Major Database Conferences

I started looking to see what database conferences there are and to my surprise there are a vast number . In my SQL Server field I follow:

SQL Bits
http://sqlbits.com/
SQL Bits has been started by a group of individuals that are passionate about the SQL Server product suite. There is a breadth of knowledge in the SQL Community that will benefit everyone in the community. We want to spread that knowledge. We all work with the SQL community, some of us for many years and have all been given the MVP award by Microsoft...

TechEd
http://www.microsoft.com/europe/teched/
Conference provides developers and IT professionals the most comprehensive technical education across the Microsoft current and soon-to-released suite of products, solutions and services…

Professional Association for SQL Server
http://sqlpass.org/
Stay up to date on developments in the SQL Server world through our focused newsletters, eBlasts, and SQL Server events etc..

There are other professional database specific conferences for Oracle , MySQL, NoSQL… etc along with:

VLDB: Very Large Data Bases
http://www.vldb.org/
The sole purpose of promoting and exchanging scholarly work in databases and related fields throughout the world…

SIGMOD: ACM SIGMOD Conf on Management of Data
http://www.sigmod.org/
SIGMOD's Mission The ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data is concerned with the principles, techniques and applications of database management systems and data management technology…

PODS: ACM SIGMOD Conf on Principles of DB Systems
PODS, the Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, is the premiere international conference on the theoretical aspects of database systems...

ICDE: IEEE Intl Conf on Data Engineering
http://www.icde2010.org/
Data Engineering deals with the use of engineering techniques and methodologies in the design, development and assessment of information systems for different computing platforms and application environments...

ICDT: Intl Conf on Database Theory
http://alpha.uhasselt.be/icdt/
ICDT is a scientific conference on research on the foundations of database systems; it can be seen as the European version of PODS (the ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems)...

EDBT: Extending DB Technology
http://www.edbt.org/
The EDBT Association promotes and supports research and progress in the fields of databases and information systems technology and applications...

DAMA
http://www.dama.org
DAMA International is a global association of technical and business professionals dedicated to advancing the concepts and practices of information and data management...

CIKM: Intl. Conf on Information and Knowledge Management http://www.cikmconference.org/
The Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) provides an international forum for presentation and discussion of research on information and knowledge management, as well as recent advances on data and knowledge bases. The purpose of the conference is to identify challenging problems facing the development of future knowledge and information systems, and to shape future directions of research by soliciting and reviewing high quality, applied and theoretical research findings...

IDEAS - International Database Engineering and Application Symposium http://ideas.concordia.ca/
The aim of the IDEAS series of symposiums is to address the engineering and application aspects of databases. The symposium provides an international forum for discussion of the problems of engineering database systems involving not only database technology but the related areas of information retrieval, multimedia, human machine interface and communication…

DEXA: Database and Expert System Applications
http://www.dexa.org/
Information systems and database systems have always been a central topic of computer science. In addition, the integration of knowledge, information and data justifies its actual attractiveness. Since 1990 DEXA is an annual international conference, located in Europe, which showcases state-of-the-art research activities in these areas...

DASFAA: Database Systems for Advanced Applications
http://www.dasfaa.org/
As an annual international conference in Pacific Asia region, DASFAA is an international forum for academic exchanges and technical discussions among researchers, developers and users of databases from academia, business and industry. The conference will promote research and development activities in database field among participants and their institutions from Pacific Asia and the world as well...

BNCOD: British National Conference on Databases
http://www.bncod2010.org.uk/
BNCOD was established in 1980, as the British National Conference on Databases, as a forum for research into the theory and practice of databases. Since then, BNCOD has become an international information systems conference and has attracted an international audience to discuss the leading research topics of the day in the field...

ADBIS: Symposium on Advances in DB and Information Systems
http://www.adbis2010.org/
The main objective of the ADBIS series of conferences is to provide a forum for the dissemination of research accomplishments and to promote interaction and collaboration between the database and information systems research communities from Central and East European countries and the rest of the world...

KRDB - Knowledge Representation Meets Databases
http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Societies/KRDB/
KRDB (Knowledge Representation meets Databases) is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from the two areas to exchange ideas and results. KRDB meets annually during major KR/AI and DB conferences...

CoopIS - Conference on Cooperative Information Systems
http://www.onthemove-conferences.org/index.php/coopis2010
Cooperative Information Systems provide enterprises and communities of users with flexible, scalable and intelligent services in large-scale networking environments.... The CIS paradigm has traditionally encompassed distributed systems technologies such as middleware, business process management (BPM) and Web technologies. In recent years, several innovative technologies are emerging: SaaS, cloud computing, Internet of Service, Internet of Things, Service Oriented Computing, mash-ups, Web Services, Semantic Web and Knowledge Grid. These new technologies enable us to consider more aggressive solutions for building scalable cooperative information systems...

A database system

Basically, it is nothing more than a computer record keeping system: this is, a system whose overall purpose is to record and maintain information. The information concerned can be anything that is deemed to be of significance to the organization the system is serving – anything, in other words, that may be necessary to the decision-making processes involved in the management of that organisation.

Defined by Date, C.J. (1981) An Introduction to Database Systems, Boston, Addison-Wesley.

Definition of a System

A model of a whole entity: when applied to human activity, the model is characterized fundamentally in terms of hierarchical structure, emergent properties, communication, and control. An observer may chose to relate this model to real-world activity. When applied to natural or man-made entities, the crucial characteristic is the emergent properties of the whole.

Defined by Checkland, P.B. (1999) Systems thinking, systems practice, Chichester, John Wiley.

Denali - The next SQL version

The first CTP has been released for Denali, the next version of SQL Server, likely to be released to Manufacturing in 2012. Microsoft
SQL Server isn’t just a database, but an entire "information platform", stated Ted Kummert from Microsoft.

Denali will introduce holistic data integration and a management solution focusing on data with new Data Quality Services for knowledge-driven data cleansing and Impact Analysis and Lineage.

SQL Server AlwaysOn will provide a set of capabilities to help businesses maximize uptime of their mission critical applications and simplify high availability deployments.

This version will be the largest SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) release.

Microsoft codename Atlanta is a secure cloud service that proactively monitors your Microsoft SQL Server deployments. It will capture configuration information that may later be required for troubleshooting and allow tracking of changes nightly.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse was also just launched.

Recovery Markers for Business Continuity

In every disaster recovery plan for SQL Server it should have specified the key goals. The goals that should be recorded are the Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective.

The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the amount of acceptable data loss specified within your contractual obligations.

The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the amount of time the service can be unavailable after a disaster.

Example

RPO - 5 minutes of data loss only
RTO - 1 hour before service needs to be restored

Backup Process

A backup and recovery process should be put in place to backup the databases and backups should be regularly restored to test the validity of the backup process.

The Database is Shutdown

When the databse state is showing as shutdown some troubleshooting steps are required.

To identify the database status run:-

USE master
SELECT databaseproperty(‘databasename’,'isShutdown’)

Clear the database status:-

USE master
ALTER DATABASE databasename SET offline

Bring the database back online:-

USE master
ALTER DATABASE databasename SET online

Check database

DBCC CHECKDB

Other things to check

• Is Autogrow enabled?
• Is their enough filespace?
• Is their sufficient memory and disk space?
• Are the physical files marked as read only?