CEO's Connection
The New Face of Data Automation
by Rob Gardos, CEO

It certainly has been a busy few weeks in the datacenter automation and management space.  While HP picked up Opsware, one of the largest dedicated players in this area, for a handsome chunk of cash, BladeLogic went out with a bang, and brought in nearly $70 million to fund growth.  And I suspect you’ve heard of a little company named VMware that, at least on the day of their IPO, was trading at ~$19 billion.  If you’re at all involved with managing the datacenter, you’ve quickly realized that commodity hardware architectures plus virtualization equals a management nightmare.  Nightmares are simply ill defined opportunities and IT departments and the market have finally recognized the need for change in the data center. One big question I have is, what is different about this new class of datacenter automation/management technologies? More >>

Featured Article
The Script-Keeper
by Matthew Zito, Chief Scientist

I've been spending a lot of time lately at customer sites, helping them test and implement our database automation software, Clarity.  The typical first step is to look at how they do their database provisioning and patching currently, and then show them how they can model those processes in Clarity. More often than not, those provisioning processes involve scripts.  Piles and piles of scripts, one for each step in the process, and typically one or two DBAs who are the "script keepers", maintaining and documenting the various steps.  I say, it's time to stop the madness - no more scripts.  More >>

Ask the Expert - Mr. Database
Time to Automate
by Eric Gross, DBA

At this point we’re all on the same page that automation is essential for properly managing the database layer.  Many factors play into this, including the number of steps involved with performing the activities at hand, the number of inputs involved, and the difficulty of verifying that any particular activity is successful.  Being able to determine which activities are successful is quite a step up from what is generally done in the “wild”. More>>