CEO's Connection
The Lights Out Datacenter, Myth or Reality?
by Rob Gardos, CEO

Welcome to the Lights Out Datacenter, where all your administration dreams come true.  The intelligence baked into your hardware and software has now obviated the need for any human involvement.  And we know those humans are trouble!  Between the feedings, burpings, and diaper changes it’s a wonder they can get anything done.  Thankfully, my big automation vendor [insert many familiar names here] has assured me that their product does everything: deployment, instantaneous recovery, automated tuning, predictive capacity allocation, making you breakfast, tucking you in at night, etc. I love the guarantees from sales and marketing folk! But beyond this fantasy what actual value can we derive from the hype? More >>

Featured Article
Monitoring is Not Management
by Matthew Zito, Chief Scientist

I'm not sure where IT's infatuation with "enterprise monitoring" originated, but I have a theory that it stems from the Star Wars movies.  There's something about the typical enterprise monitoring systems - their dashboard notices, network maps, and flashing alerts - that seems an awful lot like the Death Star. More >>

Ask the Expert - Mr. Database
Upgrade with Care
by Eric Gross, DBA

Of the three common provisioning activities (installation, upgrading, and patching), upgrading actually sits between the two extremes of a complete installation and piecemeal patching. 

• Installation – rare / hard
• Upgrade – sometimes / moderate
• Patching – frequent / easier

It is important to have a plan before making any changes to your database infrastructure.  The most essential part of the plan is a precise rollback procedure, for use in the event that the work fails. More>>