Blog

In part one, Nathan Koopmans, cloud platform engineer at OptimaData, showed how to create a simple plain PostgreSQL setup. Even though this works fine, you still want more data security. Therefore, in this second part, we look at the CloudNativePG operator for Kubernetes.

Several years ago now, colleague Craig wrote a three-part blog about PostgreSQL in combination with Docker. Technology has not stood still, so an update is in order, thought Nathan Koopmans, cloud platform engineer at OptimaData. Hence, How to Postgres on Kubernetes. 

The global tightening of laws and regulations around privacy is forcing organizations to take steps to ensure data privacy. In this blog, we zoom in on the function of the database in supporting data privacy and compliance. We discuss how technical mechanisms can be implemented in the database to protect personal information and enable consent management. Of course, we also look at the important role the Database Administrator (DBA) plays in ensuring data privacy and compliance.

You know the drill. Documentation. The underrated and severely underrated baby of automation. "The code is self-explanatory," "Read The Fine Manual" and "We'll do that later". Common comments. Good management is obviously about solid content knowledge. But also do not underestimate the recording of agreements, actions and the clear mapping of the database environment. Read: documentation. In this blog, Harry Splinter outlines a few practical focal points.

We frequently see within organizations that only a single database administrator is responsible for managing the oh-so-critical database environment. And that is still a luxury situation. Often the care for the database environment rests on the shoulders of an application or system administrator. That can be a good solution. As long as everything goes as it should and no exciting things happen. But what do you do if something goes wrong while your employee is on vacation? Hope he - or she - has the laptop with him? Or is there another way?

In this third and final blog in the series, Gerard Zuidweg, co-owner of OptimaData, discusses the importance of optimizing data modeling to effectively manage and reduce cloud costs. As companies migrate to the cloud, closely monitoring and controlling cloud spend is essential. Gerard shares seven practical techniques for taking a smart look at your data model. That way, you can optimize your database usage and reduce your cloud costs.

In this second blog of a series of three, Gerard Zuidweg, co-owner of OptimaData, discusses optimizing database usage to effectively reduce and control cloud costs. As companies migrate their IT environments to the cloud, cloud expenses can become an ever-increasing expense. Gerard shares six practical tips that will help organizations optimize their cloud costs from a database perspective and even potentially improve application and service performance at the same time.

Migrating business operations to the cloud is a trend that has been going on for some time. The cloud therefore offers the necessary advantages, but also requires a careful approach. In this first blog in a series of three, Gerard Zuidweg, co-owner of OptimaData, discusses the main concerns of cloud migration. He also introduces the concept of FinOps - the merging of Finance and DevOps - and provides five general tips for managing cloud costs, with a focus on database management.

At OptimaData, we regularly receive requests to investigate disappointing database performance. Often the organization has already had the conversation with the software vendor. A common response from the vendor is: the database server has insufficient CPU or memory. But how much processing power and memory is actually sufficient? And what can still be done if the application still responds slowly, even if the database server has sufficient hardware capacity? In this blog, Dimitri Choustov explains where possible improvements can be found.

At the end of 2022 we were pleased to welcome Harry Splinter to our team. The arrival of Harry with his years of experience as a DBA is a nice and solid reinforcement of our multi-platform database expertise. With a number of extensive migrations in the pipeline from Sybase and MSSQL, among others, to open source solutions, plus a number of complex (cloud) database issues, Harry can be of immediate added value. But above all, we are very happy that Harry has chosen us as his new work home. In this blog, Harry tells us what he thinks of his new employer.

Still, when we review our experiences in everyday work, the common denominator is often that a database environment was set up or maintained with the best of intentions, but with insufficient expertise. Yes, it has been made very easy these days to source a cloud database or spin up an open source database. But then... Unfortunately, it still happens too often that we get involved relatively late in the process. Fixing things then takes a relatively long time. Of course we like that, because we love complex puzzles, but whether it achieves the desired result?

'Hey neighbor, can I borrow your ladder for a minute?' Who doesn't know it? In our daily domestic life, we find such a question quite normal. As soon as we put on our business attire, the world suddenly seems to be structured differently. Then we want to do everything ourselves, keep everything to ourselves, and we start looking hard for that one specific expert whom we then want to employ permanently for forty hours a week. The current shortage in the labor market forces us to think more broadly and turn challenges into opportunities through a different approach. In this blog, Edco Wallet, co-owner of OptimaData, advocates knowledge sharing.

In the past, Harry Splinter, Database Reliability Engineer at OptimaData, wrote about SAP ASE backups under the title "Thoughts on backups," in which he also paid attention to recovery. During his career as a DBA, he encountered quite a few situations in which recovery was the last straw. This sometimes led to unpleasant surprises. In this blog he shares his experiences. To learn, but also to amuse.

At OptimaData, we didn't have a Cloud Platform Engineer on our team until this year. But yes, the cloud is totally hot, everything has to be in the cloud today. "In the cloud or you're out". No cloud? Then you don't belong these days. Fortunately, since December 2022 we have Nathan Koopmans as a Cloud Platform Engineer on our team, now we belong again. In this blog we ask Nathan about his role on the team.

We once attended a demo where a cloud database was deployed. Five minutes and it was there. That makes your mouth drop. Doesn't it? Or does this paint a slightly too simplistic picture of what is involved in the - proper and secure - deployment of a cloud database? In this blog, Mark van der Haar shares a number of points to keep in mind during an Azure SQL deployment.

When companies and organizations have a technical issue, they often look for resources. There is not enough specific knowledge, experience or technical skills in-house to solve the problem themselves. Unfortunately, especially within larger organizations, hiring capacity is seen as a generic HR procurement process. This too often results in the wrong person for the wrong price. In other words, a pedestal without a monkey. In this blog, we try to expose this problem.

Once upon a time there was a client with a request for help. For this customer, we do not do regular management and no active monitoring was set up for that purpose. The customer had noticed that two disks on a SQL Server instance were nearly full. Normally, the disk is then enlarged; after all, it is quite normal for databases to grow. But the customer saw that there might be more to it, as the transaction log files had also grown very large, and asked if we would investigate what was going on. In this blog, Cindy Beernink, database consultant at OptimaData, talks about the importance of monitoring.

We as OptimaData hope that all clients and other relations have been able to conclude 2022 nicely. It is time for a new chapter. In the year behind us, we received many questions about database consulting and were able to give just as much advice and implement solutions. So what were the most important and common issues we discovered and what lessons can you take into the new year?

If you have over thirty years of experience as a DBA, you would think that you have made all the mistakes at least once. But it's very easy to misunderstand, knows Thomas Spoelstra, Senior Database Reliability Engineer and DBA at OptimaData. In this blog, he talks about how missing one word can lead to an awkward situation. And how it can still turn into a success for all parties.

In previous blogs, we described how to select a database support partner, how to prepare your team and what the three phases of effective database support are. But how does it actually work? In this blog, Eric Gipon gives an example of how we worked at one of our customers.