DBTA E-EDITION
February 2019
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Trends and Applications
Increasingly, cloud services are seen as a vital resource in the data manager's toolkit. There's good reason why cloud is a preferred option: There are simply not enough on-premise resources to keep up with the growth of data management requirements. Organizations keep evolving, business priorities keep shifting, data compliance requirements keep expanding, and user demands keep growing. Already, one-fourth of corporate data is being maintained by cloud providers, and data managers intend to move as much of their data environments into the cloud as soon as they can.
In a post-GDPR world, the attention rests on which companies will be impacted by data breaches, what the total fines will be, and what the public scrutiny will entail. Though the impact of the fines—4% of a company's annual worldwide revenue or €20 million ($22.9 million) (whichever is greater)—is certainly eye-catching, a data breach could leave a company destabilized for years afterwards.
In the days of cloud computing and agile development, it might seem that being a DBA is somewhat less appealing as a career choice. However, the role of DBA is changing; it is not going away. In fact, it is becoming even more important.
Columns - Database Elaborations
In dimensional modeling, business events are typically designated as facts while descriptive information elements are dimensions. However, events (or information about them) occasionally serve as dimensions as well as facts. A good data architect must watch their p's and q's and be certain when it is appropriate for a fact to also serve as a dimension—or when the dual function is not appropriate.
Columns - DBA Corner
Every organization that manages data using a DBMS requires a database administration group to ensure the effective use and deployment of the company's databases. And since most modern organizations rely on database systems, they also need DBAs. That said, the discipline of database administration is not well-understood, nor is it universally practiced in a coherent and easily replicated manner.
Columns - Quest IOUG Database & Technology Insights
Much consternation is expressed these days on conference calls and in convention center hallways among technology professionals who are worried that automation in high tech will push them out of their jobs. Taglines such as "Automatic upgrades, automatic patching, and self-tuning eliminate human labor" make that fear not completely unfounded. But in real-world scenarios, there is a big difference between Utopian visions of the humanless data center and a realistic view of automation in information technology.
Columns - SQL Server Drill Down
If you haven't been paying a lot of attention, you might have missed the rise of a new form of virtualization, based at the operating system level, called "containers." While there are many specific software programs, by far the most prominent is Docker. So, from here on out, consider "Docker" and "container" to be synonymous.
Columns - Next-Gen Data Management
There are a lot of folks out there who make a living (many of them quite a good one) doing database performance tuning. Why? Tuning requires a high degree of knowledge and performance skill, is time-consuming, and means knowing the right diagnostics to collect when performance hits occur. Because of these and many other reasons, database performance experts thrive—and let's not forget about job security.
Columns - Emerging Technologies
Virtually all analyst firms, industry experts, and technology authorities still believe that blockchain is a key innovation in computer science and expect blockchain to have a massive impact across multiple industries over the next 10 years. The same authorities also agree that the ultimate success of blockchain technology depends on significant advancements to overcome the limitations inherent in the current implementations. In particular, the environmental impact of the public blockchain is too high, and the throughput of the public blockchain is too low.
MV Community
New challenges and opportunities in data management and analytics are constantly evolving. With a new year just beginning, MV companies are renewing their focus on the next big thing. In the annual "MultiValue Special Report," this year, DBTA asks: What are your predictions for 2019 and how is your MV platform addressing them?