Database Management Articles
Embarcadero Technologies, a database tools and developer software company, has introduced new and enhanced performance optimization tools to help companies detect, fix and prevent costly software errors. The tools include DB Optimizer 1.5 for SQL profiling and tuning, Performance Center for automated 24/7 database monitoring, and J Optimizer 2009 for Java profiling and optimization.
Posted April 16, 2009
DBI (Database-Brothers, Inc.), a software company providing professional grade database performance management tools, has announced the availability of release 7.1 of Brother-Owl—a tool to capture, analyze, and fix Oracle application SQL and indexes.
Posted April 16, 2009
BEZ Systems, a provider of predictive performance management (PPM) solutions for databases, has announced the availability of a new Performance as a Service (PaaS) program. Performance as a Service combines the BEZVision predictive performance software with in-depth knowledge and advice from database and performance experts to deliver advanced database performance intelligence. This combination allows IT departments to be more proactive in providing service delivery to their organizations, reduce costs, and improve IT efficiency so they can shift their focus toward providing business solutions and away from firefighting performance crises.
Posted April 16, 2009
In a relational database approach, regardless of whether one is considering persisted data or transitory query results, almost everything is viewed as a logical table. Associations between these envisioned tables are based on data values, versus the alternative to the pre-relational idea of linking multiple data structures via "hidden" pointers maintained by the system. Relationships among objects are ultimately derived from the semantics of a situation.
Posted April 15, 2009
Although the most important aspect of DBA tool selection is functionality and the way it satisfies your needs, the stability of the vendor that provides the product is also important
Posted April 15, 2009
The idea of "SQL Server in the cloud" is all the rage as I write this article. Many SQL Server experts already predict the demise of the IT data center and a complete upending of the current state of our industry, in which large enterprises can spend millions of dollars on SQL Server licenses, hardware and staff. I have to admit, when I first heard about this idea, I was ecstatic. What could be better for an enterprise than to have all the goodness of a SQL Server database with none of the hardware or staffing issues? However, on deeper examination, there is much about which to be cautious.
Posted April 15, 2009
Ed Boyajian joined EnterpriseDB, the open source database company whose products and services are based on PostgreSQL, in June, 2008, as president and CEO. Before that, he spent six years in sales leadership roles at Red Hat, including vice president and general manager for North American sales, and vice president, worldwide OEM and North American channels. Recently Boyajian chatted with DBTA about the looming challenges and opportunities for open source in general as well as for EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus product family.
Posted April 15, 2009
Microsoft has announced that SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 is now available via free download to current SQL Server 2008 customers. According to the company, SP1 for SQL Server 2008 is primarily a roll-up of previous cumulative updates and offers increased supportability and stability. Microsoft is encouraging enterprise customers who are currently running SQL Server 2008 to download SP1 via the SQL Server 2008 Web site to take advantage of these improvements.
Posted April 14, 2009
Embarcadero Technologies, a database tools and developer software company, has introduced new and enhanced performance optimization tools to help companies detect, fix and prevent costly software errors. The tools include DB Optimizer 1.5 for SQL profiling and tuning, Performance Center for automated 24/7 database monitoring, and J Optimizer 2009 for Java profiling and optimization.
Posted April 14, 2009
DataDirect Technologies, a provider of data connectivity and mainframe integration, has released a new suite of 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC drivers that offer new enhancements intended to streamline application development, boost performance and reduce application certification costs. The updated suite, DataDirect Connect for ODBC version 6.0, integrates with the DataDirect Bulk Load and DataDirect Application Failover products.
Posted March 31, 2009
Embarcadero Technologies recently held DataRage, three days of online technical sessions and a virtual trade show targeted at DBAs, data architects, database developers, security experts, and other database professionals, and found that the virtual approach was the right one for the times, according Greg Keller, chief evangelist, at the company. The online event was held March 17 through March 19.
Posted March 31, 2009
DataDirect Technologies, a provider of data connectivity and mainframe integration, has released a new suite of 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC drivers that offer new enhancements intended to streamline application development, boost performance and reduce application certification costs. The updated suite, DataDirect Connect for ODBC version 6.0, integrates with the DataDirect Bulk Load and DataDirect Application Failover products.
Posted March 30, 2009
Have you noticed that dynamic SQL is more popular today than ever before? There are a number of factors contributing to the success of dynamic SQL. Commercial off-the-shelf applications, such as SAP, Siebel, and PeopleSoft, utilize dynamic SQL exclusively. In many cases, too, dynamic SQL is the default choice for in-house application development.
Posted March 15, 2009
In formulating the tenets of relational theory, issues anent to order were explicitly addressed. These relational theory tenets included defining a relational database so that it need have no concern with the order of columns in a row, or with the order of rows in a table. And yet, such a stance seems counter-intuitive since the database brings structure and organization to content. Chaos is the primordial soup from which all things originated. Thus it seems only reasonable that a relational database, being the best and brightest of its kind, should abhor such chaos and bring ever more order instead, right?
Posted March 15, 2009
The time is past when the unique attributes of the MultiValue database model alone provided sufficient justification for the use of the technology, according to Pete Loveless. He explains why MV companies must support interoperability and integration from the ground up, in order to meet the challenges presented by the market now, and in the future.
Posted March 15, 2009
OpenTech Systems, Inc., a leading provider of IBM z/OS Disaster Recovery and Storage Management solutions to automate IT processes and ensure business continuity for IBM z/OS-centric data centers, has announced a new release of DR/Xpert for DB2 which automates the backup and recovery for DB2 system objects including the directory and catalog as well as user data.
Posted March 10, 2009
IBM has released new Informix database software to help companies make decisions more intelligently and maximize sales opportunities while reducing expenses. With the new software, known as the Informix Warehouse Feature, global companies can both warehouse their data and conduct fast online transactions with a simplified software platform. The combination of the two capabilities in one offering can help deliver new results and insights to grow businesses and lower costs by making it easier to use existing Informix infrastructures to help clients work more efficiently.
Posted March 10, 2009
Quest Software recently made a joint announcement with Microsoft, indicating that it will offer an Oracle Database Schema Provider for the upcoming release of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010. Quest's new tool provides Oracle support for VSTS, enabling Oracle developers to fully participate with other VSTS team members throughout the entire application lifecycle. Previous to this, Oracle professionals could not benefit from the improvements in communication and workflow that VSTS offers. Oracle development in VSTS was limited, involved time-consuming manual processes, and did not support the system's new offline database development and design paradigm. With Quest's new tool, VSTS can now support both Oracle and SQL Server databases.
Posted March 04, 2009
Quest Software made a joint announcement with Microsoft at the recent VSLive! Conference in San Francisco, indicating that it will offer an Oracle Database Schema Provider for the upcoming release of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010. Quest's new tool provides Oracle support for VSTS, enabling Oracle developers to fully participate with other VSTS team members throughout the entire application lifecycle. Previous to this, Oracle professionals could not benefit from the improvements in communication and workflow that VSTS offers. Oracle development in VSTS was limited, involved time-consuming manual processes, and did not support the system's new offline database development and design paradigm. With Quest's new tool, VSTS can now support both Oracle and SQL Server databases.
Posted March 03, 2009
Embarcadero Technologies plans to hold DataRage, three full days of online technical sessions and a virtual trade show targeted at DBAs, data architects, database developers, security experts, and other database professionals, from March 17 through March 19. "We needed a conference tuned to the massive user base that we have—and beyond," Greg Keller, chief evangelist at Embarcadero, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted March 03, 2009
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG), the world's largest user knowledgebase for Oracle Applications users, announced the 2009 list of associate member organizations participating in the OAUG Star Partner Program.
Posted February 24, 2009
GoldenGate Software Inc., a leading provider of high availability and real-time data integration solutions across heterogeneous enterprise IT environments, held a webinar last week to showcase the results of a joint survey conducted with Unisphere Research, the research arm of Database Trends and Applications (DBTA). The survey results indicated the continued importance of the DBA role within the enterprise IT group. "Surveying the Role of Today's DBA" uncovered the realities faced by many DBAs today, driven by changing database environments and evolving responsibilities, in addition to their top priorities identified for 2009.
Posted February 24, 2009
Quest Software Inc. has announced the newest edition of Spotlight on Oracle, a desktop-based monitoring and diagnostics tool that provides visibility into Oracle database processes and performance. Spotlight exposes current and future performance problems, ensuring that database administrators (DBAs) remain a step ahead of database issues that can negatively impact applications, users, customers, and business operations.
Posted February 19, 2009
GridApp Systems, a leading provider of out-of-the-box database automation software and solutions, has announced the release of GridApp Clarity 5.1, the next-generation version of its database automation software. The two primary new features in Clarity 5.1 are support for databases deployed on cloud computing infrastructures, and management of database license compliance.
Posted February 17, 2009
Embarcadero Technologies Inc., a database tools and developer software company, plans to announce tomorrow Embarcadero All-Access, a software development solution that provides application developers, architects, and database professionals with cost-effective, on-demand access to all the tools they need to design, build, and run software applications and data systems for all of their platforms and programming languages.
Posted February 17, 2009
Alvion Technologies provides a web-enabled platform that allows compilers, resellers and managers of marketing lists to easily deliver their product to end-users in support of targeted marketing efforts. Individual customers submit their data and then Alvion runs customer-specific data transformation and uploads the data to production servers, for access by end-users who are the customers of the data owners. If you need, for example, to find consumers within a 35-mile radius of your business that meet a certain profile, you can go online and find lists within Alvion, put in the criteria you are looking for, and those names will be provided to you, via electronic delivery, be it email or download.
Posted February 15, 2009
Increased governmental oversight has amplified organizational attention concerning the tracking of content changes made to application database tables. Database log reading tools do not always provide the most useful means of reviewing specific changes for all organizational purposes. Fortunately, other reviewing options do exist.
Posted February 15, 2009
The optimizer is the heart and soul of a relational DBMS. It analyzes SQL statements and determines the most efficient access plan for satisfying each statement. The optimizer accomplishes this by parsing the SQL statement to determine which tables and columns must be accessed. It then queries system information and statistics stored in the system catalog and directory to determine the best method of accomplishing the tasks necessary to satisfy the request.
Posted February 15, 2009
Quest Software Inc. has announced the newest edition of Spotlight on Oracle, a desktop-based monitoring and diagnostics tool that provides visibility into Oracle database processes and performance. Spotlight exposes current and future performance problems, ensuring that database administrators (DBAs) remain a step ahead of database issues that can negatively impact applications, users, customers, and business operations.
Posted February 10, 2009
Altova, creator of XMLSpy, the industry-leading XML editor, announced the availability of Version 2009 of the Altova MissionKit, an integrated suite of XML, database, data integration, and UML tools.
Posted February 10, 2009
Occasionally the database under design becomes more than a one-off project. For example, the data mart or data warehouse might act as a profit center for the organization, and as a solution sold to many customers. The possibility exists to capture a basic truth for a given industry in a simple universal design exactly suiting everyone. But unless the situation really qualifies as a valid "one-size-fits-all" circumstance, one needs a level of customization within the architecture.
Posted January 15, 2009
Staffing the DBA organization is not a simple matter. Several non trivial considerations must be addressed, including the size of the DBA staff and the reporting structure for the DBAs.
Posted January 15, 2009
SQL Server has supported VLDBs (very large databases) for some time now. Back in the SQL Server 2000 days, I recall hearing multi-terabyte databases were unusual but doable. Now, they are commonplace, while databases in the hundreds of terabytes inhabit the part of the map that says "there be dragons." While VLDBs are quite common on SQL Server today, highly scalable systems that can be flexibly extended in the same fashion as Oracle/RAC are less so. So, how do you design a highly available architecture for SQL Server if it's not like Oracle/RAC.
Posted January 15, 2009
Complex Event Processing is only a few years old, but it is rapidly entering the mainstream in a large number of fields that require continuous analysis of large volumes of real-time data.
Posted January 15, 2009
Database administrators are critically important contributors in modern enterprises, ensuring that key infrastructure is performing optimally in support of the organization's goals. Like employees in every department, the best DBAs are constantly seeking to increase the value of their contributions and, correspondingly, to increase their compensation and to advance in their organizations. Increasing knowledge and skills and taking more important responsibilities are time-honored methods for career advancement. Here are 10 concrete suggestions for DBAs looking to get ahead.
Posted January 15, 2009
Netezza, a leader in data warehouse and analytic appliance, has announced its collaboration with Microsoft and the first part of its high-performance data integration strategy for Microsoft Business Intelligence As a result, according to the vendors, Microsoft customers can now take advantage of Netezza's high-speed terascale analytic capabilities and extend the value of their existing Microsoft BI investment, and Netezza customers will now have more choice through tighter integration and technology compatibility with Microsoft's SQL Server 2008.
Posted January 13, 2009
Oracle has announced world record multi-node SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark results for Oracle Fusion Middleware. The combination of Oracle WebLogic Server, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, together with Oracle Database 11g on mission-critical HP Integrity server blades running HP-UX 11i v3 delivered the record-breaking results.
Posted January 06, 2009