Lockwood Lyon

Big data applications are here to stay. Most large IT enterprises have implemented one or more large data stores, hybrid hardware/software solutions and high-speed business analytics packages. The promise of this technology is the ability to quickly and easily analyze large amounts of data and derive from that analysis changes to customer-facing systems. Management believes […]

Many big data application implementations seem to begin with an existing data warehouse, one or more new high-volume data streams, and some specialized hardware and software to support data storage and business analytics. The data storage issue is often accommodated by installing a proprietary hardware appliance that can store huge amounts of data while providing […]

Big data applications and their associated proprietary, high-performance data stores arrived on the scene a few years ago. With promises of incredibly fast queries, many IT shops implemented one or more of these combination hardware and software suites. Results have been generally good: many installations report incredible decreases in query elapsed times, sometimes by factors […]

Load testing involves simulating a full production workload in a non-production environment. Performance analysts gather information related to high transaction volumes, large numbers of users and a full-sized database. The objective is to determine if the application suite and its associated databases can handle large workloads. Load tests give the database administrator (DBA) quite a […]

Big Data is all the rage these days. We are constantly being bombarded and overwhelmed with news, articles, white papers and vendor products related to Big Data. Authors, consultants and pundits assert that their advice is essential, vendors market solutions to our problems, and there are so-called success stories everywhere. What has been forgotten in […]

When I ask database administrators how they implemented disaster recovery in their big data environments there are two typical responses: Big data is for analytics, not mission-critical data, so DR plans are not necessary; Big data is too … big! Backups will take up a lot of space and recovery will take far too long […]

Like management information systems, enterprise resource planning and relational database, big data is now a standard part of information technology architecture for most large organizations. Common applications include storage and analysis of customer data, web interactions, machine sensor readings, and much more. As a database administrator, with the holiday season upon us, I have the […]

Using advanced analytics to analyze business data is common, especially in large companies with many customer-facing systems. As more and more data is made available the enterprise stages large data stores into the enterprise data warehouse. These Big Data implementations bring their own problems and issues, and will require database administrators and support staff to […]

Distributed applications are just that: distributed across one or more hardware platforms across the enterprise. These environments are usually separate from that of the database server. The database administrator (DBA) has the unenviable task of monitoring these environments and configuring and tuning the database server to meet multiple needs. The advent of big data compounds […]

Big data is the latest craze. Hardware and software vendors have overwhelmed IT departments with high-speed analytical software, proprietary high-performance hardware, and columnar-based data stores promising quick access and lightning-fast answers to ad hoc analytical queries. Forgotten in this blast of technology are the database administrators’ most important responsibilities: backup and recovery. Are Backups Necessary? […]

As summer (in the northern hemisphere) comes to an end and summer vacations wrap up, it’s time to prepare for the upcoming end-of-year rush. The months of November and December are characterized by a significant increase in consumer transactions including holiday-related purchases of food and gifts, travel, bank transactions, and winter clothing. Many retail organizations […]

Many IT enterprises are starting pilot projects to implement big data solutions. As a DBA, are you ready to support these efforts, and integrate them into your current architecture, processes, and standards? Where Are You Now? Many DBAs consider themselves already supporting a big data environment. Table sizes in the hundred gigabyte range are common […]