Database Management Articles
Managing business-critical databases is no easy task even for experienced DBAs, so for IT pros who might be new to the role—and likely already wear multiple other hats within their organization—it can be a challenging endeavor to say the least. Here are the 5 key areas that IT pros who have found themselves in the position of accidental DBAs should focus on.
Posted August 19, 2014
Just months after the massive data breaches of the 2013 holiday season, a newly discovered data breach is again shining a spotlight on the need for better enterprise data security and the fact that not enough is being done to secure critical customer data. The most recent headlines involve a Russian crime ring and 1.2 billion user names and passwords as well as at least 500 million email addresses. Against this backdrop, Oracle announced Oracle Key Vault, a software appliance designed to securely manage encryption keys and credential files in the enterprise data center.
Posted August 19, 2014
At the summer 2014 SHARE conference in Pittsburgh, Brian Peterson, who has been president of SHARE for the past two years, spoke about the challenges facing companies today as they deal with emerging IT requirements and the successful approaches for dealing with the mainframe skills shortage. With SHARE's 60th anniversary coming up, Peterson also reflected on the role SHARE has played in the world economy by supporting technology that is critical to industries such as banking, transportation, and manufacturing.
Posted August 18, 2014
Oracle's Exadata Database Machine X4-8 has been enhanced to provide large performance and memory increases compared to the previous generation. Hardware enhancements include 50% more database compute cores, using the Intel Xeon E7 v2 15-core processors, and up to 6TB of memory per compute node for a total of 12TB per rack. The result, says Oracle, is that the Exadata Database Machine X4-8 can consolidate hundreds of databases and can run massive databases entirely in-memory.
Posted August 13, 2014
The Oracle Exastack program is being extended to include the Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Database Appliance, enabling Oracle partners to demonstrate that they have the right infrastructure to manage challenging data environments.
Posted August 13, 2014
VoltDB, provider of an in-memory NewSQL database, is now participating in the IBM Cloud Marketplace, which combines IBM's capabilities-as-a-service and those of partners and third-party vendors. The vendors say that, according to a recent benchmark, VoltDB running in the SoftLayer cloud delivers faster application performance than Amazon Web Services.
Posted August 12, 2014
A new integration service from Jitterbit is aimed at SAP customers who find difficulty with integration of their existing solutions to be the biggest obstacle to incorporating new cloud technologies. The new Jitterbit Harmony SAP Connector helps organizations streamline crucial business processes with SAP integration between SAP ECC, CRM, vertical applications, and more than a thousand enterprise endpoints, ranging from legacy on-premise software to new cloud-based solutions.
Posted August 12, 2014
A healthy data warehouse environment can self-correct to accomplish the right things. And that self-correction is crucial, for no process is likely to be perfect from the start.
Posted August 05, 2014
If you've ever worked with a packaged product, such as a CRM system, that includes reporting and querying features, then you know how inflexible they are. It can be infuriatingly difficult to get data out of these systems, systems for which you paid big money, without losing sleep, hair, and peace of mind. Enter PowerBI.
Posted August 05, 2014
Programs that read database data can access numerous rows and are therefore susceptible to concurrency problems. To get around this issue, most major RDBMS products support read-through locks, also known as "dirty read" or "uncommitted read," to help overcome concurrency problems. When might you want to consider using dirty reads in your applications?
Posted August 05, 2014
Quest International Users Group (Quest) supports JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Fusion, and many other Oracle edge application customers, and is comprised of 55,000 members in 95 countries. Throughout Oracle OpenWorld 2014, you'll find members of the Quest team speaking at various breakout sessions, hosting SIG meetings and networking with members, Oracle personnel, and other customers. We will be answering questions and sharing information on how our members use and work with their Oracle products.
Posted August 04, 2014
Members of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), which represents the independent voice of Oracle technology and database professionals, will be out in force at OpenWorld 2014—presenting more than 40 sessions on the topics you want to learn about most.
Posted August 04, 2014
Why do tens of thousands of Oracle customers, partners, and consultants descend on Moscone Center in San Francisco for the annual Oracle OpenWorld conference? Despite the proliferation of conferences and online events competing for attention, OpenWorld remains the single, central place for all things Oracle. Here, DBTA presents the annual Who to See @ Oracle OpenWorld special section.
Posted August 04, 2014
The converging forces of open source, with its rapid crowd-sourced innovation, cloud, with its unlimited capacity and on-demand deployment options, and NoSQL database technologies, with their ability to handle unstructured data, are helping companies address the new challenges and opportunities presented by big data. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Big Data Solution.
Posted August 04, 2014
Query and reporting solutions are part of a comprehensive business intelligence approach, and increasingly modern query and reporting solutions provide capabilities for self-service reports so users can get answers independently, include visualizations that support better understanding of data, and enable users to easily share insights with others. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Query and Reporting Solution.
Posted August 04, 2014
Data governance is growing in importance along with the recognition of the game-changing potential posed by big data. As more data is amassed within organizations, effective data governance enables them to have confidence in the quality of that data for a variety of tasks as well adhere to security and privacy standards. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Data Governance Solution.
Posted August 04, 2014
Effective data modeling solutions help organizations construct high quality data models, modify existing structures as well as produce detailed documentation. And today, data modeling solutions also help companies visualize and manage business data across more platforms than ever before and extend that data to users with varying job roles and skill levels across geographies and time zones. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Data Modeling Solution.
Posted August 04, 2014
Database development solutions provide the necessary support to help database development teams achieve success by avoiding the risks posed by a range of potential problems—from software bugs, to geographically dispersed development teams, to varied code standards and skill sets. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Database Development Solution.
Posted August 04, 2014
To succeed today, organizations need to become analytics-focused enterprises. Like the emerging category of in in-memory database technologies, columnar databases are deployed in market segments where speed of data analysis is paramount, such as financial services, retail, healthcare, and telecommunications. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Columnar Database.
Posted August 04, 2014
A new class of databases called NewSQL has emerged, leveraging the best of NoSQL and SQL. With the ability to ingest large amounts of data quickly and scale to meet growing demand, NewSQL data systems support rapid analytics and decision making, helping organizations leverage their data for business advantage. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best NewSQL Database.
Posted August 04, 2014
NoSQL, NewSQL, in-memory databases, and cloud database—or database as a service approaches—are increasingly coming to the fore to address a dizzying array of new requirements posed by the massive influx of unstructured,the Internet of Things, and the new demands posed by e-commerce and mobile applications. Here are the winners of the 2014 DBTA Readers' Choice Awards for Best Database (Overall).
Posted August 04, 2014
The consumerization of IT, coupled with online services like social media, creates a need for flexibility and performance improvements within current data centers without the associated costs. And, as the cost of flash declines, data center managers are seeing flash as an attractive alternative to traditional hard-disk methods. By some estimates, flash memory prices have fallen at an average of 35% per year over the last few years.
Posted August 04, 2014
Data protection and recovery software provider Arcserve has begun operations as a standalone company following the completion of the sale of the business from CA to investment firm Marlin Equity Partners.
Posted August 04, 2014
Continuity Software, a provider of service availability risk management solutions, has created a new program for channel partners, enabling them to offer the AvailabilityGuard software suite that provides high availability (HA) and disaster recoverability (DR), across physical, virtual and cloud environments.
Posted July 29, 2014
Many database administrators now feel that the best way to preserve database reliability may be to take over the job of backing up their own databases. Just as end users are happier when they can do their own password resets or restore an accidentally deleted file, DBAs want greater control over their backups, restores and recoveries, and also the peace of mind of knowing that it is done to their standards. The key to making this work is integrating database applications with purpose built backup appliances (PBBAs).
Posted July 23, 2014
How do you catch the next big wave - not the wave everyone's already riding, but the one on the horizon? When it comes to big data, the next big wave is in-memory technologies, which accelerate data processing for faster, more accurate decisions.
Posted July 23, 2014
Through a strategic partnership with BOS, Advanced will be providing its customers with tcVISION and tcACCESS from BOS, both of which are used by organizations to leverage the value of mainframe platforms and data. tcVISION is a mainframe data replication and synchronization system and tcACCESS enables the real-time bi-directional exchange of information between IBM mainframes and Linux, Microsoft Windows and UNIX based systems.
Posted July 21, 2014
InfiniDB has released version 4.6 of its fourth generation columnar data platform, which includes enhanced support for large-scale join operations and support for additional data load commands to speed the extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) process. The company also introduced a new 60-day enterprise trial that includes InfiniDB Enterprise Manager, a management console to simplify the administration of InfiniDB, and provide real-time visibility into the performance and availability of users' InfiniDB servers.
Posted July 15, 2014
Oracle today introduced Oracle Big Data SQL, which allows customers to run one SQL query across Hadoop, NoSQL, and Oracle Database, minimizing data movement while overcoming data silos. According to Oracle the new solution helps customers gain a competitive advantage by making it easier to uncover insights faster, and allows them to leverage existing SQL skills while protecting data security and enforcing governance. Oracle Big Data SQL runs on Oracle Big Data Appliance and can work in conjunction with Oracle Exadata Database Machine.
Posted July 15, 2014
To meet emerging challenges in the enterprise fueled by the expansion of cloud, mobile and IoT, Oracle has introduced SOA Suite 12c with simplified integration capabilities. "We are seeing a lot of demand for any-to-any integration," said Amit Zavery, group vice president, Fusion Middleware, Oracle. "We have more than 5,000 customers using SOA Suite today," he said, adding that this release moves the needle even further and allows Oracle to differentiate against the competition more starkly. "The cloud and mobile capabilities will be very useful for customers looking for one, out-of-the-box solution for any kind of integration."
Posted July 09, 2014
Enterprise data growth is coming from unstructured, social media, and machine-generated data. The resulting storage issues are impacting the performance of associated applications and systems. How and where is this data going to be stored—and how can it be made available, on demand, to users and applications that need information right away?
Posted July 08, 2014
IBM DB2 V10.1 introduced Row and Column Access Control (RCAC) as a new feature for securing data within a DB2 table. In Row and Column Access Control, permissions are defined on a table to restrict rows that are exposed. Rows being exposed means that they are available to be returned in the result set, or can be inserted, or can be updated or deleted, with the limitation of the authorities the user has on the table.
Posted July 03, 2014
The business relevancy of data is the number-one most misunderstood data problem that organizations face, as well as one of the most expensive. Understanding what it means to embrace the concept of business-relevant data is the first step toward a business-ready transformation. But how do organizations get there?
Posted July 03, 2014
As the manager for enterprise architecture in a very large IT organization, the C-suite executives frequently posed the question, "What database platform is best for this application today and for the future?" There are now some very powerful tools available to you to assess and track the viability of the various database platforms you might be considering.
Posted July 03, 2014
Lists help us to remember, impose order upon tasks, and provide guidance. Some lists have taken on great importance in the world and in our lives. The Bill of Rights is such a list. So is the Ten Commandments. But although we use lists to administer, program, and maintain our databases, there really is no overarching list of "things you should (or should not) do" to ensure an effective, accurate, well-designed database. So here is the list of Ten Database Commandments.
Posted July 03, 2014
The big challenge of managing data today is not simply the high volume or the fact that much of it is unstructured. It is the variety of data and the need to integrate it all in order to leverage its value, said MongoDB CEO Max Schireson during a keynote at the NoSQL database vendor's NYC conference, MongoDB World. "It is no longer good enough to just look at your data in silos," said Schireson.
Posted July 01, 2014
With the introduction of Oracle Database In-Memory, Oracle PartnerNetwork's Oracle Database Ready certification now also includes Oracle Database In-Memory.
Posted June 25, 2014
Delphix's flagship product, the Delphix Agile Data Platform, has introduced database virtualization for SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP ASE). Currently in beta testing with SAP and Delphix customers, Delphix's new support of SAP ASE is scheduled to become generally available later this summer.
Posted June 25, 2014
Violin Memory, Inc., a provider of all-flash storage arrays and appliances, has announced the availability of the Violin 6200 Series All Flash Array for the SAP HANA platform. Certification for the solution with SAP HANA was achieved by working in conjunction with the SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Palo Alto, Calif. The new SAP-certified solution complements existing solutions from Violin for SAP IQ software and SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP ASE).
Posted June 25, 2014
Data security specialist Dataguise has introduced Dataguise for Data Governance suite, a solution suite for big data governance that will initially support Oracle, IBM DB2, SQL Server, Teradata, Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR and Pivotal HD.
Posted June 20, 2014
The database market is heating up again. Recent venture funding and acquisition announcements from key Hadoop and NoSQL startups are drawing attention to the big data space.
Posted June 17, 2014
Enkitec, an Oracle Platinum partner, and leader in Oracle Exadata implementations and Oracle database administration and development, has been acquired by Oracle. "With Oracle Engineered Systems, our clients see an opportunity to significantly improve the performance of their business applications running on Oracle database technology while dramatically reducing operating costs, increasing productivity and simplifying and standardizing their IT landscape," says Derek Steelberg global managing director of Oracle business for Accenture.
Posted June 11, 2014
At an event at Oracle's headquarters, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison showcased the new Oracle Database In-Memory, an additional option to the Oracle Database 12c. Oracle Database In-Memory is scheduled for release in July, said Ellison. The Oracle Database In-Memory is the underpinning of finally making the real-time enterprise a reality, explained Tim Shetler, Oracle vice president of product management, in an interview before the launch event in which he highlighted the key elements of the release. "We have built this in-memory option to be completely transparent to the huge ecosystem of Oracle Database customers and applications that are already written for the Oracle Database."
Posted June 11, 2014