Database Blog


  • Database Patch News — May 2020 (Issue 3)

    May 13, 2020

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

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  • Schemas, Databases and Instances—Defined and Discussed

    May 12, 2020

    Reading Time: 5 minutes What is a schema as opposed to a database as opposed to an instance? And how do schemas differ between Oracle and MSSQL? Or between Oracle and PostgreSQL? Or between PostgreSQL and MongoDB?These terms are very important when planning a database architecture, so let’s explore them.

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  • Database Patch News — February 2020 (Issue 2)

    Feb 19, 2020

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s monthly newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.

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  • SQL Server Data Encryption Options

    Nov 25, 2019

    Reading Time: 3 minutes These days it’s only a matter of time before our firewalls or access controls are breached. Then what? In a multi-tiered security strategy, data encryption is a critical next line of defense.

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  • Database Patch News — November 2019 (Issue 1)

    Oct 29, 2019

    Reading Time: < 1 minute Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s monthly newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. Here you’ll find information on available patches—including security patches—and desupported versions made available during the past month.

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  • SQL Server Contained Databases and Oracle Multitenant: Advantages Compared

    Apr 18, 2019

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In short, the main goal of multitenancy is to facilitate database consolidation, while the main purpose of contained databases is to enable isolation and thus portability. Yet each approach addresses both these concerns.

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  • Oracle Virtual Private Database — Granting Just Enough Access

    Jun 1, 2017

    Reading Time: 5 minutes Robust Access Control at the Database Layer   Many Companies struggle with the difficult problem of providing fine grained access control at the database layer to sensitive data . We will discuss Oracle’s Virtual Private Database feature which provides a robust way of handling this problem for all types of database users. Security vs Effectiveness Securing access to sensitive data is critical. But facilitating the access to all the data that employees, customers, and vendors need to…..

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  • Time to Validate Your Database Backup

    Jul 8, 2016

    Reading Time: 2 minutes Another new client, Another bad backup I originally wrote this post in July but I am updating it today because it is so important.  Yesterday we did an initial Oracle Database Health Check for another new client and found yet again that their backups are useless. This time the client was taking backups regularly, but was not preparing the database first and was just copying the database files. Unfortunately this renders the backup useless. Here…..

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  • Using the Data Dictionary to find hidden data in SQL Server

    Jul 12, 2013

    Reading Time: 2 minutes A client asked me recently how he could find a string in his SQL Server database without knowing what table or column it was in. The string was a translation of a code that appeared on one of the UI screens. This was a packaged CRM database and he had no documentation on the schema. With hundreds of tables whose names were not obvious, he had no idea where the translation might be kept, but…..

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  • Relational Database Design: It’s All About The Set

    Dec 5, 2011

    Reading Time: 5 minutes 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 think about hosting our databases. But relational databases are still relied upon as the best option for rich transactional data. So, since this technology is still the foundation of our mission critical…..

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