Charles Garry

Its fascinating how true innovation works. Its never right the first time, and it is always built upon earlier concepts and invention. In the hardware space, innovation and improvement have resulted in a steady increase in performance relative to price. For 40 years this has been so, but what of software price performance? I believe […]

When I think of companies that are emerging around the open-source software phenomenon, I cant help but think of an old Saturday Night Live sketch. You remember how they use to show fake commercials? The one Im thinking of was for The Change Bank. It had people telling personal stories of how they needed to […]

In one of my recent articles I described, what I view, as a dim future for IBM DB2 in the Linux, Unix and Windows market. I received a number of e-mails and was directed to a number of discussion threads where the article was debated. By some I was lauded as being “an excellent writer […]

I find it fascinating how differently database administrators react to security alerts depending on the platform they support. There is clearly a caste system when it comes to database software. Mainframe DBAs look down their noses at everyone. The Oracle DBA looks down on everyone else. SQL Server DBAs just shake their heads at the […]

The billions of dollars companies shell out for database software so that their most precious corporate assets will be both available and secure create a powerful motive for a vendor to want to keep any security vulnerabilities from becoming public. The central issue is often protecting the vendors brand name, if not the actual security […]

Compliance is one of those umbrella terms consultants and vendors use to scare the living daylights out of clients so that they spend more money. Not to say that they arent giving them sound advice—in fact, some organizations may need to feel real, palpable fear to finally take action. For the most part, however, I […]

I love Oracles licensing policies. I truly do, because it provides me with income as a independent analyst. Companies hire me to help them come up with strategies to take best advantage of Oracles seemingly convoluted licensing rules. Now, Im not bragging here, but more often than not, I find millions in possible savings; the […]

With the recent announced retirement of IBMs Janet Perna, most associated with their DB2 database franchise, it got me thinking about IBMs future in the relational database market. I, like many others, got my first taste of relational technology back in the mid-1980s supporting DB2 on MVS. I remember attending many of the early International […]

The most timely feature of Oracles newest release, 10g R2, has to be Transparent Data Encryption. When you consider all the recent data privacy breaches and their impact on companies (if not customers—yet, anyway) due to compliance with new data privacy legislation, this feature just seemed to leap out at me. TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) […]

With all the recent public disclosures of data-privacy breaches, the spotlight is shining brightly on database security. Databases are clearly under direct attack from hackers on an ever-increasing basis. To paraphrase a famous exchange, “Why do you hack into databases?” “Because thats where the data is!” In recent years we have seen an increasing number […]

IT terms are frequently used in a variety of ways by an array of vendors, co-workers and marketing types, leaving many of us wondering if we even understand what a particular term actually means. Of course, this problem is exacerbated when a niche market explodes into mainstream acceptance, forcing users and vendors alike to poach […]

Just when you thought things might be slowing down, becoming more standardized and easier to manage, the software companies and their willing sacrificial lambs (yes, that would be you) have found new and exciting ways to complicate their lives. And, make no mistake, complexity is the thing everyone craves, yet no one can manage. Sure, […]