Kevin Kline : Interoperability

Microsoft Document Watch for Operational Excellence

KKline — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:59:00 GMT

Back when my day-to-day duties included database administration work and enterprise architecture, I became rather obsessed with the idea of operational excellence . I read everything I could on the topic. I made a list of favorites, which became somewhat...(read more)

Managing Complex DB Environments

KKline — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:05:00 GMT

Let's address methods for successfully managing today’s complex heterogeneous database infrastructures....(read more)

Microsoft Windows Platforms Blog Watch

KKline — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:44:00 GMT

Remote Desktop Services Component Architecture Poster Grab your own poster! A visual guide to key Remote Desktop Services technologies in Windows Server 2008R2 Virtually Free Get the latest update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server...(read more)

SQL Server Migration Roll-Up

KKline — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:42:00 GMT

There are so many great tools out there for data professionals using Microsoft SQL Server. I really like to see all of these great tools made free to the public. On the other hand, I'm bummed that the tools are cast about in a very decentralized fashion....(read more)

Soliciting Feedback for the 3rd Edition of "SQL in a Nutshell"

KKline — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:03:00 GMT

Kevin here. In the 2nd edition of my book "SQL in a Nutshell", I covered the latest ANSI SQL implementation, plus the full syntax and usage of the SQL commands for IBM's DB2 UDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. You can imagine how much work that was.

I'm now starting to plan for the 3rd edition of the book since all of the database platforms have a new major release under their belts. But I'm curious - how much PostgreSQL are you actually seeing out there in the market? I've been very watchful and still see very little of it. Because of this, I'm strongly leaning towards dropping coverage of PostgreSQL. It will save me an enormous amount of work and quite a bit of space in the book. Thoughts?

Also, I appreciate any other thoughts or comments you might have about improving "SQL in a Nutshell".

Many thanks,

-Kevin

An Interview about Oracle and SQL Server Interoperability

KKline — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:19:00 GMT

I was interviewed by Mark Brunelli, the news editor for Tech Target, which appeared on the website SearchSQLServer.com. Check it out for discussion on SQL Server and Oracle interoperability at http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid41_gci1270206,00.html.

(Please note that this link is not available on SearchOracle.Techtarget.Com for some reason. -Kevin 15-Sep-2007)

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

-Kevin

Who's more secure, Oracle or SQL Server?

KKline — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:52:00 GMT

UK SQL Server MVP Jasper Smith pointed out a really useful resource if you work with or are concerned about both Oracle and SQL Server. The white paper, by David Litchfield of NGS Software, comparesthe numbers of security flaws identified by external security researchers and subsequently fixed by Oracle and Microsoft in regard to their database products.

http://www.ngssoftware.com/research/papers/comparison.pdf

Here are some interesting quotes:

Q:Do the SQL Server 2005 results have no flaws because no-one is looking at it?

A:No - I know of a number of good researchers are looking at it - SQL Server code is just more secure than Oracle code.

Q:Why have there been so little bugs found in SQL Server since 2002?

A:Three words: Security Development Lifecycle - SDL. SDL is far and above the most important factor. A key benefit of employing SDL means that knowledge learnt after finding and fixing screw ups is not lost; instead it is ploughed back into to the cycle. This means rather than remaking the same mistakes elsewhere you can guarantee that new code, whilst not necessarily completely secure, is at least more secure than the old code.

Cheers,

-Kevin