Database Encryption – Part 1 This is a topic I love to review every once in a while. Encryption is a big enough task; but, wrap a database around it, and you have a bigger can of worms. Why would you want your database encrypted? Database backups take offsite may be restored easily if they are not encrypted If a […]

What’s In a Name? – Final Part 3 Today we end this series on the power of choosing good names for your code. We have not been getting into conventions so much in regard to case, plurality and some of the other things well documented for establishing standards. We have been taking a broader approach to the power of choosing […]

What’s In a Name? – Part 2 Last week in Part 1 I discussed the importance of naming a data element when it comes to aggregation, and reuse. Today I am going to consider the usefulness of table and column names themselves in a general perspective. Unless your intention is to obfuscate the contents of your database, using good names […]

Last week I wrote about the data flows that the military is facing – and the sheer volume of these and what they mean to the people responsible for managing that data. In addition, I mentioned that I think the issue of analyzing and working with that information is substantial. Since there are really two different "modes" of working with […]

Really funny thing happened. I had seen an article talking specifically about drones and the huge amounts of data, both video and otherwise, being produced. The issue, it seems, is that so much information is coming in that they can’t get through it all in a comprehensive way, especially not in "real" time. The article goes on to talk about […]

What’s In a Name? What we call things in software matters. Naming conventions make communication easier for other developers, and can help bring clarity to the software for yourself. Overloading a term is a common occurrence. I find this more common in summary data where you might have a term such as Sale Amount. What is a Sale Amount? Well, […]

The Cloud Paradigm Shift Many companies try to utilize the cloud using the same techniques they used when hosting their own applications, or hosting it in a data center. Servers, IP Addresses, Machine Names and many other things are essential for success and maintenance. In contrast, when using the cloud you tend to think in terms of functionality. Web services, […]

As you build out systems and solutions that are taking advantage of the cloud and cross-platform capabilities, it’s important to remember to circle-back and update your checklists and overall procedures so you make sure things are managed correctly. Cloud-Based elements to keep track of include the many new aspects of managing your servers and instances once you move to the […]

Multi-process Contention in SQL When you have multiple processes managing the same data in your database, often you will need some sort of transactional model assuring multiple processes don’t pick up the same unit of work (rows in a table). The easiest technique to separate processes is to lock records to/being processed. I like the queue table concept which I […]

Deploying systems, whether it’s an update to an existing system or a new set of applications, is getting quite challenging. We’ve been working through updates on our own systems and the "fingers" of the systems touch so many things that it’s truly difficult to work through all of the iterations that people may encounter as they use different systems. With […]