Database Blog
Database Patch News — July 2021
Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. Here you’ll find information recently made available on patches—including security patches—and desupported versions. Why should you care...
MySQL and MariaDB Encryption Choices for Today’s Use Cases
Long a cornerstone of data security, encryption is becoming more important than ever as organizations come to grips with major trends like teleworking, privacy mandates and Zero Trust architectures. To comprehensively protect data from the widest possible range of...
Thoughts On Deleting Data – Considerations & Best Practices
In a recent blog post on database maintenance tips, I mentioned that one important facet of cleaning up the database is to remove records that we no longer need -- those that don’t contribute value to the applications and users who use the database. This is an...
Roles vs Direct Database Privileges
A colleague asked me today for my opinion on database security and the best way to grant a certain database privileges to a few users in a postgreSQL database. I will share my thoughts here and I welcome your thoughts as well. These basic database security concepts...
When Should The Database Be Updated?
Why if it's not broke don't fix it does not work for databases (or anywhere in IT for that matter) One of the hotly debated items among IT professionals is the age-old question,”When should the database be updated?” At Buda Consulting we always like to make sure our...
SQL Server Vulnerability Assessment – Keep Your SQL Database Safe With This Microsoft Tool
By now you all know how hackers are having their way with business all over the world. I don't need to give examples to remind you of that. Some are mentioned here and here and I’ve written a number of blogs about the importance of protecting the database here, here...
The Elements Of A Good Disaster Recovery Plan
What is a Disaster Recovery Plan The elements of a disaster recovery plan (also called a Business Continuity Plan) is a document that describes how an organization will survive a disaster. These can be natural disasters like hurricanes, fires, terrorist attacks, or...
Database Maintenance Tips: Weeding the Database
This time of year I spend a lot of time in the garden. Early mornings are peaceful and quiet, and the perfect time to reflect on the garden and clean it up. This is a discipline that I also apply to the databases that I manage. I will describe the process that I...
7 Ways To Improve SQL Query Performance
How do you improve SQL query performance? That is a big question, and one that we get asked all the time. There is no one answer, but there is a process that we apply to make a difference in query performance. In this post, I...
Beyond “Fast and Simple”: Top 5 Use Cases for NoSQL Database Technology
Since I first blogged about NoSQL back in 2013, the use of “Not Only SQL” databases for mission-critical applications has proliferated across businesses of all sizes and sectors. With trends like big data analytics, cloud, mobile and IoT driving the modern digital...
Database Patch News — March 2021 (Issue 7)
Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
Relational Database Design: It’s All About The Set
The Lost Science Of Relational Algebra And Set Theory I originally wrote this post in 2011. Much has changed in the database technology landscape since then. Big Data Technologies such as Hadoop have gone mainstream, cloud technology and is changing how and where we...
How Poor Communication Brought an Oracle System Down
A “lesson learned” on the importance of keeping your DBAs in the loop when making system changes, so you can avoid causing database issues.
Advantages, Disadvantages, & Risks Of Virtualization For Your Database — And How To Get It Right!
Types Of Virtualization There are many types of virtualization. Storage, network, server, database. For the purposes of this article I will discuss server virtualization, but with a special focus on servers that will house databases. Server virtualization...
Database Patch News — February 2021 (Issue 6)
Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
4 Keys to Avoiding the Number 1 Cause of Database Project Failure
At the end of the day, if we look beneath the surface-level issues, the main reason for database project failure — by far — is poor communication.
Database Patch News — December 2020 (Issue 5)
Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
5 Things to NEVER DO with Your Passwords
Even though we have all heard many times how important password protection is, we still see basic password protection rules broken ALL THE TIME. So here is a quick refresher.
SQL Server Always Encrypted—Is It Right for My Data?
New privacy regulations and other compliance and data governance mandates are driving more and more SQL Server users to leverage Always Encrypted. It can be a big help with separating those who own and can view the data from those who manage the data but should otherwise not access it.
Managing Server Sprawl With AWS Management Console Alerts
This blog focuses on database monitoring and management using the AWS CloudWatch service. CloudWatch ingests performance data from a wide range of AWS resources, applications and services, sends alerts when needed, and keeps a 15-day historical record of performance information.