Featured Article(s)
Using Oracle 11g Invisible Indexes
This article describes how to use Oracle 11g’s new invisible indexes to prevent the accidental use of an index by a production system.
We’ve Found Your SQL Assistant
Just imaging having a good friend check your SQL code, help as you type, show you statement syntax and the like. This, versus having to remember or lookup syntax, guess at usage, try, then edit, then try, then re-edit your code. If you’re not using an Assistant, you’re not where you could be in terms of getting things done with your TSQL, your Oracle, your DB2 or other major database of choice. Take a look at SQL Assistant – it provides auto-completion, code assistance and many more context-sensitive tools that really help you make the most of your time with your databases. Get more information here.
Do You See "BI" As Consolidating?
I saw this article about a Gartner bit about BI and their opinion that the overall BI marketplace won’t be continuing to grow at double-digit rates. Specifically, they’re saying that the available tools and software companies providing them will be consolidating, as will tools into the software itself. So, this suggests that the tools you look to third-party vendors for today will consolidate and be part of the SQL Server "engine" as a native capability. The same would presumably hold true for the other major database players.
I’m not sure this is a good thing. This is one area where I think we need some pretty sustained innovation and evolution. It seems like we have the whole "query this data and drop it into Excel" thing covered, but really learning data element importance and helping non-technical people be able to make sense of masses of data – I just don’t think this nut is cracked yet. There are some nice tools out there, some really great mining tools, but it makes your eyes hurt sometimes just setting them up with real data.
I’d like to see some true innovators come up with better ways to have intelligent information pulled from these huge sources of data we all have. I haven’t the *slightest* idea how that should be done – but if we can figure that out, we’d suddenly get so much more out of our databases in terms of company intelligence, decision support and overall management information flow.
I, for one, hope the industry doesn’t consolidate, that we get more players with serious offerings that really decide to compete, rather than "well, they have it, so I guess we better" type features. That’s what I think anyway.
Too bad no one is asking. 🙂
Featured White Paper(s)
Development, Change management, Code and Project deployment: Processes and Automation in SQL Server Environments
This white paper explores best practices and common approaches to managing the lifecycle of database projects in SQL Server e… (read more)
The Keys to Recoverability, from ESG
ESG Analyst, Lauren Whitehouse, discusses Double-Take Software’s concept of “recoverability” – which involves layers of prote… (read more)