When it comes to assigning value to different components in today's IT environment, it would be a serious mistake to underestimate the value of data and databases. Whether you are looking to reduce downtime and speed up your database-centric application or to save money and time on optimizing your database servers, the following best practices can help you improve the performance of your SQL Server environment and, ultimately, your business service delivery process.
Posted July 12, 2016
NoSQL database systems are designed to store data differently than relational database systems. NoSQL databases are known for their fast storage of a range of data types. However, when evaluating different systems it is important to understand the performance over time. Databases are meant to remain active over long periods of time as more data is stored. Organizations and business are increasingly sensitive to customer expectations, and predictable performance of their database is critical.
Posted July 12, 2016
Organizations have directed a lot of attention recently to consolidation, automation, and cloud efforts in their data management environments. This will purportedly result in decreased demand for data managers and the need for fewer DBAs per groups of databases. However, the opposite seems to be occurring. In actuality, there is a growing need for more talent, as well as expertise to manage through growing complexity. A new survey, sponsored by Idera and conducted by Unisphere Research among more than 300 data executives, managers, and professionals finds that a more challenging data environment is arising due to a confluence of factors.
Posted July 12, 2016
As storage requirements continue to spiral upward, more organizations are relying on the cloud to help them do data management, backup, data warehousing, development/test and archive, according to a new research report, based on a survey among members of the IOUG that was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.
Posted June 17, 2016
Success with Big Data: Key Observations from Data Summit 2016 Presentations
Posted June 17, 2016
Here we go again - yet another world changing innovation. Billions of dollars are being invested to develop and deploy this next-generation industry. Many existing methods of doing business, and businesses themselves, will be disrupted and replaced by this new wave of technology. What is this wondrous new innovation? Why it is the Internet of Things (IoT) of course.
Posted June 17, 2016
It's rare now to read about breaches that resulted from direct attacks on the data center, as organizations have done a great job at securing their network infrastructures. But, with business applications moving to the cloud and mobile users connected all the time, traditional appliance-based security measures can no longer protect the modern business. The glass box is broken, the perimeter has vanished, and attacks have shifted to the weakest link: the user.
Posted June 09, 2016
The data manager now sits in the center of a revolution swirling about enterprises. In today's up-and-down global economy, opportunities and threats are coming in from a number of directions. Business leaders recognize that the key to success in hyper-competitive markets is the ability to leverage data to draw insights that predict and provide prescriptive action to stay ahead of markets and customer preferences. For that, they need to keep up with the latest solutions and approaches in data management. Here are 12 of the key technologies turning heads—or potentially opening enterprise wallets—in today's data centers.
Posted June 09, 2016
DBTA 100 2016 - The Companies That Matter Most in Data
Posted June 06, 2016
Emerging and newer vendors can offer fresh, innovative ways of dealing with data management and analytics challenges. Here, DBTA looks at the 10 companies whose approaches we think are worth watching.
Posted June 06, 2016
Thanks to the cloud and other empowering technologies such as Hadoop and Apache Spark, we're at the tipping point for big data. These technologies now provide a path to big data success for companies who otherwise lack the specialized big data skills or heretofore proprietary (and expensive) infrastructure to do it themselves. As 2016 progresses, we'll see the broader market put big data capabilities to work and the benefits of big data will, in turn, spread beyond the privileged few companies that were early big data adopters.
Posted May 25, 2016
The OpenStack Trove database as a service (DBaaS) project has come a long way since incubation in Grizzly and Havana, and integration in the Icehouse release in April 2014. At that time, it supported single instances of MongoDB, MySQL and a few other databases. Today, Trove supports Cassandra, Couchbase, CouchDB, DataStax Enterprise, DB2 Express, MariaDB, MongoDB, MySQL Percona, Percona XtraDB Cluster, Redis, and Vertica.
Posted May 25, 2016
COLLABORATE, the annual conference presented each year by the OAUG, IOUG and Quest, provides the opportunity to reflect on key changes in the Oracle ecosystem and allows the users groups to engage with their constituents about the areas of greatest importance. With the COLLABORATE 16 conference now behind her, Dr. Patricia Dues, the new president of the OAUG, talked with DBTA about what OAUG members are concerned with now and how the OAUG is helping them address emerging challenges.
Posted May 25, 2016
The world's data has doubled in 18 months' time. The industry estimates that the global amount of storage will reach 40 ZB by 2020. Historically, storage architectures were built on solutions that could only scale vertically. This legacy approach to storage presents significant challenges to being able to store the tremendous quantities of data being created today in a way that is cost-effective and maintains high levels of performance. Today, most of the world's data centers are still using vertical scaling solutions for storage, which means that organizations are seeking alternatives that allow them to scale cheaply and efficiently in order to remain competitive. And now, with software defined storage moving forward, we see the use of more scale-out storage solutions in data centers.
Posted May 04, 2016
The elastic and distributed technologies used to run modern applications require a new approach to operations — one that learns about your infrastructure and assists IT operators with maintenance and problem-solving. The inter-dependencies between new applications are creating chaos in existing systems and surfacing the operational challenges of modern systems. Solutions like micro services architectures alleviate the scalability pains of centralized proprietary services but at a tremendous cost in complexity.
Posted May 04, 2016
The latest release of Oracle Database (12.1.0.2) offers a unique set of features that portend increases in application workload execution, especially for analytics and data warehousing queries. This release, debuts Oracle Database In-Memory which provides a new columnar format - the In-Memory Column Store (IMCS) - for data that is likely to be accessed regularly for aggregation or analysis, as well as other features such as In-Memory Aggregation and In-Memory Joins that potentially offer several orders of magnitude of performance improvement. Finally, the new In-Memory Advisor makes short work of determining exactly which database objects are most likely able to take advantage of the IMCS.
Posted May 04, 2016
The COLLABORATE 16 conference for Oracle users kicked off with a presentation by Unisphere Research analyst Joe McKendrick who shared insights from a ground-breaking study that examined future trends and technology among 690 members of three major Oracle users groups.
Posted April 25, 2016
The greatest power in using IoT-derived insights is the ability respond to opportunities or threats immediately. However, enterprises largely have focused on historical reporting and will need to significantly modernize their analytics capabilities—both in understanding current events and predicting future outcomes—to take advantage of the new insights that IoT data can bring.
Posted April 25, 2016
The need for data integration has never been more intense than it has been recently. The Internet of Things and its muscular sibling, the Industrial Internet of Things, are now being embraced as a way to better understand the status and working order of products, services, partners, and customers. Mobile technology is ubiquitous, pouring in a treasure trove of geolocation and usage data. Analytics has become the only way to compete, and with it comes a need for terabytes—and gigabytes—worth of data. The organization of 2016, in essence, has become a data machine, with an insatiable appetite for all the data that can be ingested.
Posted April 25, 2016
Database as a service, also known as DBaaS, offers a solution to some key issues that have vexed enterprise database shops for years. That is, how to maintain and update back-end technologies; how to integrate data from multiple, changeable sources without the need to rewrite the applications that depend on them; and how to make data readily accessible to end users who need it regardless of the device they are using.
Posted April 25, 2016
Ever wonder what happened to artificial intelligence? It's gotten easier and more accessible. In fact, AI's been embedded into some of the most fundamental aspects of data management, making those critical data-driven processes more celeritous and manageable. Best of all, AI is directly responsible for producing this effect for end users—those who rely on data most to do their jobs.
Posted March 31, 2016
Virtualized Oracle databases, just like all virtual machines, share physical server resources with other virtual machines running on the same hypervisor. We'll call virtual machines that reside on the same hypervisor "siblings." VM sibling rivalries occur due to resource shortages caused by improper virtual machine placement. Databases generally have more severe ramifications when resource shortages occur than other virtualized applications, making good sibling behavior crucial for your Oracle databases.
Posted March 31, 2016
Successful data-driven organizations are differentiated by the fact that they recognize the need for new tools and technologies that support data visualization, and enable a visual culture of data discovery in its people, processes, and technologies.
Posted March 31, 2016
From POODLE, Heartbleed, and Shellshock in 2014, to the Hacking Team breach, OpenSSL's FREAK, and a variety of zero-day vulnerabilities in 2015, we have seen a consistent ramp-up in security threats and successful data breaches. 2016 is the time for businesses to take their collective managerial and accounting heads out of the sand and build security into every level of their products and processes.
Posted March 22, 2016
Many businesses have implemented new enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, expecting business benefits to magically fall into place, only to be disappointed. According to recent studies, 25% of ERP implementations fail, and at least 80% exceed budget or take longer than the originally planned development time. This is not good for business in more way than one.
Posted March 22, 2016
In recent years there has been an explosion of innovation in the database market. A popular rating report recently included more than 30 vendors in its 2015 report. And, organizations today are realizing how specific and complex their evolving needs are, and that they cannot solely rely on the "big three."
Posted March 22, 2016
For those whose brackets took a blow after just the first several games of the 2016 NCAA men's basketball championships, this year's tournament may provide a case in point on the value of analytics over sentiment.
Posted March 22, 2016
COLLABORATE 16 Starts April 10 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Posted March 21, 2016
The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) has represented the voice of Oracle technologists and professionals for more than 20 years, and we are so proud of how our community has not just grown but maintained its adaptive approach that centers on peer-to-peer education and know-how. We hope that you share our sense of pride as we celebrate the technology community's marquee event: COLLABORATE 16-IOUG Forum.
Posted March 21, 2016
The OAUG volunteers planning COLLABORATE 16: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community (April 10-14 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas) are themselves Oracle users and technologists, understanding innately the myriad options and challenges faced by the wider user community in a period of rapid change and transformation. With participation and contributions from all corners of the user community, COLLABORATE offers the information and perspective to make sense of it all.
Posted March 21, 2016
Quest International Users Group supports customers using JD Edwards or PeopleSoft ERP, as well as related Oracle edge applications—products that are important to the success for many companies in today's challenging business environment. At COLLABORATE 16 and throughout the year, Quest is your top resource!
Posted March 21, 2016
MySQL is a popular open source database and one of the top relational databases—and with good reason. It is an extremely feature-rich and powerful database platform. With all its positives, however, MySQL has a number of challenges that can limit its ability to perform with the agility and performance businesses increasingly require. Here's a quick look at how to optimize MySQL for your ever-changing environment.
Posted March 03, 2016