Predictions for 2014: DataBase-as-a-Service

It's that time of year again where lots of people write articles which begin with the words "It's that time of year again..." and make endless references to crystal balls, tea leaves and the benefits of hindsight. But not me, I'm not descending into cliché. Apart from that first sentence, which with the benefit of … Continue reading Predictions for 2014: DataBase-as-a-Service →

Database Workload Theory

In the scientific world, theoretical physicists postulate theories and ideas, for example the Higgs Boson. After this, experimental physicists design and implement experiments, such as the Large Hadron Collider, to prove or disprove these theories. In this post I'm going to try and do the same thing with databases, except on a smaller budget, with less … Continue reading Database Workload Theory →

Database Consolidation Part 4 – Flash Memory Makes The Difference

[This is part four of a series of articles about database consolidation. Part one addressed the business drivers and technical challenges, with part two focussing on design choices. Part three was about capacity planning and the concept of overcommitting resources. This section will now look at each resource and see how flash memory helps achieve … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 4 – Flash Memory Makes The Difference →

Database Consolidation Part 3 – It’s All About Capacity

In parts one and two of this article I blogged, extensively and laboriously, about database consolidation. I talked (at length) about the business drivers for this industry trend, then went on to discuss (for some considerable time) the technical challenges. I even droned on about the different design choices faced by enterprises who are about to embark … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 3 – It’s All About Capacity →

Database Consolidation Part 2 – Shared Infrastructure Design Choices

Part one was all about the business drivers and technical challenges faced when building a database consolidation platform. Database consolidation is all about sharing infrastructure, so part two is about the design choices that are available... An important architectural decision when consolidating databases is that of where the shared infrastructure should diverge. If we assume … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 2 – Shared Infrastructure Design Choices →

Database Consolidation Part 1 – Business Drivers and Technical Challenges

Database consolidation has been a big trend in the industry for a while now. You can see this if you read the IT press, or if you listen to the relentless procession of people queueing up to talk about the "cloud". I saw it in my time at Oracle, where we had an increasing number … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 1 – Business Drivers and Technical Challenges →