A few people have written to me asking about different things that can be done to protect information in the systems. The fact is that companies are indeed thirsty for every single bit of information they can get their hands on, whether they have a use for it now or not. The thought is that it may be helpful/useful later […]
Author: Stephen Wynkoop
Data Responsibility and Data Architecture
There have been a few posts now talking about a corporate thirst for big data (I love that analogy – because it IS a thirst) and the fact that companies have this all-out push to get as much information as possible. I don’t mean to vilify companies or any of that. It’s the promise of using information to better serve customers with […]
Facebook Post Prioritization is an Important Lesson
I’ve been watching the whole Facebook thing pretty closely. It’s a look at personalization, at playing human behavior to give people what they want (even if they don’t necessarily realize it’s what they want), and all of that. Say what you will about Facebook, but they’re an interesting look at what can be done when you know a whole lot […]
Is it possible to have a secure system?
Spoiler alert: I don’t think so. If someone wants your information badly enough, and they have sufficient resources to spend on getting into your system, I think they’ll probably succeed. Personally, I can’t foresee a day where we have all possible vulnerabilities blocked and accounted for – just as a matter of course. I found an interesting post about this […]
More on Data Management and Protection
Some good feedback from readers about schema changes and requirements because of data protection. True that there are many things that we’ll have to figure out – from what types of tools and interfaces to offer to the owners of the information to auditing and proof that you’re managing it all. One interesting point yesterday was what happens if a […]
Does Privacy/Protection Impact Schema Design?
Many times working through systems you don’t have the luxury of starting from the beginning. You’re working with an existing system, updating it and bringing it forward or adding new columns or what-have-you. In cases where you ARE working from the start, do you find that privacy is impacting data design? Not from a yes or no on whether you […]
Updating/Upgrading your SQL Server Installation(s)
Long ago (no galaxy involved) it was common practice to wait until after SP1 or even SP2 arrived on the scene before updating to the newest version of SQL Server. I’m curious how virtual machines, the ability to test more completely on developer editions and such, and general stability of SQL Server and the power of the engine have changed […]
Have We Crossed a Threshhold with SQL Server Security?
It seems like we’re (finally) moving into an implementation phase with SQL Server and data security. By that I mean, it seems like we are close to having the tools we need for various places in the lifetime of information and, for a good majority of them, those tools do indeed provide the cover to implement good security. Application firewalls and […]
Surprise! Data Folks Will Have to Drive GDPR/Privacy Protections
We work with a product line that produces online event for companies (bear with me, this isn’t an ad). This is for webinars, virtual conferences, etc. The goal of nearly every one of these events is to gather information about your attendees to be able to better serve them by knowing what they’re most interested in. So, to that end, […]
Love/Hate Relationship with Unstructured Data
No doubt you’ve seen, and perhaps been working with unstructured solutions out there – DynamoDB, Azure Table Storage, and there are many other options as well. It’s pretty cool that you can define key/value pairs and just start dumping information into the system, really without regard to structure and columns and many of the things that have traditionally made up […]