evolve and deepen the functionality of CodeGear's existing product lines. Embarcadero's professional database tools will be marketed under the DatabaseGear brand, and its application developer tools will be encompassed under the CodeGear brand.
For more information, on DB Optimizer, go here.
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Breaking News - Sentrigo Introduces Hedgehog vPatch to Offer Immediate Protection Against Database Vulnerabilities
Sentrigo, a software vendor specializing in database security, announced Hedgehog vPatch, virtual patching software to protect databases against known vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered. Hedgehog vPatch allows customers to address the problem of safeguarding corporate databases against recently discovered security issues, with no database downtime and without affecting related applications. Previously available only as part of Hedgehog Enterprise, the Hedgehog vPatch is now available as a standalone offering.
“What you have is a significant risk window around vulnerabilities,” Rani Osnat, vice president of marketing, Sentrigo, told 5 Minute Briefing, because the time from discovery to the issuing of a patch is usually several months long. “And there are some vulnerabilities that have been reported and took years to patch.” In addition to that, even after a patch is issued, it can take a long time to install it “if it happens at all,” Osnat said, because installation requires application testing and database downtime, and can even result in loss of support from software vendors that certify their applications only for particular database configurations, he said.
And, there have been instances where a patch didn't plug the actual vulnerability on a specific platform, said Slavik Markovich, Sentrigo’s chief technology officer, noting for example that a patch might fix the vulnerability on Linux but the same patch deployed might not fix the vulnerability on Solaris. Additionally, many widely used database versions are no longer supported by vendors and thus are never patched.
Sentrigo developed Hedgehog vPatch based on database monitoring rules created by the company’s Red Team of security researchers, which also draws on its network of other researchers, including company advisors and Oracle database experts Pete Finnigan and Alexander Kornbrust. Once Sentrigo identifies vulnerabilities, the company typically patches them within days and automatically delivers updates to Hedgehog vPatch.
Hedgehog vPatch is based on the same technology and architecture as Hedgehog Enterprise. Rather than relying on a network appliance approach, Hedgehog is a software solution that uses agent technology to reside directly on the database. As a result, it can operate at the database object level as well as by evaluating SQL statements associated with known vulnerabilities. “The big benefit is that it doesn't require any database downtime or application testing,” Osnat noted.
Hedgehog vPatch can be used to prevent intrusions by terminating or quarantining user sessions, as well as to generate alerts. The product currently supports Oracle and Microsoft databases. Hedgehog vPatch is available for immediate download and free evaluation here.
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Oracle Extends Real Application Testing to Additional Database Releases
Oracle announced that Oracle Real Application Testing now supports all releases of Oracle Database 10g, and Oracle9i Database R2. The software is intended to help customers more readily institute software and hardware changes to their Oracle Database system, including upgrades to Oracle Database 11g. "It is really all about helping customers reduce the the length of time it takes to test changes in the data center and, probably more importantly, it's helping customers de-risk the move from test into production," Willie Hardie, vice president of database product marketing, Oracle, told 5 Minute Briefing.
Oracle Real Application Testing was introduced for the first time with Oracle Database 11g last August, enabling customers to capture production workloads from Oracle Database 10g R2 and replay against an 11g environment, Hardie said. The feature has now been back-ported to prior releases of the database as a result of customer demand.
“A common challenge for every IT organization out there is how best do they manage change in their data center,” said Hardie. “Every time an IT department makes some kind of a change the real challenge is how do they rigorously test that change before they switch from test into production.” Some organizations may have thousands of users on their production systems, he observed. “You can't realistically take these users off for four hours to rigously test the things that you have just implemented. It is just too costly.”
Oracle Real Application Testing, an option to Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, facilitates the testing and validation of system changes by recording a workload from a production system and replaying with all of its original characteristics such as timing, concurrency, and transaction dependencies, on another system for testing purposes. It also analyzes the impact of a change on application performance by identifying degraded SQL statements and advising how to remediate them. This approach enables rigorous testing of changes and helps organizations improve quality of service while reducing the time, risk and cost of testing such changes.
For an overview of Oracle Real Application Testing, go here. For a white paper on Oracle Real Application Testing, go here.
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Sybase Sets Transaction Processing Record for Linux on IBM Power 550
Sybase, a leading provider of enterprise infrastructure and mobile software, has announced that Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) on IBM Power Systems has set a new transaction processing performance record for 4-core systems for Linux by delivering 276,383 transactions per minute (tpmC) on the leading TPC-C benchmark.
This record for Sybase ASE 15 and the 4-core IBM POWER6 processor-based Power 550 marks the second record-setting configuration on Linux by Sybase and IBM, and also beats the previous Oracle 10g and 4-core IBM system performance record for Linux, Sybase said.
“The TPC-C record further validates the reliability, high performance and cost-effectiveness that customers have come to expect from Sybase and IBM,” said Brian Vink, vice president, product marketing, Sybase, at the time of the announcement. “ASE 15, which is designed to meet the increasing demands of large databases and extreme transaction volumes, combined with the POWER6 architecture demonstrates its effectiveness as a cost-efficient, premier transaction processing platform.”
The benchmarked configuration is expected to be available December 16, 2008. For more information on ASE on IBM, go here.
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Infobright and JasperSoft Form Technology Partnership
Infobright, an analytic data warehouse provider, has formed a technology partnership with JasperSoft Corp., a leader in open source business intelligence (BI) to enable companies to implement a full BI solution more quickly and cost-effectively.
JasperSoft's Business Intelligence suite - comprised of JasperServer, JasperAnalysis, JasperReports and JasperETL - integrates with the Infobright solution, providing business users with advanced insight into IT performance via graphical reporting.
Infobright focuses on what it believes has been an underserved part of the market, Susan Davis, vice president of marketing and product management at Infobright, told 5 Minute Briefing. “Our whole goal is really about bringing analytic data warehousing to mid-market companies that don't have the kind of resources and budget of a large enterprise.” Over the past three to five years, said Davis, a driving need has developed for analytics and business intelligence that is pervasive in all sorts of new companies. “Our focus has been on providing a data warehouse that is easy to install, very simple to manage, and low cost.”
But, she said, the mid-market companies Infobright targets are not just looking for a data warehouse, they are looking for BI tools, as well. “They are really looking for a complete solution.” Many of the companies, she noted, are turning to open source as a way to achieve their goals.
The new partnership optimizes JasperSoft integration with the Infobright solution, providing customers with an open source BI alternative for reporting and analysis. “We saw synergies between the companies and the products,” said Davis. “We certainly had interest from some joint customers and prospects.” More information about JasperSoft is available here. For more on Infobright, go here.
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Birdstep Technology Announces the Release of RDM Embedded Version 8.1
Birdstep Technology has announced the release of version 8.1 of its Raima Database Manager Embedded also known as RDM Embedded. RDM Embedded is a cross-platform, small footprint database designed for resource-constrained environments with demanding performance requirements.
“One of the major advantages of the new release is our ability to do in-memory replication,” Duncan Bates, vice president of product management, Birdstep, told 5 Minute Briefing. Enhancing high availability and performance, the new functionality provides the ability for RAM or persistent data to be replicated to any storage media locally or over a network.
The new release also adds native 64-bit data type support. “Over the last six months, we have added 64-bit support both from a file system addressing standpoint and from an operating systems standpoint, and now with this release - from a data type standpoint,” added Bates. Compliant with the C99 standard data types, application designers can manage their 64-bit integers natively through the RDM Embedded database definition language, and APIs.
With version 8.1, additional utility functions have been added to the administrative API, allowing developers to programmatically perform administrative tasks that were traditionally done by standalone tools, resulting in the ability to develop self-administrating applications based on “a truly zero administration database engine,” according to the vendor.
Offering static library support, the new release also provides the ability to build both dynamic and static libraries, expanding the opportunity to develop applications for deployment on RTOS platforms that do not currently support shared objects. The release also offers full Unicode support on Unix platforms. For more information about the release, go here. Free SDK downloads of the RDM Products are available here.
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