Database Blog

Cloud Customers Need to Secure Their Own Data

Reading Time: 2 minutes The key takeaway is that if you have your data in any cloud service, you must be as rigorous in securing that data as if it were in your own data center—and in some cases even more so.

MySQL and MariaDB Encryption Options

Reading Time: 4 minutes MySQL and MariaDB Encryption Options Encryption remains one of the most widely used cornerstones of data security across organizations of all sizes and industries. Why? In many cases it’s both effective and relatively simple to implement. There are two fundamental encryption capabilities that are almost universally necessary for basic data security: The ability to encrypt sensitive data “at rest”—that is, where it resides on disk—is a critical security capability for many organizations and applications, as…..

Communication Breakdown: Avoiding Conflict with Your Customers

Reading Time: 5 minutes This post describes two kinds of situations where conflict is likely to occur if we don’t handle things well, along with some thoughts about how to avoid conflict in these and other instances.

SQL Server Data Encryption Options

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.

Oracle Data Encryption Options

Reading Time: 2 minutes Oracle offers various authentication and audit features to protect data from unauthorized access. But what about data at rest in operating system files, backups or other storage media?

Lock the Safe—Secure the Database

Reading Time: 3 minutes You are going away on a much-needed vacation to Aruba. You will only be gone for a week. But you understand the importance of security, so you make sure you lock the windows and doors. You put the lights on a timer so would-be thieves think there is some activity in the house. You cancel the newspaper so they won’t be piling up outside and you ask your neighbor to watch the house in case…..

Database Patch News — November 2019 (Issue 1)

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.

Donuts and Data Backups

Reading Time: 2 minutes This is the story of a data loss event that changed my young life and put my feet on the path of becoming a DBA.

Why Your Database Management Team Should Regularly Double-Check Your Backups

Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve blogged before about the importance of checking database backups. Over 90% of new clients that we assess have backups that are either incomplete or totally unusable (true statistic!). The following story of a backup failure that happened recently—and the successful double-check by our DBA Scott)—provides a noteworthy example of how bad backups can happen even when you think your process is working. Recently we had a client that was looking to reduce storage costs…..

Five reasons why I avoid database query hints

Reading Time: 2 minutes I know that some will disagree with me on this but I have never been a fan of query hints.

Most database vendors give you the ability to override the query optimizer with hints that you specify in a query. Each query can be executed in a variety of ways by the…