DBTA E-EDITION
April 2022
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Trends and Applications
It's no secret that businesses have become more data-driven in recent years, with powerful big data analytics increasingly delivering on the promise of adding business value. As a result, the quality and enrichment of data have become top priorities for business leaders on a global scale. In fact, according to a recent survey of chief data officers, 88% have started building automation into their data management processes to help manage data quality.
As everyone pushes for real-time analytics, more responsive online services, and more protection against cybercrime, data resiliency has moved front and center. Put simply, data must be available at all times. This requires a shift in conventional thinking toward data resiliency strategies in recognition of the fact that it is no longer a technical issue; it's a business issue.
It is well known that a database is the fundamental building block for any data-based initiative. Databases are used when collecting, storing, processing, and analyzing data. A database is the silent component that drives business decisions and operational improvements or simply keeps track of inventory. As much as the database should be the almost invisible part of these processes, it is crucial to make the right choice. While it might look easy to select a suitable database, there are a few things to evaluate when making a decision.
Enterprises are just scratching the surface of data-driven opportunities, and many simply aren't ready to leverage their data assets to lead their markets. There are concerns about the security of sharing data between organizations, as well as identifying and building platforms to accomplish a data-driven infrastructure. These concerns may abate as data-driven partner ecosystems and benefits develop.
Columns - Database Elaborations
Data architects live in a world caged by bars of process, standards, and documented procedures—things many would consider a high ceremony lifestyle. As an industry, information technology has been migrating more and more into agile frameworks for some time now. High ceremony is often seen as an earmark of "waterfall" approaches, which constitute the evil empire that agile frameworks are fighting to replace. The result of this opposition is that formal data architecture groups often do not fold easily into agile approaches.
Columns - DBA Corner
Data privacy regulations—coupled with the desire to protect sensitive data—impose requirements on organizations to protect production data. Since many organizations rely on production data as a source for test data, techniques are needed to mask sensitive data elements from unauthorized viewing.
Columns - Quest IOUG Database & Technology Insights
Are you a developer who is using Oracle Database and is interested in learning more about Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)? At Quest's INSYNC conference, Anil Nair, product manager at Oracle, presented "A Developer's Guide to Oracle RAC." The session covered tips and tricks to ensure that developers can benefit from features such as session failover and load balancing with minimal effort.
Columns - SQL Server Drill Down
Database applications have vastly improved in recent years, but despite our best efforts, they can still feel frustratingly slow. A report that is supposed to take minutes might instead (for unknown reasons) take 2 hours. Corporate teams complain that every time they work with the database, it gums up the works, leaving users grumpy and managers suspicious. This is no small matter. According to the SolarWinds Query Report 2021, nearly one-third of data pros surveyed manage more than 300 databases in their organization's environment.
Columns - Emerging Technologies
Although IPFS—the so-called Interplanetary File System— has far less name recognition than blockchain, it represents one of the essential technologies underlying the current boom in NFTs (non-fungible tokens).