New OfficeTV Video Posted
PowerPoint Presentation Tips for a More Energized Presentation, Color-Coding Appointments in Outlook. Also, Charts in Access 2007 and Thoughts About the Real Costs of Losing Information. (From our sister site, OfficeUsers.org)
[Watch the Show]
Featured Article(s)
MySQL Web Hosting Package – What To Look For
Structured query language is what SQL means and MySQL is one such medium to use the database for storing large number of records. It is always necessary for any application to have a database designed in a dedicated way. MySQL is one such option that lets you create a database of your requirement. It is an open source relational database that provides maximum flexibility for users when compared to other database vendors. MySQL can be combined with PHP to dynamically design web pages and host them on the internet.
(More on departmental databases tomorrow)
Netflix Lessons Learned
Some very important lessons come out of the Netflix saga – I hope we can get official word, rather than rumor, so we can see how to apply what’s happened. But, the one thing that comes out of even this very short article is the step that so many of us forget – that of rolling back shortly after an upgrade, migration or other change to the system. Slightly after? Yep. Think about it – if you roll out your new system, your new updates, etc, – and everything looks good, then take the system live, what do you do when you discover a short while later that there are issues.
A simple roll-back isn’t going to cut it. You have transactions in the system. You can just ignore them and roll-back to where you were. You can’t run as you are; the system is broken. What do you do?
I think (hope) we all have systems in place to run manually or in "limp-along" mode should a system go down. But what are your processes for coming back online, then testing that recovery? I think this probably boils down to that final test – making sure things came up as they must. Clearly, before the final whistle was blown to say all clear on the update, a test was missed.
I think the real lesson is two-fold. First, think about the testing you’re doing. Make sure it’s as comprehensive as you can possibly make it. What are your use-case tests, what are your tests to make sure the tests succeeded?
Second, what if… what if something goes wrong. What are your recovery options? What do you do if it all goes south?
Good things to have in place and ready to go. Of course if you have them, you’ll never need them.
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EMC CLARiiON Data Replication Options for Microsoft SQL Server Deployments Technology Concepts and Business Considerations
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