Featured Article(s)
MySQL Basic SQL Part V – Counting with SQL
Many counting problems I see in answering reporting questions centers around the ability to sum, count, group, and select rows. Most SQL practitioners can count or sum values just fine but when they must answer questions on how the counting or summing relates to other information they don’t quite know where to start. Read on to learn a few counting tricks in MySQL
Where Can You Attend a Conference…
for $100? The SSWUG.ORG vConference, that’s where. The current early-bird registration rates will expire on the 15th of March. Right now you can attend the vConference, right from your computer, and see an unbeaten line-up of MVPs, Authors and other industry experts, all talking about tips, tricks, how-to information and a whole lot more. You can’t beat the speakers, the content, the environment – online OR offline. People are blogging about the conference, talking about it on Twitter, Facebook and all over the web. We’re just flat excited to bring you this incredible content and these speakers at a fraction of the cost of a $2,000+ conference.
The sessions are technical, not sales. The presenters are talking about real-world solutions and tips you can apply immediately, not fluff. At a time when travel budgets have been all but eliminated, training budgets have been frozen and the need to leverage your time, efforts and expertise has been increased, this is the best tool out there to make it happen.
[Get registered today] You can even add-on a SSWUG membership for only $30. The show is broken into the disciplines you need – SQL Server, SharePoint, .NET Development and Business Intelligence. Register for one or more and you’ll be all set.
Information Sharing – Best Practices?
I’ve been talking with a number of speakers about "cloud"-type issues with data storage, BI-type reporting and access and so-on. One thing that continues to bug me a bit is the process and approach of providing open access to information while maintaining controls over how that information is used or accessed.
There has been a relative lull in reports of data breaches, data losses and the like. This doesn’t mean, however, that the issue has been solved. I wonder as I hear more and more about integration of office products, SharePoint and Reporting Services dashboards and other tools and services being built just how we’ll provide this open access while at the same time controlling the data, or at least figuring out how to make "open" items available.
One approach I’ve heard a couple of times now amounts to segmenting data. Basically, you break apart that public info – make it available on the more public side of your systems and make sure it only contains information that doesn’t need to be protected. From there, you end up with multiple layers of access, increasing restrictive. It sounds good, but I am still concerned (you know, pet project of data security and all) about not just taking the easy route of granting access first, then pulling back later when you find out someone has access to something they shouldn’t.
I think this is an area that will lend itself really well to best-practices type approaches and open discussions about what works, what doesn’t and things that are of concern in putting these things "out there."
Featured White Paper(s)
Java Database Connectivity
Database connections are the lifeblood of enterprise applications, administrating the secure and steady flow of information b… (read more)