Knowledge becomes power only when we put it into use

I suppose it’s a bit like being in a car and watching the speedometer steadily increase until you are going far too fast and then discovering that the brakes are on the passenger’s side!

The Perils of Assumption

What drives us to commit resources so that we can make sure what should have happened has happened?

Why do we have to spend our time checking that everything is working as it should be?

I guess these traits come from the approach of not assuming anything and the need to verify everything.

It’s curious to draw comparisons between different aspects of our desire to implement the belt and braces approach and to trust that things are working until you are told there is a problem.

High Level Whitepaper on Backups

A new high-level paper on backups is now available for download. Be sure to get your comments back to Phiz through posting your comments below.

This document is not intended to be a full technical white paper on backup and recovery of computer systems, but an overview document that it is hoped the layman can understand. Please do not take it as the “law” for backing up your system(s) or use it to bash someone who has tried to help you and not fulfilled your every desire – enjoy it for what it is and use it as a template to get you on the right road to “recovery”.

The Wheel – I’m sure someone’s done that!

You know I’ve just invented this device – its round, has a small hole in the middle and works really well if you put two of them together connected by a pole. I’ll call it the wheel – what’s that? Someone’s already thought of it!!

How many times do we reinvent the same solution to a problem? How many times do we not communicate that we have developed a solution? How many times are solutions not shared?

If you were to sit down and work out the cost of the effort wasted in poor management of the tools developed and the procedures implemented in the management of an organisation’s database estate, the chances are you would be pretty concerned about the impact on your operational budget.

The low hanging fruit in achieving "Better for less"

We’ve been attending a few conferences lately focused on the current government initiative “Better for Less” and had plenty of discussions with prospective clients. The predominant theme is, as a tax payer myself, very welcome. Public sector departments and organisations are being actively encouraged to make smarter procurements and to look for the best value from all sources with a particular emphasis on the innovative solutions that can be procured through SME’s at a local level. Great for UK PLC and for us as citizens.

For far too long, in my opinion, the procurement function of the public sector has been dominated by inflexible framework agreements and only been assailable by the large systems houses. Any scraps from the table have been generally given to preferred partners and the contracts associated with delivery so challenging as to deter all but the most desperate and those who want the business at any cost.

Making Outsourcing a Safer Option

Outsourcing is a viable strategy to manage the requirement to control and reduce costs and create a more flexible and reactive resourcing platform; however too many times we have heard the horror stories of when it goes wrong. Successful outsourced relationships are more likely to be achieved when both the customer and the service provider make the effort to ensure that the control mechanisms are in place to provide independent measurement and visibility of service levels and status.

Independent dbWatch Product Review

dbWatch product review on Linkedin: Don't forget to follow our company pages on Linkedin

Independent dbWatch Product Review

Below is a quote from the conclusion of an independent product review carried out by sql-server-performance.com. Visit http://goo.gl/2wnYT for the in-depth report.

"dbWatch is a highly interesting monitoring tool for all those of us who work in a heterogeneous database environment. It offers most of the common monitoring features for the supported platforms right out of the box using platform-targeted code. The shipped code can be extended and customised in almost any way you like. You can seamlessly integrate all the monitoring code you are currently using by adding new tasks and alerts. With dbWatch it is possible to unify and standardise monitoring across different platforms. The very powerful reporting engine makes it really easy to create meaningful reports that are “management-compatible”. The open plugin architecture offers the chance to integrate dbWatch seamlessly into an existing infrastructure. If you have a need for such a monitoring tool, make sure you try dbWatch. It could very well be that it is the tool you are looking for."

Case Study - Arion Banki

Since the implementation of dbWatch, Arion Banki has been able to achieve a single clear view across the multiple technologies within their complex IT Environment enabling their team of 5 DBAs to efficiently manage several hundred databases.  Learn more...

Case Study - Komplett.no

Komplett.no's technical team have constant visibility of the health and status of their SQL Server environment with dbWatch which enables them to proactively monitor all aspects of their database estate and saves them approximately 10% of their time.  Learn more...

Case Study - Unit4Agresso

After working alongside Agresso, dbWatch developed an powerful additional module which identifies key performance issues, known problems and bottlenecks within the various databases used by the Agresso solutions. Learn more...

Case Study - JoraPh Managed Services

JoraPh uses dbWatch to deliver a comprehensive database outsource facility (primarily Oracle and SQL Server) to a wide range of clients. It ensures that SLAs are met and provides a very cost effective solution that saves money, time and resources for all of their clients whilst continuing to maintain a profitable business. Learn more...

Break the Catch 22!

Joseph Heller wrote the classic Catch-22 which represents a paradox whereby the attempt to do something makes achieving that something unachievable.

Case Study - Harper Adam's University College

This case study illustrates how dbWatch is used to monitor a SQL Server and MySQL multi database environment. 2 critical issues were highlighted within 5 minutes. Learn more...