Featured Article(s)
A Question about Reports and Power Users
Jim’s first question that I answered really was focused around diving deeper into SQL Server and how to do it. Along those same lines, Jim was looking at how the users of the databases have changed and the overall look at his reports.
SSIS Help and Training
Our friends at AppDev have released a great course that now features step by step help on using and working with SSIS. You can get your free module to check it out via mail (CD) or just download it to get your copy and start working with SSIS and the training for it now. These courses feature all sorts of great tips and specific help on making SSIS do what you need it to do. Get your free SSIS training here.
Webcast, Register Now: Day 30 as DBA
This follow-on to the Day 1 as DBA show will go into the things you can do now that you’re semi-established in your routines. Daily maintenance, auditing, security checks, best practices and more. There is a lot to consider and think about when you’re putting a good foundation in place for your systems, we’ll cover check point items here and keep you up to speed on "what’s next."
> Register Now to Save Your Spot
> Webcast date: 8/14/2007 12:00pm Noon Pacific
The Consolidation Movement Very Much Underway
I was talking with PolyServe today about consolidation and some of the things they’re doing in that arena and am excited about an upcoming webcast talking about their products. . . but that got me thinking about the different people I’ve been talking with about consolidation and the choices people are making in terms of how to consolidate their SQL Servers.
I *still* hear consistently that SQL Server Express and MSDE applications are all over organizations, right along side departmental SQL Servers, in organizations with formal IT and database systems. This consolidation is a key thing going forward too – because it impacts applications, the performance and ability of these departments to do their jobs and of course the company’s bottom line. The big challenge is that you’re facing an uphill battle when it comes to consolidating these systems out of the control of the departments and into a more centralized structure. The whole reason the departmental database servers exist is because they were looking for more control, more access to their systems.
Of course that makes the auditors and best practices folks cry in their sleep. Ready access to servers that have company data on them, likely without controls, without appropriate security and such… not a good compliance picture. So, the move is a necessity, but you’ll have to work with the departments to explain why and how this will actually help them.
This goes to Craig’s talk in yesterday’s newsletter about having more visibility for, and formal establishment of, service level agreements with your users. It’s the old thing of many times the best solution for a given issue is to shine light on it. By opening up and working with your users and setting and responding to their expectations you can make this process of consolidation much more straightforward.
We’ve had good luck coming in as helpers rather than the computer police. Come in talking about the benefits and how you’ll be supporting the department. In many cases, you can help them get back to doing their work, rather than administering the database. Explain what they can expect and what you can help them with. Using this tactic, you can usually move forward with the consolidation much more easily and make a positive difference in their use of the system.
At the same time, you can start working with the right tools on the consolidation front to make sure you can provide those uptime assurances and that you can make their systems recoverable, usable and make them just plain work.
Featured White Paper(s)
Top 10 Performance Tuning Tips for Relational Databases
Although newer relational databases and faster hardware run most SQL queries with a significantly small response time, there … (read more)
Proactive Monitoring & Event Management Solutions for Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase & DB2 UDB
This whitepaper discusses DBA demands for database availability and the challenges to maintain uninterrupted 24/7 systems wit… (read more)
Enterprise Strategies to Improve Application Testing
Reliable applications come from reliable testing – and realistic test data plays a key role. Many organizations clone or copy… (read more)