Webcast: SQL Service Broker Advanced Performance Tips and Tricks – Coming this Wednesday
We will be looking at some of the advanced features of SQL Service Broker as well as some of the advanced techniques which can be used to maximize the performance of the SQL Service Broker.
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> Live date: 11/3/2010 at 12:00 Pacific
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Help Yourself BI – Performance and Locking
The cool thing about working with information technology is that if you wait long enough, stuff you did years ago may come back into style. Sort of like an old tie. One year Wide ties are the norm; then its narrow ties, and 10 years later wide ties are the fashion statement.
In the old days Centralized systems and management was the norm. Then with the advent of the micro-computer distributed resources and management became the norm. After that we started networking those micro-computers because they really did become key business resources. Now we are going back full circle with service based centralized resources, where the workstation is becoming little more than a Citrix terminal or a host for a browser. For that matter, I can do an amazing amount of work on my cell phone…(if only my old eyes could see it).
So, what does that have to do with BI, Performance and Locking? Years ago I put together a SQL Server database for managing health claims. One of the users insisted that they needed access to the data in a free form self help system. They knew enough about MS Access that we were able to put together some views simplifying the schema, and then provide access to those views through an Access Project, interacting with the views directly.
The first thing this individual did was go create his own form that combined the entire database (via the views) so that he could see each and every transaction with supporting data. He could open this form which took quite some time to complete (but he didn’t know it because of lazy loading) and then apply a filter to find anything he wanted. From his perspective, it was "perfect".
I would get calls from him a few times daily telling me that the data entry people were locked out. I’d ask him, "do you have your search form open?" He’d say, "yes" and I would ask him to close it. Then I’d ask, are things working now, and his reply would be, "Yes, great." Two hours later he would call again and we would have the same conversation with the same results. We did solve his problem with a data mart….he was OK with a nightly rebuild as being current enough data for his needs.
These are the kind of things that are going to happen with the do it yourself data mining. The main difference is that most people impacted won’t be the people handling real time data management. It will be the people accessing your BI Data Stores. And you are going to be required to figure out how to meet both these differing requirements.
Anybody have some suggestions? How are you providing data to the community at large while not letting special interest groups or individuals monopolize the data resources? Send your comments or ideas to btaylor@sswug.org. Even if you are not moving toward Power Pivot, this is still an issue we often face. It would be helpful to all of us to hear your solutions or difficulties.
Cheers,
Ben