Database Blog

Katmai and the End of DMO Support

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:13:09 -0500

SQL Server 2008 (Katmai) is set for launch on February 27, 2008, and Microsoft had previously announced that this would be the last version to support SQL Database Management Objects (SQL-DMO). However, Allen White notes in his SQLJunkies blog that the July CTP release of Katmai contains a warning that the Express version of SQL Server 2008 will not support DMO. Developers should instead use the SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) library introduced in SQL Server 2005.

Storm Brewing

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:50:21 -0500

Modern object-oriented languages encourage you to see the world through the object lens. Databases get this object treatment through the use of Object Relational Mappers (ORMs). It's entirely natural for an object-oriented programmer to see data as objects, rather than SQL calls. But good 'ol SQL isn't going anywhere. What you want as a programmer is the flexibility to use objects when you want, and SQL when you want, and to be able to do all of this on everything from tiny, lightweight databases to huge corporate data stores. Something perhaps like Storm, the open-source ORM for Python. Recently, Jon Erickson sat down to chat with Gustavo Niemeyer, lead developer on Canonical's Storm project.

Testing Data Quality

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:21:36 -0500

The quality of the data in a database corresponds directly to the value of the data to an enterprise. Do you have a testing strategy for your data? In his latest newsletter,What To Test in a Relational Database, Scott Ambler looks at the benefits of Agile testing methods to validate the quality of data.

Toward Better Builds

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:55:21 -0500

These days, it's getting harder use the same old build tools in the same old ways. Software is more complex, and often requires many variant builds for different platforms (especially in the embedded space). Builds now need to take into account source-code tracking for measuring compliance. Distributed development teams in different time zones, sometimes working in different programming languages, create even more complexity for build tools to cope with. Build tools haven't gotten the attention that their sexier development-tool brethren have gotten. Mike Swaine says that's about to change in his article "The Buzz About Builds."

Embedding a Database

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:58:12 -0500

In his article, Digital Imaging, Databases, and Eye Care, Ryan McGrail describes the "impedance mismatch" that occurs when trying to use an RDMS from an object-oriented program. His development team instead chose db4o, an object-oriented database library that designed to be embedded in clients or other software components, completely invisible to the end user.

Caching Ruby on Rails

Tue, 29 May 2007 21:00:28 -0500

Our RailsConf report JRuby: Making the Enterprise See Red details how the upcoming launch of JRuby 1.0 will introduce even more database options for Rails developers. For now, scaling and performance are still a big worry. For more info on this, check out Nick Siegler's recent blog on the geekSessions Ruby panel, Ruby on Rails: To Scale or Not to Scale. Also IBM's Bruce Tate recently posted an article looking at some scenarios for Caching in Rails .

Tackling Data Quality Problems

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:36:52 -0500

Data repositories have this nasty tendency to act like anchors, weighing down an otherwise productive enterprise. That is, if they are allowed to decay. Which they are. Most IT organizations know they have a problem, but don't really know what to do about it. The first step might be to challenge the assumptions that keep you from taking action.

Framing the Agile Argument

Tue, 08 May 2007 19:15:28 -0500

If your development team is not using agile developement yet and you're proposing adoption to your company's management team, Scott Ambler has some helpful advice. In his article, Pitching Agile to Senior Management, Scott includes some diagrams showing the ROI for agile and a "Financial Lingo Primer" to help you pitch your ideas.

Googling Government

Tue, 01 May 2007 22:06:06 -0500

In general, the public sector has a pretty wretched reputation for making it difficult to find digital information in their online systems. Sometimes this is deliberate, for perceived security reasons, but more often it's just the inevitable result of a big organization not being able to coordinate all its subsystems. Google has announced this week, however, that it is beginning to partner with state governments, beginning with Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia, to make government records more easily available via the Google search engine.

Dolphins in the Amazon

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 03:13:01 -0500

The 2007 MySQL Conference is going on this week in Santa Clara. Mark Atwood is giving an interesting talk on Wednesday explaining his MySQL storage engine that uses Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3), the web-services based storage service. You can see the slides for Mark's talk and check out the most recent code for mysql-awss3 at fallenpegasus.com/code/mysql-awss3/.
For more on Amazon's web service offerings check out the Amazon Web Services overview from the recent SD West keynote. The speech "Build Scalable Infrastructure Today for Tomorrow's Peak" was presented by Felipe Cabrera, Vice President of Software Development, Amazon Web Services.

Highly Available Oracle DBs with Red Hat Cluster Suite

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:23:23 -0500

Sergey Nemirovsky wrote an article for our sister publication, Sysadmin Magazine, titled Implementing Highly Available Oracle Databases with Red Hat Cluster Suite. Sergey discussed the Red Hat Cluster Suite's capabilities and limitations for making Oracle databases perform at levels comparable to those provided by commercial, high-availability suites.

IBM Shows Data Warehousing at Gartner Summit

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:47:40 -0500

On Tuesday, IBM announced its Dynamic Warehousing strategy at Gartner's Business Intelligence Summit (Chicago). Built around DB2 Warehouse 9.1.2 (itself based on DB2 9), the Dynamic Warehousing portfolio includes a slew of new software, appliances and services, including IBM Information Server for data integration, Rational Data Architect for modeling, and DB2 Alphablox for analytics.

VMWare Snarls at MSFT

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:18:42 -0500

A white paper posted earlier this week by VMWare snarls at Microsoft's allegedly anti-competitive policies in limiting how MS operating systems can or can't be run in third-party virtualization environments. Worth a read, if not hook/line/sinker belief.

Microsoft Ships SQL Server 2005 SP2

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:22:58 -0500

On Monday, Microsoft announced release of SQL Server 2005, Service Pack 2, for which a Community Technology Preview has been available since last November. Features provided by this release include several security upgrades, data compression, and the ability to access information in non-Microsoft databases (including Oracle).

Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:59:44 -0500

Back in June of '05, Oracle acquired in-memory database builders TimesTen. Today, Oracle has released the next generation of the TimesTen product, featuring 11 microsecond data read-request response time, and 30 microsecond update times. The product can be deployed stand-alone as a 100% in-memory application (the DB itself and the database engine), or can be used as a front-end cache to an Oracle 10g disk-based DB.