Articles Index
Migrating to SQL Server with the Access Upsizing Wizard
Many database users begin their adventure in the world of databases by creating a Microsoft Access database that meets the basic requirements of their organizations. Often, this is a dramatic improvement from an unwieldy collection of spreadsheets, text files or other documents that the organization previously used to manage information. However, eventually the business may outgrow that Access database and need to make the move to a more advanced database product.
Creating Reports with Microsoft Access 2010
Microsoft Access 2010 allows you to easily create professionally formatted reports automatically from information stored in a database. In tis tutorial, we're going to design a nicely-formatted listing of employee home telephone numbers for the use of management using the Northwind sample database and Access 2010.
Microsoft Access 2013 Fundamentals
Are you overwhelmed by the large quantities of data that need to be tracked in your organization? Perhaps you're currently using a paper filing system, text documents or a spreadsheet to keep track of your critical information. If you're searching for a more flexible data management system, a database might be just the salvation you're looking for and Microsoft Access 2013 provides an excellent option.
Databases Glossary
Glossary of database related terms from your About.com Guide to Databases
Facts vs. Dimensions
Facts and dimensions form the core of any business intelligence effort. These tables contain the basic data used to conduct detailed analyses and derive business value. In this article we take a look at the development and use of facts and dimensions for business intelligence.
Introduction to SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is a full-featured relational database management system (RDBMS) that offers a variety of administrative tools to ease the burdens of database development, maintenance and administration. In this article, we'll cover some of the more frequently used tools: SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Profiler, SQL Server Agent, SQL Server Configuration Manager, SQL Server Integration Services and Books Online.
Creating Traces with SQL Server 2012
SQL Profiler is a diagnostic tool included with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. It allows you to create SQL traces that track the specific actions performed against a SQL Server databases. SQL traces provide valuable information for troubleshooting database issues and tuning database engine performance. For example, administrators might use a trace to identify a bottleneck in a query and develop optimizations that might improve database performance.
Data Mining: An Introduction
Data mining allows you to find the needles hidden in your haystacks of data. Learn how to use these advanced techniques to meet your business objectives.
Creating a Table with SQL Server 2012
Tables serve as the basic unit of organization for any database, including those managed by SQL Server 2012. Designing appropriate tables to store your data is an essential responsibility of a database developer and both designers and administrators must be familiar with the process of creating new SQL Server database tables. In this article, we explore the process in detail.
Database Relationships: An Introduction To Foreign Keys, Joins and E-R Diagrams
Relationships allow you to describe the connections between different database tables in powerful ways. Once you’ve described the relationships between your tables, you can later leverage that information to perform powerful cross-table queries, known as joins.
MySQL in Amazon Web Services
If you're seeking an inexpensive way to run a MySQL database in the cloud, you might want to consider using the free tier of Amazon Web Services. AWS offers free limited use of a MySQL database server for one year and is extremely easy to get up and running.
Database Engine Tuning Advisor in SQL Server 2012
SQL Server 2012’s Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DETA) provides database administrators with a powerful way to tune your database for your specific environment. DETA allows you to design a customized workload that mimics your operational environment and then analyze that workload to determine the optimal configuration settings for your SQL Server instance. DETA’s recommendations include adding normal and clustered indexes to your database, partitioning tables and creating indexed views, where appropriate.
SQL Server in Amazon Web Services
If you're seeking an inexpensive way to run a SQL Server database in the cloud, you might want to consider using the free tier of Amazon Web Services. AWS offers free limited use of a SQL Server Express database server for one year and is extremely easy to get up and running.
Importing and Exporting Data with SQL Server 2012
The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is a component of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) that facilitates the transfer of information between your SQL Server databases and other data sources, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and flat files.
What is an Analytics Database?
Analytics databases are optimized to be used for retrieval, aggregation, tabulation, dissemination, and analytics, under the general banner of business intelligence (BI). They deliver benefits in a BI environment because they are designed for high performance in this environment, whereas an online transaction processing (OLTP)-oriented database is optimized for a very different role.
Building an Access Database in Office 365
Looking for an easy way to move your Microsoft Access database to the cloud? Microsoft’s Office 365 service provides a central location where you can store and manipulate your Microsoft Access databases. This service has multiple benefits including leveraging Microsoft’s highly available environment to protect your data and enabling multiuser access to your database in a scalable fashion. In this article, we look at the process of moving your Microsoft Access database to Office 365.
Creating SQL Server 2012 User Accounts
SQL Server 2012 provides a wide range of security features designed to help you protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored in your enterprise databases. One of the most important tasks that database administrators perform is the implementation of role-based access control that limits the ability of users to retrieve and modify data in the database unless they have an explicit business need to do so.
Database Certifications
Popular database certifications are always in demand, whether it's Microsoft's MCTS or MCITP, Oracle's OCA, OCP and OCM or MySql's CMA, CMDEV and CMDBA. Are you a database professional seeking to polish your resume in the hopes of landing a better gig? Database vendors offer a variety of professional certification programs that can help you advance your career while gaining valuable technical skills.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Certification Programs
Microsoft is once again overhauling its SQL Server certification program in conjunction with the release of SQL Server 2012. The short-lived MCITP and MCTS certifications are no more and now there are three levels of certification available to database professionals
Abandoning ACID in Favor of BASE
The BASE model offers a completely different alternative to our traditional notions of database engineering. It abandons the relational database guiding principles of atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability in favor of a relaxed approach that allows the flexible, efficient storage of data.
Introduction to NoSQL
The NoSQL movement is changing the way we think about databases. Instead of requiring that database developers follow the rigid principles of the ACID model, NoSQL allows a great deal of flexibility that provides a tremendous efficiency boost. This comes, however, at the cost of reduced enforcement of traditional database constraints.
SQL Server Migration Assistant 2012
SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) provides database administrators with a smooth way to transition from their existing database platform to Microsoft SQL Server. The migration assistants are able to transfer data to either a server-based SQL Server database or to Microsoft’s SQL Azure cloud-based database platform.
SQL Server 2012 Backup Types and Scopes
One of the major advantages that enterprise-class databases offer over their desktop counterparts is a robust backup and recovery feature set. Microsoft SQL Server provides database administrators with the ability to customize a database backup and recovery plan to the business and technical requirements of an organization.
Microsoft Access Genealogy Database Template
Are you interested in tracing your family roots but don’t have a good place to store all of your genealogical information? While there are several full-featured family tree software packages on the market, you can also use a free Microsoft Access template to create your own genealogy database on your computer. Microsoft’s already done most of the work for you, so there is no programming knowledge needed to get started.
Introduction to MySQL
Fed up with the world of commercial software licensing? Are you looking for a stable database platform for your organization but sweating at the hefty price tags attached to mainstream products from Microsoft and Oracle? MySQL may be for you!