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 […]
Editorials
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 […]
When The Flu = Better DB Practices
Like too many of us, I’ve been fighting a nasty bout of the cold or flu or whatever it is that’s going around. And while I’ve been enjoying (!) the exhaustion and inability to think straight actually got me thinking about the many things that keep systems running so you’re not on the hook 24/7. One of the things that […]
A Request for You
We’re getting rolling on the next upcoming SSWUG.ORG virtual conference. We’ll be looking for speakers who are passionate about their favorite technologies, who have opinions on the way to get things done and have stories to share about what goes right, what goes wrong. It’s not all about tweaking this or that technology – it’s also about platforms, tools, a […]
Data Archives, Privacy and Data Protection (and the GDPR)
Several posts of late have had to do with data privacy, protecting information, etc., but from the standpoint of what does this mean for our systems and our work with data… I think the implications are critical planning points for systems going forward. For me at least, when I’ve traditional built systems, once the data is acquired, it’s kept. We […]
Privacy and Data Protection is a Moving Target
It seems that exactly WHAT makes up privacy and what data is ok to use, what is not ok to use, is an incredibly fast-moving target. I remember when Netflix was initially ramping up their streaming services – back in the early days of original content for them. They had just released (I think) season 2 of House of Cards […]
Does the Cloud Force Data Silos?
As we’ve been working with different people, and, embarrassingly, our own systems, I’ve been noticing a trend. It’s been bugging me for a while now, but I’ve not really been able to put words to it. I mentioned in the prior editorial that multi-platform was important. Basically, use the right tool for the job at hand. And then I noticed […]