When performing health checks on a database, I look at how many users are granted SUPER privileges. If you're reading this, you know why. SUPER privileges pose a potential security risk and should be limited to a few users that need this far-reaching access to...
Normalization is not that complicated. In fact, the beauty of these rules is that you may not know you're already applying them in your database design. To demonstrate, over the course of this multi-part series, we'll be covering the three generally accepted levels of...
Because even DBAs need a little holiday humor, and we all know how SQL query plans can go.
As a critical component of your business, a healthy database is vital to staff efficiency and customer satisfaction. If you've neglected database maintenance and tuning, chances are you're running into a litany of performance issues. When your database begins to lag,...
Poor database performance bogs down operations, and as the lifeblood of a business, companies can't afford barriers to data access. One of the best ways to navigate past performance issues is by getting a regular database performance audit. Just like a car needs...
One of the most common questions our clients ask us is, "can we save money migrating to an open-source database like PostgreSQL or MongoDB?" The answer is simple: yes. Before we dive into the details, it's important to note that "open source" does not mean free. While...
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is something a lot of IT professionals know about but never want to bring up to their clients. MFA is the next step defense in your everyday battle in protecting your day to day operations. So let's talk about it. What is MFA?...
What do you mean, exactly, by "CPU"? Once upon a time, computers sat on our desks; we knew exactly how many processors they had; and back then our biggest uncertainty was whether they could handle Y2K. Fast forward to today: our computers have 4, 8 or 16 processors —...
Virtual-DBA came out of XTIVIA's response to an urgent need in the market to limit travel during the dotcom bubble burst. It was vital for our customers to conserve travel resources, both time and money, while getting immediate response on database issues. In that...
The effects of COVID-19 continue to disrupt "business as usual." However, there are opportunities for strengthening business processes and even growth that were not present previously. Here is XTIVIA's top 10 list of things your DBA could be doing to help make the...