Managing production application databases has become more demanding than ever before not only due to the complexity of the applications they support, but also the very small margins for performance slowdowns or outages.  Being proactive and resolving…

As the old saying goes, “the one constant in life is change”, and this is especially true in database environments.  There are many reasons why database environments experience change whether it be through typical maintenance efforts such…

Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise’s console does a wonderful job of providing insights into problems occurring in your environment. What I find interesting is that many users of this solution do not know that you have the ability to add automation. Automation…

It is a foregone conclusion that performance monitoring is part and parcel of managing a database instance once it is in production.  But what about pre-production?  Especially when the instance itself is reaching critical phases of testing and quality…

Naturally, it's VERY important to know when things are going wrong with our monitored instances. What's not helpful is the dreaded "False Positive." You know the scenario I'm about to describe. It's 03:00 and you're sleeping soundly and dreaming of the…

I could write SQL to solve this problem.. but the data was in Excel.

I pulled pricing and mileage data from several car for-sale sites and dropped it in an Excel sheet. Columns include year, price, kilometers (mileage), etc. Here is a snippet of the data…

When installing SharePlex one of the things you need to do is verify the installation is working by using the SharePlex test tables before using your own tables. 

There are a couple of scripts you can run to do this but in the video I recorded I show you…

DevOps has been pervasive within Application Development for several years, but the database environment is so different and sensitive in nature, making database development a barrier to an end-to-end DevOps strategy.

The most important element of DevOps…

“The most significant business benefit of DevOps is faster delivery of features.”

If most of the people you asked about DevOps told you that, wouldn’t it be worth a try?

Think of how much innovation DevOps adoption could introduce to…

Over the past three months, we’ve been developing a playbook for winning in the database management tools market guided by Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. This best-selling book is co-authored by A.G. Lafley, executive chairman of the…

If we’ve learned anything from the cinematic achievement that is all 72 Fast and Furious films, it’s that high-stakes operations can quickly go awry with the slightest technical glitch. Staying ahead of the competition requires agility and rapid…

Database developers: Does it feel as though everyone else gets the productivity benefits and fun from agile development, but not you?

In most organizations, agile is taking hold in application development, operations and even marketing. Meanwhile, database…

While it’s no secret that cloud technologies are rapidly changing the way that organizations are running their IT infrastructures, for many organizations that I speak with, databases (and data in general) seem to be the slowest to move.  There are…

A wealth of knowledge on SQL Server Wait Types awaits you in our Waitopedia site. Our in-depth information on SQL Server wait types gives you the upper hand when SQL Server performance is hindered due to one of these wait types.  Wait statistics can point…

I remember as a young lad of 12 years of age writing letters to friends and family that I had grown up with. As I would finish the letter, I would jump on my bike and run to the local post office to purchase a stamp for the letter. I’m not going…

Dollar Shave Club’s founder Michael Dubin said something like that in his first viral video about his company, and it completely changed the razor market. For a few bucks a month, his company would ship razors and blades directly to your home once a…

We have all read the headlines: Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines experienced a massive power outage that led to the cancellation of thousands of foreign and domestic flights. This seismic event took place at the height of the summer travel season…

Third-party validation. No, its purpose isn’t just to stroke our egos in admiration. Nor is it a meaningless attaboy. (“Way to go, little Timmy! You did good today, kiddo.”)

No, third-party validation acts as affirmation — a gut check…

My grandmother was the greatest. She was the iconic example of old world class and style… I never knew she was also a prophet.

As I was growing up, she would always take me aside and raising a finger crooked from age, she would point to me and…

As a database developer or DBA, you’ve lacked the proper tools to help you keep pace with the rest of your organization. You’ve watched your app-developing colleagues across the hall use agile to whiz through product releases and embrace DevOps to automate…

Let’s face it: We can’t all be the kind of hero who saves the world. But as a database administrator, if you could simplify database migrations and upgrades in your company, wouldn’t that make you a hero with your users and co-workers?…

To all you DBAs and database performance monitoring enthusiasts out there: Have you gotten your copy of the survey The Real World of the Database Administrator yet?

In my previous post, I highlighted several facts of DBA life noted in the survey, including…

“How can I cook when they’ve taken my kitchen away?”

Like the man in the photo, you may have to ask yourself that question now that Oracle Streams has been deprecated. If you depended on Oracle Streams for moving data in your database…

As a DBA, would you say that your database performance monitoring tasks are getting any less complex?

I thought not.

We commissioned a study called The Real World of the Database Administrator for a closer look at the facts of DBA life. In this post,…

I meet a lot of database developers who have agile envy. Are you one of them?

Do you see your counterparts on the application development teams scrumming and sprinting their way to shorter product cycles? Do you watch app developers release 25 updates…