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…

As the 50^th anniversary of the Star Trek TV series looms, it’s interesting to think of the wisdom that can be shared from the many voyages of starship Enterprise as it went “where no man has gone before.” Remember “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode…

As a follow-up to Pete Koliopolous (Vice President, Global Software Channels & Alliances) video on the new channel landscape, I caught up with Chris Miller, Executive Director EMEA Channels, to get his perspective on how this relates to EMEA.   

Q1…

Let me start with this – I am not “piling on.” This kind of outage could happen to anyone. I remember when I first heard that Delta had to cancel many flights over the last few days, I assumed that their systems had been hacked. I guess I’m relieved…

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…

Just this week, my marketing team completed a project that involved the creation of six new web pages on our site. That might not sound like a lot, but it took many different groups many hours to deliver them live on the appointed day. This started me…

In less than two months, we will be at Microsoft Ignite! We invite you to stop by booth #1210 and meet the staff. But not before getting to know a little more about a few members of our booth staff first. Have other questions for them? Ask in the comment…

Co-written with Priscilla Tenggara.

When it comes to Pokémon Go horror stories, we’ve heard it all - from trespassing, to injuries, to even robberies. It seems like the risk to users has no limit. Whether or not it’s intentional, users gaining access…

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…

You don’t have to be faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive to become a data protection hero. You simply need to address the when, where, why and how of protecting your organization’s applications and data against various threats…

In this blog post, I’ll approach some issues pertaining to Data Protection | Rapid Recovery virtual standby machines. It is a subject that requires some groundwork to be properly approached. So, without further ado, let’s begin!

Rapid Recovery…

The cloud: the final frontier. These are the voyages of your enterprise. Its mission: to explore strange new technologies, to seek out innovation, to boldly go where your organization has never gone before.

I hope you’re as excited about the new Star…

Time is one of the scarcest resources in any kind of organization and we, as virtual systems administrators, are also affected by it. New tasks appear every day, our clients (internal and external) become more and more demanding, technology keeps on developing…

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,…

Over the past four months, nearly every customer conversation I’ve had begins and ends with the cloud. Migrations are picking up speed as cloud platforms reach primetime readiness. And, the amount of data being generated by people—and machines—is reaching…

New Windows 10 features are getting ink in the tech press, but it’s Windows 10 security that’s top of mind for most system administrators.

When we conducted a webcast called Under the Hood with Windows 10 Security, more than 2,300 sysadmins…

Four things you need to do to achieve a data-driven business.

Earlier this month, Independence Day got me thinking about leadership. Certainly, we all want our country to lead on the world stage in our dynamic and sometimes chaotic times. Whatever your…

Nearly half of home break-ins occur without use of force, according to this article. Meaning: Somebody left a door or window unlocked. Thieves like it easy. If they liked to work, they’d get a job rather than try to rob you. In fact, cops will tell…

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…

...So you can start building a water weenie.

Sure, you can spend your whole summer working on SQL Server performance tuning, but wouldn’t you really rather build and operate your own water weenie, like Windell here?

I thought so.

Windell is a…

Comic-Con 2016 is nearly upon us, the annual July pilgrimage when thousands of out-and-proud nerds, geeks and fanboys/girls gather in San Diego to celebrate their favorite superheroes, anti-heroes and unrepentant villains. When, for one long weekend…