Database Management Articles
Queplix Corp., a data virtualization software vendor, has introduced three new Application Software Blades in Virtual Data Manager enabling companies to integrate social media data with internal corporate systems. Companies can now automatically capture information from FaceBook, LinkedIn and Google Contacts and harmonize it with their own corporate data. According to Queplix, companies typically struggle with how to incorporate and leverage the data within social media communities for business gain. "The value of social media and its potential to enhance corporate initiatives is widely recognized, yet barely tapped," said Mark Cashman, chief executive officer, Queplix. With the new integration capability, Queplix allows organizations to combine data from social media sources with internal information, thus providing a new layer of intelligence to business-supporting functions.
Posted January 18, 2011
The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), a community of more than 20,000 international database and technology professionals, announced it has formed the MySQL Council to address the interests and needs of the broader community of MySQL users serving IOUG constituencies. Initial areas of focus for the MySQL Council will include providing technical articles for the peer-reviewed SELECT Journal, facilitating the development of online education as well as supporting COLLABORATE 11, the annual Oracle user group conference taking place April 10-14 in Orlando, Florida.
Posted January 18, 2011
The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) will present the first event in its 2011 conference series February 13-18 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, with the theme "Building An Enterprise Data Strategy: A Framework For Consistent Information Across The Enterprise." The aim of the 6-day event is to provide attendees with the education they need about how to inventory, govern, integrate, and exploit their data assets. Organizations have "massive amounts of data" as well as a variety of different databases and duplicates of databases, and, as a result, people are not aware of all the data they have and how they can utilize it, Paul Kautza, director of education of TDWI, tells 5 Minute Briefing. The conference will provide classes on how to gain critical executive sponsorship, connect point projects into a unified data management approach, and define and implement a true corporate data strategy that will deliver consistent information across an enterprise.
Posted January 18, 2011
Quest Software, Inc., maker of the Toad product suites, has broadened its support for Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) with the beta kick-off of Toad for Sybase, a new, integrated Sybase ASE management tool that improves Sybase ASE performance and boosts DBAs' productivity. The beta is currently available for download on Toad World, Quest's one-stop destination to read about Toad and learn new tips and tricks from top database experts. Toad for Sybase aims to give DBAs the most important functionality for Sybase database administration and development, carefully selected based on customer feedback. Toad for Sybase will be released initially as a freeware product in March 2011, with a commercial release coming out later in the year in Q2, Joe Faherty, product manager, Quest Software, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted January 11, 2011
Health Insights has signed a partnership agreement to deploy its popular MedicaPlus Hospital and Clinical Information System on the InterSystems CACHÉ high-performance object database. Health Insights' decision to partner with InterSystems follows the successful port of MedicaPlus to run on CACHÉ and a series of tests using industry-standard SQL database queries. By using CACHÉ, Health Insights has boosted the scalability and performance of its applications.
Posted January 11, 2011
With its January 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle gained the MySQL open source database management software (DBMS) platform for enterprise IT environments. MySQL is designed to let users design and manage complex applications and data sets, and has gained a substantial share of the overall DBMS market.
Posted January 07, 2011
In line with recent SQL Server releases, Microsoft on Nov. 9 announced at the PASS Summit that the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of SQL Server 11 - codenamed Denali (after the Alaska mountain also known as Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America) - is available for download and evaluation. This is our first opportunity to look at some of the features that will form the basis for the next major release of SQL Server, expected to be fully available in the second half of 2011.
Posted January 07, 2011
Back in the 1970s, the ANSI SPARC three-tiered model arose, foreshadowing a smooth intertwining of data and architectural design. The three tiers concept isolated the physical storage needs of data structures independent of business' perception of these structures. The three levels were comprised of schemas labeled external, conceptual, and internal, with each level describing the data in focus from varying perspectives.
Posted January 07, 2011
As my regular readers know, toward the end of each year I devote an edition of my column to review the significant data and database-related events of the past year. Of course, to meet my deadlines, the column is written before the year is over (this column is being written in November 2010), so please excuse any significant news that may have happened late in the year!
Posted January 07, 2011
Astera Software, a provider of data integration solutions through its Centerprise Data Integration platform, has announced the beta version of Centerprise Data Integration Real-Time Edition (RTE). Historically, Centerprise has been a batch-oriented platform for moving data in batches at specified times, but with Centerprise Data Integration Real-Time Edition (RTE), Ibrahim Surani, CEO of Astera Software, tells 5 Minute Briefing, the company is adding the capability to move data in real time. The benefit to customers is that they can achieve better operational reporting or improved operational effectiveness as a result of multiple systems being in sync, and without the need to write custom programs, he notes.
Posted January 05, 2011
Red Gate has launched Data Compare for Oracle, a new tool that compares database table contents, highlights differences, generates SQL scripts to match the tables up, and automatically aligns them if desired. With Data Compare, deployment is done automatically in minutes, says Tom Harris, head of Red Gate's Oracle tools division. "After making database changes, the last thing you want is to spend hours deploying them."
Posted January 04, 2011
Oracle has announced the general availability of MySQL 5.5. The new release delivers enhancements enabling users to improve the performance and scalability of web applications across multiple operating environments, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. MySQL 5.5 is the first major MySQL server release which has been done under Oracle's reign and it is also represents the first time the InnoDB team, which was acquired by Oracle back in 2005, and the MySQL team worked together to create a new release, Tomas Ulin, vice president of MySQL engineering, Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted December 21, 2010
MarkLogic Corporation, whose flagship product is a purpose-built database for unstructured information, has announced that it was selected as the database of choice after a proof of concept that included a migration of the existing catalog content in less than four days.
Posted December 21, 2010
Sentrigo, Inc., a provider of database security and data protection solutions for the data center and the cloud, said it has secured $6 million in a Series C funding round. The round included participation from existing investors Benchmark Capital and Stata Venture Partners, as well as a new strategic investment from Juniper Networks, through the Junos Innovation Fund. The financing will allow Sentrigo to increase global sales and marketing activities in support of its rapid revenue growth rate, as well as to continue expanding its database security and data integrity solutions for the cloud.
Posted December 21, 2010
Oracle today announced the general availability of MySQL 5.5. The new release delivers enhancements enabling users to improve the performance and scalability of web applications across multiple operating environments, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X.
Posted December 15, 2010
Oracle has announced a world record TPC-C benchmark result for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 on a SPARC Supercluster with SPARC T3-4 servers.
Posted December 15, 2010
InterSystems Corporation, which specializes in advanced integration, database, and business intelligence technologies for breakthrough applications, has announced that support for the latest 2010 releases of the InterSystems CACHÉ database and InterSystems Ensemble integration and development platform is now available on the Amazon EC2 platform with 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the guest operating system.
Posted December 15, 2010
SnapLogic has unveiled the new SnapCenter enterprise integration control center as well as improved performance and scalability in SnapLogicServer 3.1. This release continues SnapLogic's initiatives to meet the integration needs of the most demanding enterprises as they tackle "big data" problems driven the by the ever increasing adoption of cloud computing and mobile, distributed architectures. Separately, SnapLogic, which is led by Gaurav Dhillon, founder and former CEO of Informatica, also announced that it has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and that Ben Horowitz has joined SnapLogic's board of directors.
Posted December 14, 2010
Oracle has announced a world record TPC-C benchmark result for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 on a SPARC Supercluster with SPARC T3-4 servers. In addition to the new world record, Oracle also announced a new service called Gold Support, as well as the SPARC Solaris-based Exalogic Elastic Cloud System, and a complete refresh of the SPARC Enterprise Server product line.
Posted December 07, 2010
At SAP TechEd 2010 held in Bangalore, India, last week, SAP AG announced availability of the new High-Performance Analytic Appliance (HANA). According to the company, the SAP in-memory computing engine that resides at the heart of SAP HANA is an integrated database and calculation layer that allows the processing of massive quantities of real-time data in main memory to provide immediate results from analyses and transactions. The engine supports industry standards such as SQL and MDX but also incorporates a high-performance calculation engine that embeds procedural language support directly into the database kernel. This approach, SAP explains, eliminates the need to read data from the database, process it, and then write data back to the database.
Posted December 07, 2010
The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) has just released the findings of a new survey of IOUG members that benchmarks the rapid evolution of cloud computing among Oracle users. The survey, consisting of responses from 267 IT professionals and data managers, was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., and sponsored by Oracle.
Posted December 01, 2010
The IOUG has completed a number of ground-breaking studies in 2010 through the IOUG ResearchWire program. Conducted among IOUG members by Unisphere Research, 2010 IOUG ResearchWire Executive Summaries are available to all on the IOUG website.
Posted December 01, 2010
The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) has just released the findings of a new survey of IOUG members that benchmarks the rapid evolution of cloud computing among Oracle users. The survey, consisting of responses from 267 IT professionals and data managers, was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., and sponsored by Oracle.
Posted November 30, 2010
InterSystems Corporation, which specializes in advanced integration, database, and business intelligence technologies for breakthrough applications, yesterday announced that support for the latest 2010 releases of the InterSystems CACHÉ database and InterSystems Ensemble integration and development platform is now available on the Amazon EC2 platform with 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the guest operating system.
Posted November 30, 2010
Panorama Software, a provider of proactive business intelligence (BI) solutions, has announced support for the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse through its flagship business intelligence solution, Panorama NovaView 6.2.
Posted November 30, 2010
DBSophic, a provider of performance management products for database-centric applications, has announced a new free solution to help SQL Server DBAs identify and trouble-shoot database performance problems. The product, Qure Workload Analyzer, analyzes database workloads comprised of one or more SQL traces and provides DBAs with deep, intelligent analysis. An intuitive graphical interface and multi-dimensional grouping, sorting and filtering make it easy to identify and analyze performance bottlenecks
Posted November 30, 2010
How does one know what one doesn't know? When evaluating what one knows, it is hard to know where to begin. The wise men say, "The more you know, the more you know you don't know." If one believes such commentary, what is known constitutes the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Databases have an easier time with such missing circumstances. If the rows of a database table are lacking referents, an outer join query filtering for NULLs might detail for you all the missing items. In developing and delivering projects, such a reference list for our minds to link to does not exist, for an outer join or anything else. Often, we do not know everything that needs to be done, particularly as a project starts. The difference between success and failure is not so much what one knows, but in how one handles the gaps between what is known now and what needs to be known before one finishes.
Posted November 30, 2010
Fifty percent of enterprises are now using open source databases in a production environment, according to Forrester Research.This is a multi-digit jump from data available just a few years ago. And this isn't just one or two particular business verticals either; just about every sector of the economy is deploying open source databases in production now. Moreover, Forrester predicts that by 2014, 75% of all businesses will be using open source databases to power their key applications.
Posted November 30, 2010
Assuring optimal performance of database applications starts with coding properly formulated SQL. Poorly written SQL and application code is the cause of most performance problems. As much as 75% of poor relational performance is caused by "bad" SQL and application code. But writing efficient SQL statements can be tricky. This is especially so for programmers new to a relational database environment or those who have never been trained to properly write SQL.
Posted November 30, 2010
SQL Azure is Microsoft's cloud-based relational database service hosted in their data centers, and it's got some DBAs worrying about the future. The more I look at the technology, however, the more I see practical applications for it and the less I think people should be concerned.
Posted November 30, 2010
These days, many companies recognize that there are severe repercussions to ignoring or undervaluing data security, and a sizable segment of organizations-at least one-third in many cases-have been taking additional measures to bolster their data security.
Posted November 30, 2010
As Revelation Software completes its internal testing of OpenInsight 9.2.1, the company is inviting any member of its WORKS subscription program to participate in beta testing. OpenInsight 9.2.1 includes numerous new features, enhancements and fixes in a range of categories, including Basic +; OIPI.net/OIPI; Form Designer; System Editor ++; Source Code Management (SCM); TCL; Arev32; Character To OpenInsight (CTO); OpenInsight for Web (O4W); and OpenInsight for U2.
Posted November 30, 2010
Kore Technologies has announced Release 3.0 of Kourier Integrator for U2, Kore's enterprise integration suite which provides extract, transform, and load (ETL) and enterprise application integration (EAI) capabilities for connecting UniData/UniVerse (U2) applications to Microsoft SQL Server and other best-in-class applications.
Posted November 30, 2010
The fourth annual U2 University conference was held last month in Denver, providing 3 days of hands-on instruction covering the latest best practices in the database and servers industry. "Attendance was up by at least 30% over last year, so we were bursting at the seams at the Warwick hotel in Denver," Susie Siegesmund, vice president and general manager, Rocket U2, tells DBTA.
Posted November 30, 2010
The year 2010 brought many new challenges and opportunities to data managers' jobs everywhere. Companies, still recovering from a savage recession, increasingly turned to the power of analytics to turn data stores into actionable insights, and hopefully gain an edge over less data-savvy competitors. At the same time, data managers and administrators alike found themselves tasked with managing and maintaining the integrity of rapidly multiplying volumes of data, often presented in a dizzying array of formats and structures. New tools and approaches were sought; and the market churning with promising new offerings embracing virtualization, consolidation and information lifecycle management. Where will this lead in the year ahead? Can we expect an acceleration of these initiatives and more? DBTA looked at new industry research, and spoke with leading experts in the data management space, to identify the top trends for 2011.
Posted November 30, 2010
To simplify hardware management in traditional, virtualized and cloud-based data center environments, Oracle last week unveiled Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Ops Center.
Posted November 17, 2010
Helping organizations meet expanding requirements for archiving, e-discovery and regulatory compliance, Open Text will embed Oracle technology to deliver a new set of enterprise content solutions.
Posted November 17, 2010
Oracle has unveiled Oracle Tutor 14, the latest version of its process documentation tool. Oracle Tutor is a single, user-friendly repository for documenting and sharing business processes that streamlines training, facilitates information sharing and improves document consistency by enabling organizations to easily create, deploy and maintain enterprise policies and procedures.
Posted November 17, 2010
Sentrigo, Inc., a provider of database security software, has announced that Sentrigo Hedgehog Enterprise and vPatch solutions are now available on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for database audit, protection and breach prevention. Sentrigo's database compliance and security solutions allow organizations to more easily run applications subject to PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SEC regulations and more on Amazon EC2.
Posted November 17, 2010
Sybase has announced a new release of Sybase Liquidity Management Suite (LMS), providing the global financial services industry with new modules enabling native support for Sybase's relational database management system and analytics platform. Sybase LMS consolidates payment and transaction information in real-time, across multiple systems, to provide a comprehensive enterprise-wide capability for managing operational liquidity, supporting optimal use of operating capital while minimizing operation risk.
Posted November 17, 2010
Sybase has issued the third and final installment of results from a study on the business impacts of effective data. The study benchmarked some of the world's leading companies across a range of vertical industries by measuring the direct correlation between a company's IT investments and overall business performance.
Posted November 17, 2010
Onsystex, which helps companies extend the reach and effectiveness of MultiValue applications, has announced the appointment of Ian Sandler as director of professional services.
Posted November 17, 2010
Queplix Corp., a provider of data virtualization software, has announced that its new Virtual Data Viewer is available for free download. The new product aims to streamline preliminary steps to implementing any type of data migration, management, integration or similar data initiative.
Posted November 16, 2010
Attunity Ltd., a provider of real-time data integration and event capture software, announced major enhancements to its CDC Suite for SSIS, providing a comprehensive solution for replicating data in real-time across a wide range of heterogeneous data sources at an affordable price point. The product suite is used by customers worldwide to enable real-time business intelligence (BI) and designed to improve business operations and reduce costs.
Posted November 16, 2010
Progress Software has announced the availability of database drivers for the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse. Available for pre-sales registration immediately with shipment in Q2 2011, the Progress DataDirect Connect drivers enable companies using UNIX-, Linux- and Java-based applications to connect to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse.
Posted November 16, 2010
At the PASS Summit in Seattle last week, Idera announced SQL doctor 1.1 and SQL diagnostic manager 6.5. The solutions help DBAs anticipate SQL performance problems and offer remedies before they become serious issues.
Posted November 16, 2010
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) held the annual PASS Summit last week drawing 2,814 delegates and 993 pre/post-conference attendees for a total of 3,807 registrations. It is the largest turnout since the inception of the conference, and represents a 25% increase in attendance over 2009. The SQL Server community is growing "and we are very much a part of that community," Rick Heiges, vice president of marketing, PASS, told 5 Minute Briefing. The record conference attendance was not a surprise, he added. "Last year, our numbers were down about 10% but that was actually fantastic because a lot of other shows were down as much as 50%. We knew that we had a strong base to build upon. We saw signs of the economy coming back so when we started to budget for this year we had a good feeling that we would be able to have record attendance because our community is just so passionate about being here and getting together each and every year."
Posted November 16, 2010
Psychiatrists report play is important for keeping our minds and bodies healthy and happy. It has been uncovered that without at least some play, we mentally and physically deteriorate. Lack of play can lead to depression. Our brains are so hardwired in their need for playful activities that without such expressions we loose focus. Play enhances the creativity and imagination within us. Likewise, play has a proper role within our work. And not just for the psychological benefit to the individual, but for the overall health of the organization. For an IT development group, play is essential for finding better ways to approach problems. Within an IT context, play involves evaluating new ways to handle old problems. Prototyping, at times, constitutes play. Prototypes can be used for more than just the practicalities of the user interface; sometimes a prototype of specific functions is necessary for comparisons in order to judge how non-obvious techniques may perform. Such prototype endeavors can involve not only new algorithms, but potentially variant data structures. Ideally, such prototypes will improve team understanding of the data structures and offer insights into potential new and innovative approaches.
Posted November 09, 2010
SQL is the lingua franca for modifying and reading database data and any DBA worth his (or her) paycheck should be proficient in writing SQL queries. But SQL is a flexible and feature-rich language, so there are always things that can be learned - even by senior technicians. As such, this month's column discusses several interesting SQL queries that you can put in your bag of tricks for future use.
Posted November 09, 2010
I am attending my first Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Summit in Seattle this month. A lot of DBAs I meet are very keen to attend these events as the standard of speakers and quality of content is so high. Travel, accommodation and attendance costs are often prohibitive, however, let alone getting the time away from the office. Getting managers' approval to attend and justifying the cost can be difficult, especially for those of us based outside the U.S. PASS also runs a European event in April each year in Germany and, in the U.K., we have the SQL Bits conference. Those who wish to attend can still run into the same objections, however.
Posted November 09, 2010