Database Intelligence: Interpreting Database Technology

Infoworld today announced that they have been researching a flaw in oracle that can result in the inability to restore your database. Large oracle shops with interconnected databases are most at risk.

The Lost Science of Relational Algebra and Set Theory.

The Impact of Query Rewrite on MySQL Query Optimization

Enforcing Least Privilege To Enhance Database Security

While tape-based backup approaches may still be optimal for long-term data retention, more and more database storage/backup administrators are moving from tape to disk technology for everyday data backup and recovery. This is not surprising as disk is faster to write to and faster to recover from, as well as more reliable overall.

In an earlier blog post about database hints, I gave a number of reasons why I dont like to use hints in SQL queries. Today I wanted to follow up to share one situation where I think hints are OK, even necessary.

It has been a relatively short time since I wrote my last post on database security but so many breaches have occurred since then that it seems like much longer.

As the number of databases moving to public, private and hybrid cloud computing infrastructure increases, security concerns are a significant and growing problem. Organizations will do well to scrutinize the security practices of cloud providers and other third parties that store their data. But wherever databases are running, responsibility for the security and integrity of data ultimately rests with the organization that owns the data – even when it resides with a service provider. 

When attempting to make their Oracle database as secure as possible, many organizations turn on Oracle's auditing feature. Oracle has a very robust auditing feature that enables us to log every action taken in the database. We can audit connections, object creation, data updates, deletes, and many other database activities.

The benefits of cloud computing, including reduced IT ownership and operating costs and improved resource utilization, are just too good for many organizations to pass up. More and more businesses of all sizes are moving a wide range of applications to cloud environments.