Database Technology Trends

In today’s challenging technology environment it is important to keep up the skills and learn new trades along the way. In my opinion there’s no substitute for hands on experience. Step by step instructions are a great way to get hands on experience.

For quite a while I had a couple of Sybase Replication Server step by step instructions on my company’s website ( www.doblerconsulting.com ). Unfortunately these were static pages and nobody could leave any messages. I transferred these pages to a blog format that allows anybody to leave comments, suggestions, feedback and of course, corrections, in case I messed up.

http://www.techtipsntrick.com is the new home for step by step instructions on various technology topics. As I mentioned before, the first few entries are focused around Sybase Replication Server. The basic concept is to provide information on new technology that can be easily reproduced in a test environment. Although these instructions are very detailed, they are for demonstration purposes only.

Here are a few topics that I plan to release soon:

• Step by step installation of Oracle 11g RAC on Red Hat Linux 5
• Step by step installation of Sybase ASE 15 Cluster Edition on SuSe Linux 10
• How to integrate MS SQL Server Reporting Services with SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
• How to activate PDF search in SharePoint (MOSS) 2007
• A collection of hard to find SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 fixes and workarounds (based on lessons I’ve learned with MOSS 2007)
• Sybase Replication Server Expert Tips (a collection of real life Sybase Replication Server how to scripts)

Once I started to post step by step instructions on how to effectively use LinkedIn tools on this blog, I got several requests from readers to write more step by step instructions on a variety of topics. If you have any requests or suggestions on what you like to read about, please leave a comment on this post.

I am looking forward to read your comments, suggestions and critics as well.

Thanks,

Peter

Turns out that maintaining a blog requires time and efforts. That’s why so many blogs went silent in the past few months. Regarding a source of the NY Times (Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest) bloggers are abandoning their beloved blogs in an increasing rate. The good news is that this will weed out 95% of all the competitors.

I have to admit that I fell into a blog fatigue myself. After blogging a few articles that created a lot of interest in the market space I got wrapped up in a lot of work for my company and ignored my blog all together.

Many of my fellow colleagues were constantly asking me when I will release my next article on the blog. I chose to ignore these requests and deemed the blog as too much work for not much in return. But times are changing and the current recession is very challenging for small businesses to stay afloat.

The one thing the last recession proofed was that the companies that were able to keep their names on people’s minds, either through advertising or aggressive mouth to mouth promotions, came out ahead once the economy recovered.

Of course advertising costs money and money is tight during a recession. But there’s a way to bypass that. Blogging is essentially free and a great tool to keep your name in people’s mind. Especially in the consulting business it is very hard to actually create a direct response marketing campaign. Circulating your name is the best method to keep you on a possible short list in the future.

So, this is reason enough for me to re-launch my blog. There will be summaries and reviews of new database features recently released by the major database vendors. I will also add a new topic covering content management issues. Besides a multi decade long experience in database architecture and management I also added Microsoft’s SharePoint as a strategic tool to my company and the blog will feature articles that will discuss SharePoint features not many people are aware of.  Whenever possible there will be real life experiences as well.

Having said that I now have to go back to the drawing board and get busy with the next blog series.

As always, thank you for stopping by and your continued interest in my views.
Thanks,
Peter