Quest Software, a global systems management and security software provider, is announcing enhancements to its portfolio of SQL Server database management and performance monitoring solutions.
“We are announcing multiple enhancements to address the Microsoft SQL Server community and customer base,” said Greg Davoll, software products leader, Quest Software. Quest as a company is focused on three sets of capabilities for customers: database performance monitoring; database replication; and database development and management tooling, and these new product enhancements reflect that focus, he added.
While this round of enhancements is directed at the Microsoft community, Davoll stressed that Quest is very committed to the cross-platform—or multiple database world—including Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, and SAP Sybase, and will continue to enhance those offerings and serve those audiences. “We believe that in the corporate world, there are more database flavors than ever. It used to be that you would see three to five production databases, but now we see five to 10 flavors of databases in a midsize-to-big company when to include relational and non-relational databases, And, so managing these environments hasn’t gotten easier. It has actually gotten more complex and our job is to make it as easy to manage eight databases as it is to manage a single flavor of a database. The reason we are focusing on SQL Server with this announcement is that we wanted to make sure that the Microsoft community and specifically the SQL Server and Azure communities understand that SQL Server is not just another platform—it is one of our top tier focus areas—and we have commitments against all dimensions of the tools that we provide. “
In a key enhancement, a new release of Spotlight on SQL Server enables Linux database monitoring in addition to Oracle, MySQL, Postgres, DB2 and SAP/Sybase database platforms. The capability gives SQL server database administrators the ability to secure data, move data, and monitor overall health for on premise and Azure SQL database environments. The newest release of Spotlight v12 is a ‘download and go’ software that delivers detailed performance metrics and monitoring capacities for Microsoft SQL Server on premise and in the cloud, and now also SQL Server deployed on Linux.
Since SQL Server on Linux is still pre-GA, Quest is supporting an earlier build and, as it goes GA, Quest will do the same, said Davoll. “We are on the early bandwagon and want to make sure that, as the Microsoft product is being tested by customers, they have our product to monitor its health and availability.”
Additionally, Spotlight Extensions for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) feature two new toolsets inside SSMS to help developers quickly see and fix potential SQL Server performance issues before they impact the business. Spotlight Developer gives developers real-time alerts to performance issues so they can react fast with fixes, while the Spotlight Tuning Pack leverages artificial intelligence to provide developers with the tools to navigate complex query plans, deliver an accurate interpretation of the plan, and make necessary improvements and optimize the SQL code itself.
Quest is also introducing Toad for SQL Server v6.8, which is designed to help DBAs quickly resolve issues, manage change and ensure the highest levels of quality, performance and maintainability in SQL Server database environments. The toolset features new plugin capabilities to help DBAs leverage Toad features within SQL Server Management Studio. The new release will support SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2015 Version Control to allow DBAs to run faster, more reliable databases by doing more work in less time.
And finally, there is a new release of Quest SharePlex, which is used by DBAs to replicate and migrate data and workloads from Oracle database platforms to other enterprise database. Further extending the capabilities support to SQL server environments, the new version of SharePlex will support customers that need real-time replication of database workloads from SQL Server on premises to other databases, both on premise and in the cloud, including Microsoft Azure and AWS, said Davoll.
“We are trying to make it easier for DBAs to manage more complex environments in order to free them up for other tasks such as building new applications faster and with better quality,” said Davoll. “We are helping them automate a lot of the difficult and repetitive tasks, and providing the capabilities in an easy to use product with a graphical user interface and the ability to drill down to satisfy all of their needs as they get into diagnosing and fixing problems.”
For more information, visit www.quest.com.