Quest Software is proud to announce the launch of the Toad for Cloud Databases community site. You can also get the free Toad for Cloud product here. It’s in beta, but definitely worth a try.
If you’ve wondered what’s over the horizon, I encourage you to take a look at this interview with Billy Bosworth, the head of Quest’s database tools group. (Yes, he’s the guy who signs my checks). We are now experiencing more disruptive technologies in the world of data than we have seen in nearly two decades. Perhaps your database is better suited for the cloud or maybe you want to investigate using a data store as part of your application architecture that isn’t even relational. Imagine if you were empowered to take advantage of these new database technologies, when and where it makes sense.
Believe me, cloud databases and the NoSQL movement is not a passing fad. It will have an impact on the way you do business – maybe not today, but not as far in the future as you might think.
Check it out. And as always, I welcome your feedback.
While enduring an endless series of flight delays and disgruntled passengers in the Baltimore airport that was my own personal travel hell on the evening of Thursday, August 5th, I came across this interesting and important article:
Even if you don’t read the article, you can see from the URL that Google has decided to put an end to the collaboration experiment known as Wave. Wave will be available through the end of the year and most of its major components are now available as open source, should any devotees choose to continue developing the code base. However, Wave didn’t reach the critical mass that Google was looking for and, without that critical mass of users, it wasn’t seeing a lot of innovation or updates to the features or UI. I view Google’s reach of 1M users as a “failure” with a bit of grin. How many other vendors out there would consider 1M users too few? Otoh, if they wanted really wide adoption, why in the world did they require a private invitation? Superior products are frequently hampered by inferior marketing and market delivery, this being a really good example.
Slide to the Rescue?
More Fun than Google Slide?
I also feel the need to point out that I have a lot of respect for Google giving the old heave-ho to a product that needs to go. Many companies cling to a great idea, funneling huge amounts of resources into what everyone else can see as a black hole. Failure, under vibrant and forward thinking leadership, is only success delayed. Read Google’s take on the situation here. Certainly, this means we’ll see Google pushing their new social media acquisition, Slide, much more as well. And, since many of the technological bits of Wave will live on, I’m sure we’ll see Slide advance in interesting ways.
Frankly, I found the general idea of Wave to be fascinating and powerful. But after spending quite a bit of time, like at least 20 minutes, tinkering around with it, I still had no idea how to do anything with it. I was so motivated to use it that I almostwatched one of the videos that they’d posted to train you. But honestly, am I just ridiculously jaded or has the overall market for cloud-based apps moved the bar for ease-of-use that anything that takes more than 15 minutes to figure out is drama? I hate to say it, but I think the answer is a resounding “YES”. By extension, I think that this is the main reason that email still trumps all other methods of collaboration. (Yes, that includes Microsoft SharePoint too for all you fanboys.) That is, email does not disrupt any existing workflows, it has a clean UI, it doesn’t make you learn new ways of working, and it’s so widespread that you’re not hampered by a product that has a very limited user base.
Great Idea Leads To Great Product Success, Right?
The Graveyard of Ideas
I also feel that Google Wave is a good example of a technological solution looking for a problem, as well as a product looking for a marketing message. When launching a product, it’s crucial to have a crystal clear message to a well-defined audience. Any ambiguity in the message or muddling of the audience can spell doom. And, IMO, Google clearly missed the boat on both counts. Many of their demos were all about sharing photos. Uh, ever heard of Facebook, n’est pas? Then again, many later PR was about collaboration. Then how come we didn’t get smokin’ hot project management demos? A book that I recommend called The Innovator’s Prescription (website is here) says it very well:
“The graveyard of failed products and services is populated by things that people *should* have wanted–if only they could have been convinced those things were good for them. The home-run products in the marketing hall of fame, in contrast, are concepts that helped people more affordably, effortlessly, swiftly, and effectively do what they already had been trying to get done.” (Christensen, The Innovator’s Prescription, p. 16)
I really like Christensen’s point. So many people who build products focus on the “should” of a product, as in “this should make a lot of people happy”, over and above providing an effortless aid to people’s daily tasks. This leads me to a topic for another day, user-interface design. But enough writing for now. It’s bed time.
So what are your thoughts? Do you think other factors contributed to Wave’s decline?
In today’s podcast, Kevin Kline talks about the difference between influence and authority, and why IT professionals need to work on their influence to succeed.
You can view this video in higher quality or your favorite portable formats at:
Back in late May, my pal Buck Woody (blog | twitter) and I presented SQL Server for the Oracle DBA. Buck played Jerry Lewis’ role, while I played the straight man a la Dean Martin. You can see the recording and slide deck here. Since both Buck and I spent a considerable number of years working on Oracle, we felt like we had pretty good legs to stand on doing this presentation. Here’s the abstract:
In enterprise IT, database professionals face a mixed-bag of platforms within their environments — and the overlapping duties that go along with them. Whether you like it or not, you get asked to support Microsoft SQL Server operations even though you’re an Oracle DBA.
In this instructive webcast, experts from Microsoft and Quest with years of experience in both platforms will discuss the biggest issues and areas of interest for Oracle DBAs who need to work on Microsoft SQL Server. You’ll learn their tips and tricks for efficiency and gain a deeper understanding of SQL Server to help you add more value than ever to your organization.
Of course, there are always questions and we aim to please. Here are the transcripts of the Q&A chat session (below) that accompanies the presentation. The only editing I did was to remove blank questions. If you’re not familiar with Live Meeting, there’s always a [Q&A] menu on the top session bar where you can ask a question. Quick Tip – The Live Meeting Q&A queue is one question deep, meaning that if you write a question and then write another before the first question is answered, your original question drops out of the queue. Here’s the transcript:
Meeting Questions and Answers:
Subject: Pain of the Week Webcast - May 27, 2010
Start Time: Thursday, May 27, 2010 10:00:00 AM GMT-5:0
Gabe Kovacs Asked: Do I need to call the hear the audio for this presentation?
Christian Answered: Yes, you will need to call the toll free number – 1888-253-4037 PC: 319874
Luis Cardenas Asked: Morning could you kindly tell me which is the passcode for teleconf?
Christian Answered: 319874
Jossy Tonio Asked: Is it started?
John Allman Asked: What is the PASS CODE for the audio?
inho Asked: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, for
inho Changes Question To: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, what similar DR solution(automatic failover, synchronous data replications) is available with SQL Server ?
Roy McBroom Asked: Who’s Pat Boone?
Luis Cardenas Asked: Is there any chance we could get the slides? They seem useful.
John Allman Asked: What is the PASS CODE for the audio?
Luis Cardenas Asked: Is there any chance we could get the slides? They seem useful.
hre Answered Privately: yes. they will be sent out to all attendees after the live event.
Jerry Mu Asked: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?
Jerry Mu Changes Question To: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?
inho Asked: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, what similar DR solution(automatic failover, synchronous data replications) is available with SQL Server ?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: clustering, mirroring, replication and identical EMC features
Roy McBroom Asked: Who’s Pat Boone?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: A 50′s and 60′s era singer renown for his appeal to white middle-class americans
Jerry Mu Asked: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: tempdb can be tuned to allow multiple filegroups and, thus, multiple IO paths
DBA_Joseph Asked: What portions of the Oracle SYSTEM tablespace live in the MS-SQL “master” database, and what pieces of that info live elsewhere in MS-SQL?
Ray Herrera Asked: Can you customize the model database?
Wayne Starnes Asked: dive a little deeper into ORACLE ‘user’ being a schema object, vs SQL database and the users as the schema
Ray Herrera Changes Question To: Can you customize the model database?
Jerry Mu Asked: You mean muilple file? like how many CPU and we can create files to match CPU. But I think that will create file fragmentation, is that right? Any plan for sql server to support muilple tempdb, like sybase did?
DBA_Joseph Asked: What portions of the Oracle SYSTEM tablespace live in the MS-SQL “master” database, and what pieces of that info live elsewhere in MS-SQL?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: It’s about equal. SYSTEM + SYS on Oracle = MASTER on MSSQL
Ray Herrera Asked: Can you customize the model database?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: absolutely!
Moorthy Rekapalli Asked: Can you please expand on the concept of user and schema in SQL Server and please relate that to Oracle as I am more familiar with that.
Wayne Starnes Asked: dive a little deeper into ORACLE ‘user’ being a schema object, vs SQL database and the users as the schema
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: sorry Wayne, not enough time. links for that at the end.
Robert Stewart Asked: does the master database corralate to the sys user in Oracle
Moorthy Rekapalli Asked: Can you please expand on the concept of user and schema in SQL Server and please relate that to Oracle as I am more familiar with that.
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Sorry Moorthy, not enough time. But there are links for that at the end.
Robert Stewart Asked: does the master database corralate to the sys user in Oracle
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: SYSTEM + SYS on Oracle = Master on MSSQL
Jerry Mu Asked: You mean muilple file? like how many CPU and we can create files to match CPU. But I think that will create file fragmentation, is that right? Any plan for sql server to support muilple tempdb, like sybase did?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Yes, you can correlate CPUs to files. It does not contribute to unusual file fragementation.
rick stehno Asked: you don’t want to use OPS$ because it is not as secure as the other methods and you indicated that sql server access is similar to OPS$. this isn’t a good thing is it?
Luis Cardenas Asked: what about synonyms, in oracle we use to managa certains aspect of sucurity do they exist in SQLServer?
rick stehno Asked: you don’t want to use OPS$ because it is not as secure as the other methods and you indicated that sql server access is similar to OPS$. this isn’t a good thing is it?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Ops$ is similar but not as comprehensive as Windows authentication
Luis Cardenas Asked: what about synonyms, in oracle we use to managa certains aspect of sucurity do they exist in SQLServer?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Coming in the next release
DBA_Joseph Asked: Just to clarify:: For efficiency ++ To reduce I/O, I take it, that DB-changes are cached in MEMORY, (like Oracle’s SGA) as well as the transactin log… and the MS-SQL then migrates those changes to Database storage… To clarify earlier statement about user writing to LOG and then another process reads log and writes to database…
Ray Herrera Asked: Does MSSQL have something similar to the Oracle’s archive log mode operation?
Jim Rice Asked: does the full method emulate the oracle archive log process
Ray Herrera Asked: Does MSSQL have something similar to the Oracle’s archive log mode operation?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: I think we’re touching on that now
Jim Rice Asked: does the full method emulate the oracle archive log process
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: similar indeed
DBA_Joseph Asked: Just to clarify:: For efficiency ++ To reduce I/O, I take it, that DB-changes are cached in MEMORY, (like Oracle’s SGA) as well as the transactin log… and the MS-SQL then migrates those changes to Database storage… To clarify earlier statement about user writing to LOG and then another process reads log and writes to database…
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: yes, they’re cached in ram until checkpoint
PB Asked: Can SQL Server do block/page level recovery if a corrupt block/page is found on a datafile?
bhupendra Asked: How is the transaction log size determined
Chakrapani Asked: Is there any tool like RMAN in SQLSERVER for backing deltas?
PB Asked: Can SQL Server do block/page level recovery if a corrupt block/page is found on a datafile?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: It’s possible, but not easy. see the dbcc page command on-line
bhupendra Asked: How is the transaction log size determined
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: there are defaults, but it’s easy to change
Chakrapani Asked: Is there any tool like RMAN in SQLSERVER for backing deltas?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: The native backup supports deltas, called differentials. It’s much easier IMO than Oracle’s RMAN
Michael Asked: about user you mentioned, is it the same as Login account? How do you link login account or user to database, schema,..?
DBA_Joseph Asked: DB=Consistant as of finish… this means that backup also pulls info from LOG file, as part of backup set?? Is there an MS-SQL equivalent to Oracle “Recover Database” or is this just so transparent & automatic that it transparent?
Suresh Asked: Good point Kevin …i know Oracle DBA ‘s are very fond of RMAN
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: thanks! =^)
DBA_Joseph Asked: DB=Consistant as of finish… this means that backup also pulls info from LOG file, as part of backup set?? Is there an MS-SQL equivalent to Oracle “Recover Database” or is this just so transparent & automatic that it transparent?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: the recovery process will roll forward any transactions directly from the transaction log as needed
Michael Asked: about user you mentioned, is it the same as Login account? How do you link login account or user to database, schema,..?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: sorry, too many questions to keep up with your reference to “user”. could you restate?
Kenny Smith Asked: Do you know of a website or resource that will compare/contrast task details in Oracle to the similar task in SQL Server?
djb Asked: Isn’t it true that SQLServer benfitted from all the lessons that Oracle learned as it was developed earlier. For example, Oracle didn’t have a hot backup faicilirt at first. SQLServer was developed with that from the start.
Vladimir Lugo Asked: Can you explain a bit about clustering differences?
Carmen Asked: Our backup of master fails because of a single-user mode error. Is there something special that should be done to include master in the backup plan?
Haridas Asked: Is it possible to add Disk space without much re-org ? (In oracle SAN disk space re-org is quite a challenge)
Kenny Smith Asked: Do you know of a website or resource that will compare/contrast task details in Oracle to the similar task in SQL Server?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: nope. no one goes that deep
Michael Asked: In the security slide, User is mentioned, is it the Loing Account?
Kenny Smith Asked: How can you audit active directory user “BuckWoody” and his actions through a database role via a Active directory Group on database objects?
Suresh Asked: what about BI tools in comparison to Oracle’s? SQL BI in 2005 seems very famous now?
Vladimir Lugo Changes Question To: Can you explain a bit about clustering differences?
Haridas Asked: Is it possible to add Disk space without much re-org ? (In oracle SAN disk space re-org is quite a challenge)
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: absolutely – alter database supports this
Robert Stewart Asked: does the index rebuild do so online?
Mauricio Lopez Asked: Hi, will you put the presentation file as a Handout file or where can we download it ? Thanks
Michael Asked: In the security slide, User is mentioned, is it the Loing Account?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Login and User are actually distinct, though usually linked
DBA_Joseph Asked: For all USERS of this Q+A screen… It is not allowing users to Select+Copy the text. Is there a way to save this list of DBA questions, so we can paste into a file, to remember/review other peopel’s questions later?
Mauricio Lopez Asked: Hi, will you put the presentation file as a Handout file or where can we download it ? Thanks
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Of course – you’ll get a follow up email!
Bob Asked: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?
Bob Changes Question To: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?
djb Changes Question To: Isn’t it true that SQLServer benfitted from all the lessons that Oracle learned as it was developed earlier. For example, Oracle didn’t have a hot backup facility at first. SQLServer was developed with that from the start.
Bob Changes Question To: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?
sharath Asked: Is it possible to have data replication like in oracle for example materialisezd views or streams or data guard?
Luis Cardenas Asked: Excellent webcast thanks!!
Kenny Smith Asked: How can you audit active directory user “BuckWoody” and his actions through a database role via a Active directory Group on database objects?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Check out a feature called CDC “change data capture”
sharath Asked: Is it possible to have data replication like in oracle for example materialisezd views or streams or data guard?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: All of those are features in SQL Server = indexed views, replication, and clustering/mirroring
DBA_Joseph Asked: For all USERS of this Q+A screen… It is not allowing users to Select+Copy the text. Is there a way to save this list of DBA questions, so we can paste into a file, to remember/review other peopel’s questions later?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: I’ll get them sent to you
Robert Stewart Asked: does the index rebuild do so online?
Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: In Enterprise Edition, but not in lower editions
If you’re wondering whether to hedge your long-term bets on cloud computing, this should help you solidify your thinking.
Microsoft has been building a dream team for Azure, including the patriarch of Windows (and father of Windows NT) Dave Cutler. Tweets fromseveral Microsofties reveal that another revered technologist, Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame has also joined the team. When almost all of the heavy hitters in a company like Microsoft go to work on a single exciting new technology, you can easily tell which direction the wind is blowing. I encourage you to get on board soon with cloud computing, at least in experimentation mode. Read more about Russinovich joining the Azure team here.
Protect Your @$#% Content, or, Lots of New Content on KEK.com
I’ve been enjoying two new features of WordPress over on my professional website which is missing here on SQLblog.com – scheduled blog posts and auto-tweets. What got me thinking about using scheduled blog posts and auto-tweets, you ask? For starters, my friend and former colleague, Brent Ozar, put a lot of thought and time into the question “Who Owns Your Content?”. Then, to add fuel to the fire, two of Quest’s best marketing minds, Christian Hasker and Andy Grant, took a survey of all the places I was posting my thoughts and IP, which led to some great advice from Andy. I’d initially thought that by writing in multiple places and on many other websites, it would promote my content. But a quick analysis showed that I was giving without getting anything in return, not even recognition. I was easily writing three or four magazine style articles per month with very little to show for it, not even ping-backs to my website.
The schedule blog posts have come in very handy. First, I’d decided a while back to start talking more about what I do at Quest Software and the products that I’m a part of. Since I don’t want to come across sounding like a schill, I decided that I’d put those posts on my own website and not torture you with those posts where I’m syndicated. If you’re interested in posts about products like LiteSpeed or Toad for SQL Server, you can check for my regularly scheduled posts to appear on Wednesday morning. I’ve now got a nice little queue of Quest-related posts for many Wednesdays to come.
Second, I’ve also decided to attempt to bring in more of the content I’d written for other websites and channels into KEK.com. So I’ve scheduled a series of posts that bring in other content I’ve written and/or recorded elsewhere. For example, Thursdays mornings are the time where I’ll post my YouTube video clips. Since I already had a ton on YouTube, I’m putting those up via scheduled posts for the next several weeks. Of course, I’ll also be posting new videos. But it’ll be good to have all of my old videos up there too in a single place.
Finally, as I mentioned before, I’d written a couple long-term columns without ever getting even one extra website hit from all that work, such as my professional development articles for SQLPass.org. I’m pulling those back onto KEK.com and will continue those columns, but as elements of my own blog. You’ll see more about them here when they’re posted.
The Week In Review
Timeliness has never been a strong point for me. I’m such a procrastinator, in fact, that I’m still trying to decide if I’ll go to my 20th high school reunion in 2005.
Having said that, here are some recent blog posts on KEK.com that you might enjoy:
And, since many of the technological bits of Wave will live on, I’m sure we’ll see Slide advance in interesting ways.
