Database Management Articles
Oracle has announced three new integrations in support of its open and integrated technology stack. Enhancing its backup and recovery capabilities for Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle's Sun ZFS Storage Appliance now directly connects to the Oracle Exadata InfiniBand fabric to simplify deployments and accelerate backup and recovery time by more than 50% compared to traditional NAS systems. Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure now provides integration with the Sun ZFS Storage Appliance with rapid iSCSI provisioning that automates desktop provisioning and accelerates virtual desktop deployments. Additionally, Oracle Secure Backup is qualified for Sun ZFS Storage Appliance backup and recovery with Oracle's scalable StorageTek tape libraries.
Posted April 06, 2011
DBAs and IT operational teams, pressured by the unabated flow of data streaming in from an ever wider range of sources, require proactive self-managing and automated systems to supplement or replace manual techniques and processes which are no longer scalable given the rate of data growth, according to the results of a new Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) study on database manageability.
Posted April 05, 2011
Red Gate has added support for eight source control systems - Vault Standard, Vault Professional, Kiln (Hg), Mercurial (Hg), Git, Perforce, CVS and Bazaar - to SQL Source Control, the company's unique tool for controlling all database elements from within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). As a result, developers are now able to bring their database development in line with their application development processes no matter what source control system they use. Previous versions provided support for Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Subversion (SVN).
Posted April 05, 2011
Big data is one of those terms that is quickly gaining momentum among technologists. If you watch closely, you'll notice that everyone seems to have an opinion on what "big data" means and wants to own the term. As industry experts discuss what to name this problem, in 2011, companies will be tasked with bringing big data from back office offline analytics to customer-facing 24x7 production systems. Customers are paying attention and they need solutions that support not only massive data sets but also mixed information types, extended feature sets, real-time processing, and technical teams that have not hand-coded these systems from the ground up. Here are five big data solution trends we see developing as our customers work hard to solve "big data" or "big information" problems.
Posted April 05, 2011
Dates are important. Without dates how can anything be planned? However, due dates have been know to increase in importance in the delivery of software solutions. Sometimes the due date becomes such an overwhelming creature of importance that the date is more important than following best practices, more important than verifying that what is built is correct, more important than the solution team gaining a proper understanding of the work they are attempting to perform.
Posted April 05, 2011
What will you do when you find out you're about to acquire or consolidate with another firm or division? Are you aware of the risks you may be inheriting? What data is going to demand the highest availability? What IT regulations will you have to address and how do you know if existing controls already address them? Here are 10 "data health" checks you can conduct to answer help these questions before giving a green light to an M&A or consolidation.
Posted April 05, 2011
When I meet SQL Server professionals, I am always interested to find out if they have deployed the latest version of SQL Server into production yet, if they are using Enterprise Edition, and, if so, which new features they are using and why. Nothing beats real world implementation scenarios to help get a better understanding of a feature in SQL Server. The most common Enterprise Edition SQL Server Engine features deployed (and this is not a scientific survey, by any means) appear to be Table Partitioning, Backup Compression (now in Standard Edition) and Resource Governor. The Resource Governor was the feature DBAs working with large-scale SQL Server environments seemed most excited about when SQL 2008 was first announced.
Posted April 05, 2011
In what is being hailed as an optimistic sign for the tech sector overall, Oracle announced strong results for its fiscal third quarter, including new software license revenues that were up 29%. Oracle's fiscal 2011 Q3 GAAP total revenues were up 37% to $8.8 billion, while non-GAAP total revenues were up 36% to $8.8 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 29% to $2.2 billion.
Posted March 31, 2011
DBAs and IT operational teams, pressured by the unabated flow of data streaming in from an ever wider range of sources, require proactive self-managing and automated systems to supplement or replace manual techniques and processes which are no longer scalable given the rate of data growth, according to the results of a new Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) study on database manageability. With input from 445 member respondents from within the IOUG community, the survey finds that forward-looking companies, led by Oracle technologists and DBAs, are meeting their growing data management challenges by employing more advanced database management policies. This survey was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., in partnership with Oracle Corporation. Among the key findings are that more than one-third of respondents indicate their companies' data stores are increasing at a rate greater than 20% a year, and, the survey finds, this growth is a main contributor to many of the difficulties DBAs currently face.
Posted March 31, 2011
Oracle has announced a new world record non-clustered TPC-H 3TB benchmark result demonstrating the scalability of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 running on Oracle's SPARC Enterprise M9000 server. "This result demonstrates the outstanding performance and scalability of the SPARC Enterprise M9000 platform," states Juan Loaiza, senior vice president, Systems Technology, Oracle. "Overall, Oracle has delivered a remarkable portfolio of benchmark results showcasing our continued efforts to create an industry standard for performance, scalability and price/performance."
Posted March 31, 2011
Tokutek has announced TokuDB v5.0, which adds hot indexing and hot column addition/deletion as well as full MVCC (multiversion concurrency control) support. TokuDB, the company's flagship product, is a scalable MySQL Storage Engine. According to the company, with the new release, customers can now speed the time to build targeted queries or revise their data model, in order to perform near real-time analysis on live production data and take advantage of dynamic business opportunities.
Posted March 31, 2011
Continuent, Inc., a provider of replication and clustering solutions for open source databases, has announced the next version of Tungsten Enterprise, a replication and data management solution for MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Posted March 31, 2011
UC4, an IT automation provider, has announced a new line of IT automation tools that supports a range of environments across enterprises. The company simultaneously announced it is shipping ONE Automation, a new solution for cross-platform automation, along with UC4 Automation Platform version 9, designed to provide end-to-end enterprise automation.
Posted March 29, 2011
Continuent, Inc., a provider of replication and clustering solutions for open source databases, announced the next version of Tungsten Enterprise, a replication and data management solution for MySQL and PostgreSQL. This latest version of Tungsten Enterprise includes a number of features to improve the management, performance, flexibility and reliability of Tungsten clusters. The new release also includes architectural changes to Tungsten Replicator, as well as connectivity improvements, upgrades to MySQL binlog parsing, and PostgreSQL replication.
Posted March 29, 2011
InterSystems Corporation, which develops and markets advanced integration, database and business intelligence technologies, has announced the winners of its 2011 Innovator Awards, which recognize those who use InterSystems technologies in new ways to create innovative applications and integration solutions. Winners were recognized at the InterSystems Global Summit 2011 conference.
Posted March 29, 2011
SAP AG and IBM have announced the first official performance results of SAP In-Memory Appliance (SAP HANA), finding that the software easily handles 10,000 queries per hour against 1.3 terabytes of data, returning results within seconds. According to the companies, the test scenarios were directly based on the query workload requirements typical in SAP customers' enterprise resource planning (ERP) reporting requirements. They accessed the data found in the sales delivery database tables for the SAP ERP application. The test was part of a joint project between the two companies to deliver real-time analytics by optimizing software and hardware, based on SAP In-Memory Computing technology and IBM's industry-leading 3850 series servers.
Posted March 23, 2011
Embarcadero is now equipping Sybase ASE developers and DBAs with a toolset to simplify their development, database administration and performance tuning tasks. The new DB PowerStudio for Sybase ASE combines several of Embarcadero's most popular database tools into an aggressively priced suite. The toolset helps Sybase ASE professionals boost productivity by eliminating time-consuming development and administration tasks, while also improving the performance and availability of their databases. "Any Sybase ASE professional will tell you that, with the right tools at their fingertips, they can do their jobs with increased efficiency and accuracy and help IT exceed their service levels," says Scott Walz, senior director of product management for Embarcadero.
Posted March 23, 2011
Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., has announced that its hosted analytics solution, Sybase Operator Analytics 365, an advanced reporting, monitoring and mobile data analytics service, has been deployed to more than 50 operators worldwide and it anticipates working with more than 90 operators by the end of April 2011. Sybase Operator Analytics 365 is backed by Sybase's column-based analytics server, Sybase IQ, enabling extreme performance with the ability to return results on billions of records in just seconds to enable operators to quickly make mission-critical decisions.
Posted March 23, 2011
Queplix Corp., a provider of data virtualization solutions, has announced two new product families to bring the benefits of data virtualization to ETL (extract, transform and load). According to Queplix, the VirtualETL and CloudETL families simplify the ETL process, enabling users to configure Queplix's Application Software Blades, providing easy connections to target applications and reducing the time required to integrate applications.
Posted March 23, 2011
A member of the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) since 1992, Mark C. Clark recently took over as president of the organization. He spoke with DBTA about what's in store for members at the annual Oracle users conference COLLABORATE as well as for the year ahead. Helping members prepare for an upgrade to Oracle Applications Release 12, providing additional smaller, more targeted regional events, and a continued emphasis on a return to the basics with networking and education are at the top of his to-do list for 2011.
Posted March 23, 2011
Embarcadero has introduced DB PowerStudio for DB2 to provide DB2 developers and DBAs with a toolset that brings greater functionality and efficiency to their development, database administration and performance tuning tasks. According to Embarcadero, the new DB PowerStudio for DB2 combines several essential database tools into an aggressively priced suite that extends beyond the capabilities of IBM's database utilities. Following recent introductions of similar toolsets aimed at Oracle, SQL Server and Sybase ASE users, DB PowerStudio for DB2 meets the needs of both DB2 database developers and administrators, helping both improve the performance and availability of their databases.
Posted March 21, 2011
OpenSpan, Inc., a provider of user process management software, announced it has released support for Oracle Complex Event Processing (CEP), a solution for building applications to filter, correlate and process events in real time so that downstream applications, service-oriented architectures and event-driven architectures are driven by real-time intelligence. The new support enables OpenSpan and Oracle CEP to be used together to monitor user activity to detect and prevent fraud and compliance risks or identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
Posted March 16, 2011
Furthering its support for Java-based mobile development, Oracle has announced Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile Client, an extension of the Oracle Application Development Framework. A component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle ADF Mobile Client allows developers to extend their existing skills into mobile devices. It simplifies application creation and deployment using a single, standard Java user interface (UI) framework and tooling for all supported devices. Developers can build once and deploy to multiple devices - and as support for new devices is added in Oracle ADF Mobile Client, applications can be deployed to the new platforms without redevelopment. "It is all about linking the enterprise and mobile devices," Duncan Mills, senior director of product management for Oracle Fusion, tells 5 Minute Briefing. The approach takes Oracle's existing philosophy of "a single set of development skills, broadening the envelope to include native mobile applications which can run online and offline, and then managing all of the tricky data synchronization tasks on top of that."
Posted March 16, 2011
ScaleBase is seeking 50 additional customers to participate in an expanded private beta program for the ScaleBase Database Load Balancer, which enables multiple database servers to work like a single database. The ScaleBase private beta was first announced on January 1, and since then dozens of customers have registered for the program. The company is now seeking additional users of MySQL on Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS who would like to try the technology.
Posted March 16, 2011
Oracle has announced that an update to MySQL 5.5 Enterprise Edition is now available. New in this release is the addition of MySQL Enterprise Backup and MySQL Workbench along with enhancements in MySQL Enterprise Monitor. In addition, recent integration with MyOracle Support allows MySQL customers to access the same support infrastructure used for Oracle Database customers to enable joint MySQL and Oracle customers to experience faster problem resolution by using a common technical support interface.
Posted March 16, 2011
Fuzzy Logix, LLC, a provider of advanced analytical solutions, has announced the availability of in-database analytics working with IBM Informix database software to serve the large base of customers who are seeking to use easily accessible analytics to gain competitive advantage. The product, DB Lytix, is a rich, in-database analytics library built during more than eleven years of extensive research on advanced analytical methods. It contains functions for mathematical and statistical analysis, data mining, and Monte Carlo simulations. With the library now ported to IBM Informix, DB Lytix can leverage the high performance of Informix to bring gains in processing speed to analytic solutions.
Posted March 15, 2011
Red Gate Software has added the ability to source control data to SQL Source Control, providing a complete tool for source controlling all database elements from within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). SQL Source Control connects users' existing source control systems - either Team Foundation Server (TFS) or Subversion (SVN) - to SQL Server. In addition to providing source control for both static data and database schema, SQL Source Control 2.0 supports a shared model that allows development team members to see each other's database changes in real time. This complements the dedicated model introduced in V1.0 last summer.
Posted March 15, 2011
ExtraHop Networks, a provider of network and application performance management solutions, announced it now supports IBM's DB2 database. The addition of DB2 rounds out ExtraHop's support for the top three providers, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. ExtraHop customers now will be able to monitor database transactions in real time without having to run invasive tools such as SQL profilers and agents, which tend to degrade performance. With the addition of DB2, the ExtraHop Application Delivery Assurance system now "covers just about every major relational database that we've encountered within an enterprise IT environment," Jesse Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of ExtraHop Networks, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted March 15, 2011
On the heels of the IBM Jeopardy! Challenge, in which the IBM Watson system demonstrated the capability to understand natural language, IBM has launched a global skills initiative to educate clients, business partners, and college students on how to use IBM business analytics and information management software, and many of the underlying technologies of the Watson computing system, to capture information from new sources and use it to create business opportunities.
Posted March 15, 2011
ScaleBase is seeking 50 additional customers to participate in an expanded private beta program for the ScaleBase Database Load Balancer, which enables multiple database servers to work like a single database. The ScaleBase private beta was first announced on January 1, and since then dozens of customers have registered for the program. The company is now seeking additional users of MySQL on Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS who would like to try the technology.
Posted March 15, 2011
Revolution Analytics, a commercial provider of software and services based on the open source R project for statistical computing, and IBM Netezza have announced a partnership to integrate Revolution R Enterprise and the IBM Netezza TwinFin Data Warehouse Appliance. According to the vendors, this will enable customers seeking to run high performance and full-scale predictive analytics from within a data warehouse platform to directly leverage the capabilities of the open source R statistics language. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will work together to create a version of Revolution's software that takes advantage of IBM Netezza's i-class technology so that Revolution R Enterprise can run in-database in an optimal fashion. General availability of this integrated solution is currently planned for later this year.
Posted March 15, 2011
Revelation Software has announced the availability of the latest release of OpenInsight Development Suite (OI), version 9.2.1, and the Universal Driver 4.7. OI 9.2.1 features OpenInsight for Web v.1.1. (O4W), a new version of the web 2.0 development toolkit that enables OpenInsight and MultiValue developers to rapidly create browser based forms, reports, menus, dashboards and programs. Additionally, in OI 9.2.1, Source Code Management (SCM), a new feature, enables source code to be grouped into modules and saved as a unique version as the code is compiled. With the new release, the system editor has also been redesigned to improve speed and functionality; and the U2 connector has been redesigned to utilize the UniObjects .NET library instead of the Intercall libraries, a change that allows the implementation of connection pooling.
Posted March 09, 2011
Microsoft extended support for all editions of SQL Server 7.0 ended on Jan. 11. Considering that this edition was initially replaced 11 years ago by SQL Server 2000 (and there have been three more major releases since), this may not seem to be big news. However, I'm always amazed by the number of DBAs I meet who are still responsible for keeping a few instances of this, or even version 6.5, running in production.
Posted March 09, 2011
2010 was a very good year for open source databases, with the top RDBMSs like Oracle's MySQL and PostgreSQL showing momentum with impressive customer gains and new releases that delivered much-desired functionality. Everything points to similar energy in 2011 with the top analyst groups and big-name system integrators like Accenture proclaiming "the coming age of open source." A study done by Accenture in late 2010 showed that more than two-thirds of organizations anticipate increased investment in open source, with more than one-third expecting to migrate mission-critical software to open source in the next 12 months.
Posted March 09, 2011
One of the ongoing goals of database administration is to minimize downtime and improve availability. If the DBMS is down, data cannot be accessed. If the data is not available, applications cannot run. And if your applications cannot run, your company is losing business. Lost business translates into lower earnings and perhaps even a lower stock valuation for your company. These are all detrimental to the business and therefore, the DBA is called upon to do everything in his or her power to ensure that databases are kept online and operational.
Posted March 09, 2011
A new survey of database administrators and managers reveals that a pervasive culture of complacency hampers information security efforts, and as a result of lax practices and oversight, sensitive data is being left vulnerable to tampering and theft. While tools and technologies provide multiple layers of data security both inside and outside the firewall, organizations appear to lack the awareness and will to make security stick. The study, "Data in the Dark: Organizational Disconnect Hampers Information Security," was conducted by Unisphere Research among 761 members of PASS, the Professional Association for SQL Server, in September 2010. The survey was fielded in partnership with Application Security, Inc.
Posted March 09, 2011
Following the recent introductions of DB PowerStudio for Oracle, and DB PowerStudio for SQL Server, Embarcadero is now equipping Sybase ASE developers and DBAs with a toolset to simplify their development, database administration and performance tuning tasks. The new DB PowerStudio for Sybase ASE combines several of Embarcadero's most popular database tools into an aggressively priced suite. The toolset helps Sybase ASE professionals boost productivity by eliminating time-consuming development and administration tasks, while also improving the performance and availability of their databases.
Posted March 08, 2011
A member of the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) since 1992, Mark C. Clark recently took over as president of the organization. Recently, 5 Minute Briefing chatted with Clark about what's in store for members at the annual Oracle users conference COLLABORATE as well as for the year ahead. Helping members prepare for an upgrade to Oracle Applications Release 12, providing additional smaller, more targeted regional events, and a continued emphasis on a return to the basics with networking and education are at the top of his to-do list for 2011.
Posted March 08, 2011
Teradata Corporation, which already had an 11% ownership interest in Aster Data Systems, Inc, has signed a definitive agreement to pay $263 million for the remaining ownership interest in the company. Aster Data is a provider of software for advanced analytics and the management of a variety of diverse data that is not structured. The combination of Teradata and Aster Data technologies will enable businesses to unlock the new intelligence within the burgeoning volumes of big data. "Teradata is recognized as an innovator and leader in data warehousing, and the addition of Aster Data will enable us to leapfrog into a leadership position in the emerging big data market. This is a great opportunity and something our customers have been asking for," said Scott Gnau, chief development officer, Teradata Corporation.
Posted March 08, 2011
Oracle has announced that performance testing with Oracle Financial Services Profitability Management running on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine has delivered outstanding results for calculating profitability measures at extreme speed. Oracle Financial Services Profitability Management running on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine computed profitability for 172 allocation rules across 250 million accounts and more than 1 billion transactions in only 4 hours and 45 minutes.
Posted March 02, 2011
Oracle has announced Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Release 3.1, a comprehensive update with the first releases of AIA pre-built integrations based on and certified for industry-leading Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. Release 3.1 includes nine cross-industry Process Integration Packs (PIP), eight vertical PIPs, and two direct integrations certified for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. "They are really meant to be accelerators," says Tim Hall, senior director of Oracle's product management, Application Integration, of the prebuilt integrations. They are intended to overcome common issues that customers will face when they are doing integration between applications, "and these things are not unique to Oracle; they are industry challenges," he explains.
Posted March 02, 2011
Queplix Corp., a provider of data virtualization solutions, has announced two new product families to bring the benefits of data virtualization to ETL (extract, transform and load). According to Queplix, the VirtualETL and CloudETL families simplify the ETL process, enabling users to configure Queplix's Application Software Blades, providing easy connections to target applications and reducing the time required to integrate applications. The VirtualETL family includes enterprise-class VirtualETL, which allows ETL teams to connect any two enterprise applications together, and professional-class VirtualETL, which allows users to connect any two applications that use relational database management systems. With CloudETL, users can connect any two cloud-based applications or connect a cloud-based application with one that is on-premise.
Posted March 02, 2011
To help organizations prevent internal and external attacks from reaching their enterprise database targets, Oracle has introduced Oracle Database Firewall, which is intended to act as the "first line of defense for databases." According to Oracle, the new software solution monitors database activity on the network to help prevent unauthorized access, SQL injections, privilege or role escalation, and other external and internal attacks in real time. "In the same way that most companies have deployed network firewalls to stop intruders from coming into their data centers," Vipin Samar, vice president of Database Security, Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing, "Oracle Database Firewall is blocking unauthorized traffic from getting to the database itself."
Posted February 23, 2011
A new survey of 430 members of the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) reveals that organizations lack a sense of urgency about securing critical data, and the greatest challenges to securing application and data environments are primarily organizational and budget-related. The survey was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., in partnership with Application Security, Inc. (AppSec), a provider of database security, risk and compliance solutions, in December 2010. According to the OAUG's 2011 Data Security report, "Managing Information in Insecure Times," 53% of respondents stated that budget was the greatest impediment holding back information security efforts. Thirty-three percent claimed a lack of an understanding of the threats prevents them from rallying support for countermeasures. And more than one-quarter of respondents cited a disconnect between IT teams and executive management as a major impediment to implementing proper security measures. The study shows a serious lack of understanding and concern for data and application security in today's organizations, according to Thom VanHorn, vice president global marketing at AppSec. "My take-away from the study is that there is a lack of communication, there is a lack of buy-in at the highest levels, and there is not a focus on implementing best practices," VanHorn says.
Posted February 23, 2011
A new toolset designed to streamline common and complex tasks associated with developing, administering and optimizing Oracle databases, has been announced by Embarcadero. The new toolset, called DB PowerStudio for Oracle, combines several of Embarcadero's most popular database tools into a suite that is intended to make it easier for Oracle developers and DBAs to shorten database development and administration times, and to improve the performance and availability of their databases. The toolset is available in a Developer Edition and a DBA Edition. The new release follows the introduction of a similar toolset by Embarcadero for SQL Server DBAs and developers.
Posted February 22, 2011
Infobright, a provider of open source analytic databases, announced major product upgrades that include query performance boosts well as remote data loading capabilities. New features will be available in both Infobright Enterprise Edition (IEE, version 3.5) and Infobright Community Edition (ICE, version 3.5).
Posted February 22, 2011
SHARE convenes on February 27th in Anaheim, with an agenda packed with industry initiatives and knowledge-sharing on the latest best practices and technology trends. In this exclusive Q&A, SHARE president Janet Sun provides her vision for SHARE in the coming years.
Posted February 22, 2011
F5 Networks, Inc., a Gold-level member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, has announced integration between the F5 BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM) product and the Oracle Database Firewall. Building on F5's ability to help simplify database administration and accelerate database replication for Oracle customers, the integration provides improved SQL injection protection for F5 customers and correlated reporting for richer forensic information on SQL injection attacks for Oracle customers, according to F5.
Posted February 17, 2011
A new toolset designed to streamline common and complex tasks associated with developing, administering and optimizing Oracle databases, has been announced by Embarcadero. The new toolset, called DB PowerStudio for Oracle, combines several of Embarcadero's most popular database tools into a suite that is intended to make it easier for Oracle developers and DBAs to shorten database development and administration times, and to improve the performance and availability of their databases. The toolset is available in a Developer Edition and a DBA Edition.
Posted February 17, 2011