Confessions of a database geek

IOD Day 1: Optimizing Information Management

2008-10-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

A good day yesterday at IOD. Here's some notes from the sessions I attendedKeynoteWith the terabytes and petabytes of information swirling around us, managing those information assets is a critical competitive differentiator. The keynote session made the challenges clear: managing data growth, optimizing existing infrastructure, providing solid analytics, protecting customer privacy,

IOD Day 0: Partners, Expo, and Reception

2008-10-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything technical to say this morning, just wanted to share this ice sculpture from the Expo opening. It was originally surrounded by a pile of really good shrimp. Obviously that didn't last long. :-)Tonight's post will have more substance.

Information On Demand 2008: Here we go!

2008-10-26T12:02:00.001-07:00

Time for the annual trip to IBM’s Information on Demand (IOD) conference. As I write, I’m on the plane to Vegas.Last year I attended as an IBM consultant. This year, I’ll see it through the eyes of a Sales Engineer role. More time talking with current and potential customers, less time networking with other IBMers. If you’re at IOD, I’m working the Optim booth Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Updates to the Information Quality Aggregator

2008-10-26T12:00:00.001-07:00

It’s great to see more activity in the data quality arena. Dylan Jones started the Data Quality Pro site, and dropped me a note with some additional blogs to consider. A couple look pretty good! I’ve added them to the aggregator.If you have a few minutes you might want to check out the Data Quality Pro blog. There’s a couple interesting series, including one on careers in data quality. Like

Hard choices: back on the road

2008-10-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm having a Doug Burns moment.Those of you in the Oracle blogosphere likely recall Doug going to work for Pythian (a top-notch remote DBA support company) for a bit. In the end, whilst he loves the company and still has a great relationship with them, he had to decide it wasn't the right place for him. I recall reading his post and thinking how important it is for each person to understand

Data Quality Conference Blog: For those of us who can't go

2008-09-22T05:04:00.001-07:00

Cool! Daragh O'Brien's put up a blog to cover the IAIDQ conference (that's International Association for Information and Data Quality). He's told me he'll be blogging live from his subnotebook EEEPC. He's also going to try to get some of the presenters to post about their presentations. It sounds like a good opportunity for them to expand on questions, explain parts of their presentations, or

Oops: Errant Posts in Information Quality Feed

2008-08-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Readers of the Information Quality Aggregator may have noticed the appearance of some woodworking and bourbon posts -- proof positive that even blog aggregators can have information quality issues.It turns out that one of my data sources was trying out "link splicer" and inadvertently combined additional blogs into his aggregated feed. Tis fixed now.Now for the "relevancy" question: how many of

Data Quality Conference: Are you going?

2008-08-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

I am so bummed. The IAIDQ Conference (IAIDQ=International Association for Information and Data Quality) is September 22-25, but I won't be able to go. It's just not going to be possible with this year's schedule. That said, if you have a strong interest in data quality, I encourage you to take a look at the conference program. Larry English and David Loshin are two of the featured speakers. (

Pondering Security of Distributed Data

2008-08-05T23:04:00.001-07:00

Mike Ferguson's been pondering data security across the slew of layers and applications in the enterprise. (content management, MDM, databases, networks, SANs, the list goes on) To paraphrase, Mike essentially posed two excellent questions: Are the varying security policies able to be consistently managed across the organization, and Does data governance need to expand to include data

Database Professionals: What's in Your Office?

2008-08-04T21:19:00.001-07:00

Here's your chance to sound off: what are the must-have user tools/resources for your office (at work or at home)? I had lunch last week with a contractor friend who's expanding into databases. Somehow our conversation shifted to the tools of the trade -- and what we couldn't live without. Here's my list, feel free to add your favorites:SoftwareVMWare images (linux and Windows): Every db pro I've

Data Quality for Product Attributes: Microsoft Jumps In

2008-07-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

If you watch Data Quality news, or subscribe to my Information Quality aggregator, you'll have already seen the announcement that Microsoft's purchasing data quality vendor Zoomix. Vince McBurney and others have posted analyses of the purchase, citing Zoomix's ability to better-position Microsoft for MDM.A Product Data Quality CapabilityWhat caught my eye in the press release was the mention of

SQL Server Service Broker: Archival Processing

2008-07-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier I've been working with Service Broker lately. It meets my need of being able to create a near-real time (reportable) archive of activities. More importantly, the queuing allows the archival process to survive the sometimes unpredictable peak loads found in web applications.[Note: Those of you who know my history know I have a background in IBM's etl toolset, and may wonder why

Data Quality Tidbits in the News

2008-07-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

(Catching up on my reading while listening to news reports about local forest fires....a common occurrence in Eastern Washington, but not conducive to a calm night's sleep.)I like reading Vince Mcburney's blog -- he always has the pulse of data integration software trends. He noted yesterday that Oracle is planning to merge Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) and Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). It'll

Book Review: Pro SQL Server 2005 Service Broker

2008-07-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, I've been working a lot lately with the Service Broker in Microsoft SQL Server. I'm planning a couple posts this month detailing tips and "gotchas," but thought I'd start with a review of Klaus Aschenbrenner's book on the subject.Microsoft's documentation for Service Broker is pretty thin, and sorely lacks for guidance in best practices. I supplemented with two sources:

Data Masking: Case for a Reverse Firewall

2008-07-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

The phrase Data Quality Firewall has been getting press for a couple years now, most recently from Mike Ferguson at DataFlux. The idea is to sanitize the data at runtime, preventing poor-quality data from ever entering corporate systems. Most DQ software vendors have enabled SOA access to their routines specifically for the "data quality firewall" purpose.It seems to me a similar approach applies

Ninety Days: yikes!

2008-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

During chaotic times it's helpful to work for a good manager. My boss, who definitely falls into that category, commented in my 90-day review today that I hadn't blogged since joining the company. He wasn't criticizing, just checking whether I had enough "creative juices" time, not wanting me to burn out. To be honest, learning the new product line's internals took a bit longer than I expected

Blog Cleanup

2008-03-29T21:33:00.001-07:00

I've been remiss this last week, getting settled into the new job. More on that in a couple days. Catching Up: I just now published two comments from Alex Gorbechov (thanks Alex!) -- something I should have gotten to several days ago. My apologies. Also, Peter Scott's moved his technical posts over to the Rittman Mead blog. Any posts Pete's tagged as quality-related are available at http:

A Good Data Governance Blog

2008-03-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned Monday, Stave Sarsfield (of Trillium) has a blog worth taking a look at over at Data Governance and Data Quality Insider. Steve's blog discusses data quality, data integration, and (of course) data governance. Like me, he's purposely chosen to keep his blog independent of his employer. His posts do generally link out to Trillium -- but hey, some of mine menion Information Server,

How to Ask for a DBA Blog Link

2008-03-10T16:03:00.001-07:00

Time for a minor rant: There's a right way and a wrong way to ask for a link. But maybe I'm being overly snippy -- I'd love to know if you disagree. Two Link Requests, Done the Right Way Good Contact 1 Dylan Jones emailed me about the Data Migration Professionals site while they were still thinking it through. He was referred by John Morris over at Johnny's Data Migration Blog. Dylan asked

Career Change, Virtual Experts

2008-03-07T21:06:00.001-08:00

I should be posting a lot more often soon, and on a higher percentage of technical topics. As of 3/24 I'll give up consulting to go back to my software development roots. I'll be the data architect for a local software house, NextIT. They build "virtual experts" that use natural language intelligence to answer user questions. I see this as a chance to combine my background in data design/

Data Migration Community

2008-03-07T12:01:00.001-08:00

A new website (DataMigrationPro) specific to data migration launched last week. It's worth checking out if you're a DBA, Database Developer, ETL Specialist, or Data Architect. Dylan Jones contacted me a while ago as they were planning the site. He believes, and I agree, that successful data migration projects require a specific set of skills and processes. Best practices for migrating /

Blog Carnival of Data Quality -- Issue #3

2008-01-27T13:46:00.001-08:00