SQLAuthority News – Author Visit – Database Architecture and Implementation Discussion – New York, New Jersey

I will be traveling for next two days to New York and New Jersey for Database Architecture and Implementation Discussion with one of the largest software technology company. The major focus of this firm is environmental product analysis. I will be not able to answer any questions, comments and emails during next two days 8/5 Saturday and 8/6 Sunday. I will post all the interesting details (which I can disclose safely without violating privacy policy) once I am come back to my city – Las Vegas.

I am looking forward to meet industry giants and prominent personalities and to talk about database architecture and implementation for next two days.

Questions I Bring to Every Architecture Discussion

Over the years I have joined many conversations like this one, and the same few questions come up every time. First, what does the workload look like? A system that takes many small writes all day needs a different design than one that runs large reports at night. Second, how fast will the data grow, and how long must it be kept? Third, how much data can the business afford to lose, and how quickly must the system come back after a failure? Those answers decide the backup plan, not the other way around.

Once those answers are clear, database architecture and implementation become much easier to discuss. Keys, indexes, naming standards and security roles all follow from them. My advice is simple: write the answers down before anyone draws the first table. When a project goes wrong, one of these questions was usually never asked. Writing them down saves a lot of rework later, and everyone in the room agrees on the same goals.

Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.