On 15th August 2010, four teams from Xynomix swam 400 metres, cycled 10 miles and ran 5 kilometres through Long Eaton and the surrounding area.

The teams included representatives from Xynomix’ Oracle and SQL Server DBA, Senior Management and Sales and Marketing teams. All completed the circuit within 90 minutes.    

According to Sales Director Stephen Wigglesworth, participation in the Erewash Triathlon was entirely worthwhile: “We have raised a significant amount of money for a great charity and our participation has encouraged others to have a go at similar events next year”

Says Marketing Executive, Jules Pedersen: “Xynomix are keen to continue the success of an initiative put in place in 2009 to encourage employees to cycle to work. Our much publicised participation in the triathlon has reinforced the idea that we should all be healthier and ‘Greener’. Of the employees that are able to cycle in to work, over 70% now leave the car at home more than 3 times a week” 

So far, the amount raised through sponsorship for Cancer Research stands at £385, with sponsorship from written forms still to be included.

Xynomix are an Oracle Gold Partner, specialising in the design and provision of bespoke monitoring and management solutions for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Put to the test on an HP ProLiant ML350 G6 server with a single core Intel Xeon X5650 2.67 GHz processor and Oracle Enterprise Linux, Oracle Database 11g Standard Edition One achieved $0.39/tpmC with a performance result of 290,040 tpmC.

In terms of price and performance, Oracle holds all three of the top results in the price/performance category, with record results being achieved on Oracle Enterprise Linux and Windows.

According to Xynomix Marketing Executive, Jules Pedersen: “Oracle Database 11g, particularly Release 2, is focused on cost saving, high availability and faster performance. Where the first release of Oracle Database 11g prioritised innovation to ‘wow’ the Oracle world, 11g Release 2 aims to prioritise cheaper and more effective database management”

To view an Oracle article on Lowering IT Costs with Oracle Database 11g Release 2, click here

A more in-depth article published by Xynomix around Oracle Database 11g Release 2 can be found here

According to Xynomix, increasing numbers of enterprise organisations are realising the potential of Oracle 11g and upgrading from other versions of Oracle. Requests for Oracle 11g installation and support have almost tripled year on year since the 11g database was launched.

Source: Oracle

Nowadays, it is unusual to come across an article related to the management of IT Infrastructure without stumbling upon the words, ‘Cost Efficiency’. Organisations across all industry sectors are striving to make IT systems more compact, making the most of existing resources to deliver an even better service and increase productivity. However, another strongly related topic has started to steal headlines and add new pressures to companies planning the management of their IT systems: reduced energy usage, or ‘Green IT’.

Xynomix suggest 5 ways in which companies can increase efficiency and ROI, at the same time as reducing their impact on the environment. We cover Virtualisation, Grid Computing and Clustering, Server Consolidation, Cloud Computing and some of the functionalities of Oracle Fusion Middleware.

1)       Virtualise

In the simplest of terms, virtualisation involves pooling existing resources to create a number of simulated environments that deliver processing power, storage capacity, memory, etc. anywhere across the network as required. For example, the virtualisation of storage involves pooling physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what looks like, and can be managed as, a single central storage device. Similarly, server virtualisation involves masking individual physical servers, processors and operating systems and dividing the server resources into smaller virtual private servers. The positive impact of reduced costs and physical floor space that virtualisation has is immediately obvious.

Database virtualisation is no different in principle to the above and can increase cost efficiency whilst significantly reducing the carbon footprint caused by running physical database machines and servers. Database virtualisation involves the use of virtualisation softwares like VMWare and Oracle VM, through which Database environments are decentralised and redistributed across several virtual machines that share available physical resource. Queries are directed to the virtualization software that locates the source of the required information and pulls it back as seamlessly as if the query had been directed to the actual database.

The result? Lower hardware and energy costs, leading to a smaller carbon footprint. Not only that, but overall facility costs and TCO are significantly reduced, whilst the systems themselves can achieve higher levels of performance.

Oracle VM is currently free and fully supports both Oracle and non-Oracle applications. For more information on Oracle VM, or to download Oracle VM, please: click here

2)       Get on the Grid

IT Managers are certainly under pressure to maximise resources and minimise cost. The easiest way to achieve this is by unlocking the value that already exists within the company. Many organisations rarely use the technology within their IT infrastructure to full capacity, with resources sitting idle when their particular users are out of the office, or when their specific function is not required.

Grid Computing is effectively computing power on demand. As a collection of resources such as memory and processing power that is available over a network, Grid Computing can help to control costs and reduce energy usage by pooling and provisioning IT assets and processing power, allowing them to function virtually as a whole. Multiple applications can share the IT infrastructure, meaning that resource is always available to users and systems can achieve flexibility, optimum performance and maximum availability.

The way in which Grid Computing can accommodate scalability for IT systems is also a key overall cost and energy saver. Rather than purchasing and running systems that are provisioned to accommodate uncertain growth plans or to see organizations through peak periods, companies can increase computing capacity in smaller chunks, adding and removing machines as required.

The result? IT resources work together to service organisational demands without the need for investment in more power hungry hardware. Resources can be scaled quickly and easily to virtually eliminate cost waste from over-provisioning whilst delivering better all-round availability and performance for users with less energy. Existing resources are fully utilised and users experience increased levels of computing power for greater productivity.

3)       Is your head in the Clouds?

 ‘Cloud Computing’ is a hot topic at the moment. Closely related to Virtualisation and Grid Computing, ‘The Cloud’ allows for the internet-based provision of all IT resources, delivering a scalable, virtualised infrastructure without the need for investment in physical hardware. Because resources are shared and can be accessed on demand regardless of location, Cloud computing has become a viable IT strategy for small businesses to Blue Chips.

The saving benefits of ‘The Cloud’ in terms of operational cost and space can be huge. Cloud services can help companies to significantly scale back on the purchase and operational costs of servers, hardware and storage, as well as their associated maintenance costs. These can be virtualised, with companies paying for the specific resource that they need at that particular time. For example, an organisation could be allocated twelve virtual servers, with nine of those operating full-time and three of them being held in a reserve state in anticipation of spikes in demand. Each server would come with a certain amount of disk space, power, memory and bandwidth, but it would reside virtually within the provider’s dedicated Cloud resource.

The result? There are so many benefits to the ‘Cloud’ approach: entire IT infrastructures become quickly and easily expandable; companies can save money on the purchase of physical hardware, space and running costs whilst actually improving the service; and the organisation’s carbon footprint is significantly reduced. Even if moving mission-critical operations to the Cloud is impractical for certain organisations, there is still huge capacity to utilise Cloud capabilities for low-risk, but resource intensive tasks such as testing and developing software.

4) ‘Pay as you Grow’ Server Consolidation

Server Consolidation is an increasingly popular way for organisations to minimise hardware, maintenance and operating expenses through the more efficient use of server resources and the consequent reduction of physical server locations.

In its simplest form, Server Consolidation is the movement of applications that are moved from separate servers onto the same server to maximise available resources and decrease the number of physical servers required. The consolidation process involves the elimination of servers that are not strictly necessary to the business function, then physically consolidating multiple applications with similar configuration requirements onto a single operating system. Multiple server operating systems can be virtualised onto a single server, so organisations can easily manage capacity across server environments.

Xynomix estimate that most servers function below 35% percent capacity, positioning Server Consolidation as a great route to managing IT spend more effectively. Rather than investing in new equipment that will use more power and take up more space, existing units can be combined to make a highly efficient server stack. Programs can be selected taking load balancing, user experience and demand and software size into account.

The result? When unnecessary servers are decommissioned, requirements for floor space, utility and maintenance costs will inevitably lessen, as will the organisation’s energy usage. If resource is provisioned correctly, application performance will not be affected but the number of servers in use will be significantly reduced, which is great from both management and operational cost standpoints.

5)       Utilise Oracle Content Management

Oracle Content Management is an Oracle Fusion Middleware solution to the management of paper-based processes, documents, files, web content and related security. With OCM, organisations can drastically cut back on the use of electricity, paper and fossil fuels to reduce expenditure, waste and environmental impact.

‘Oracle Universal Content Management’ can be used to electronically create, distribute and manage documents so that a single copy of any document within the company can be accessed electronically from any location.

Features:

• ‘Oracle Document Capture’ and  ‘Oracle Distributed Document Capture’ – ‘DC’ allows organisations to scan a high volume of documents from a central location and ‘DDC’ provides a web-based front end for access to document images from remote locations.
• ‘Oracle Forms Recognition’ – works with Oracle Document Capture and Oracle Imaging and Process Management. Uses intelligence to recognise, categorise and extract information from any document.
•  ‘Imaging and Process Management’ – works in conjunction with Oracle Document Capture and Oracle Forms Recognition. Allows organisations to manage document images within business processes end to end.
•  ‘Universal Records Management’ – electronic and physical records management with the ability to manage and access content anywhere in the organisation.
• ‘Information Rights Management’ – security technology for tracking and securing sensitive data both inside and outside the organisation’s firewall.
• ‘Application Adapters for Enterprise Content Management’ – users can access content or document tasks from business application screens or from outside the application environment.

The result? Faster business processes, costs cut down to the smallest level [paper costs, shipping costs and physical storage costs will all be reduced], documents available across the organisation at any location and good press for a ‘Green’ attitude!

The article above is a fairly non-technical overview of a few popular routes to achieving government goals and ‘Green IT’ status. Hopefully this document shows how a few adjustments to IT management processes and strategies can have resounding effects, not just to the benefit of the environment, but also to the huge benefit of the organisation.

If you would like any further information on the above, please:

Xynomix develop Oracle-based solutions that address key challenges for many organisations: data growth; data management challenges; high availability and adaptability.

According to Xynomix, these challenges are more pronounced for organisations operating in the mid-market space in the current economic climate.

A Xynomix representative sites some of the key requirements for today’s mid-market organisations as:

• The flexibility to cope with changes in modern day business
• Cost-effective system management
• The need to remain within a strict budget
• Achieving a competitive edge with cutting edge technologies
• Systems running at optimum performance

“In response to the changing economic conditions that we are currently experiencing, and the increase in globalisation and acquisitions, midsize companies are under an incredible amount of pressure to improve business processes and become more competitive through the utilisation of advanced technology solutions. These solutions must almost match those used by larger organisations but must be delivered within strict IT budgets and with limited resources.

Xynomix bridge the technical and resources gap, plugging internal gaps in skills and knowledge and delivering enterprise grade technology solutions and experience to allow midsize organisations to play in the larger market space with confidence”

Xynomix are an Oracle Gold Partner who will achieve specializations in Oracle Database, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Database Performance Tuning and Oracle Enterprise Linux.

Solutions can incorporate the following technologies:

• Oracle Database [particularly 11g]
• Oracle Real Application Clusters   
• Information Lifecycle Management
• Active Data Guard
• IAS
• OSB
• Other technologies as required

About Xynomix: Founded in 2002, the Nottingham-based company has operated from premises in Stapleford then Sandiacre for over 8 years. Xynomix provides Oracle and SQL Server support and management to a client base that varies from large high street retail chains to government organisations to small organisations with just a few users.

The following article can be found in issue 11 of ‘Oracle One’ magazine.

Is Auditing Enough?

As with most security issues, whether or not monitoring and change tracking are adequate prevention mechanisms against the prohibited access of sensitive data is up for debate. For some organisations, a verbal request for DBAs to avoid accessing certain data tables followed by change tracking is enough.

However, in an increasingly security-conscious climate, many organisations are looking to implement a greater degree of security control for two key reasons:

• To prevent accidental and intentional access to sensitive data
• To comply with an increasing number of audit and regulatory guidelines

Invest in Internal System Security

Oracle’s Database Vault and Audit Vault products provide a double layer of internal system security. At database level, Database Vault gives senior IT personnel the power to lock down privileged users and manage security from outside the database.

Built on top of Database Vault, the Audit Vault application layer pulls data from multiple database systems into a centralized audit warehouse, at which point Audit Vault’s in-built reporting and alerting functionality can be utilised.

Meet Security and Compliance Challenges

Many businesses are under increased pressure to align security policies with strict Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI, DSS, HIPAA and GLBA regulations. These regulations champion a separation-of-duties and user monitoring approach to security, but the high administrative workloads and costs associated with compliance is usually inhibitive to IT managers on tight budgets. In most cases, DBAs are left with the privileges to access and change data table structures and data content at will, with little consequence if changes are not effectively tracked and regularly audited.

Lock Down Privileges

Having recognised the security challenges presented to IT managers – to mitigate security risks and accomplish regulation compliance with limited administrative and financial resources – Oracle have delivered Oracle Database Vault as part of the Oracle Database 9i, 10g and 11g product families. At its core, this product is designed to secure existing database environments transparently, allowing security personnel to achieve true separation-of-duties and employee accountability for data security without consuming valuable resources.

In a nutshell, rule sets based on multi-factor policies such as IP connection origin, user or time of day can be used to develop realms, command rules and secure application roles that give security administrators granular control over all individual user privileges within an organisation.

It is worth noting that Database Vault is pre-loaded with a series of tamper-proof realms that control which users can create and manage database accounts. They also protect intrinsic Database Vault schemas including the catalogue, SYS and SYSTEM schemas, SYSMAN, DBSNMP, and application tables and structures. As can be expected from a security tool, Database Vault itself is very secure.

Produce Security Reports

For larger organisations in particular, monitoring the effects of implemented security measures can present quite a challenge. Database Vault reporting features tackle security monitoring through simplified audit reporting functions that allow security personnel to continually review security configurations:

• Configuration Reports can be used to tweak the composition of security measures.
• Audit Reports can replace manual DBA scripts and deliver predetermined sets of information on user activities. They can be presented to Auditors as proof of compliance and highlight weaknesses in the security set up.

Gain Complete Visibility of Audit Data

Storing data within database tables or OS files is secure, but in most cases data security and compliance fall under the remit of the DBAs working on individual database instances. This can compromise data security for a number of reasons, not least that the integrity of the entire organisation’s data security policies rests on the shoulders of a handful of employees.

Database Vault certainly deals with internal security through the management of individual privileges, the delivery of incisive audit reports and the removal of database security ownership from the DBA. However, the issue remains that audit information is still specific to each database. It is therefore difficult to pull together a comprehensive overview of security procedures and their effects across the organisation.

Audit Vault solves this through the consolidation of automated audit data that is drawn from separate databases into a secure and centralised warehouse. When the Audit Vault warehouse is populated, data can be accessed through the Audit Vault console and alerting, security, reporting and monitoring features can be applied.

Centralised Policy Management

Policy management on an organisational scale is typically viewed as an administrative headache and resource vacuum. Audit Vault challenges this notion by giving senior security administrators the knowledge and control required to enforce privacy policies and identify internal threats to their execution through the Audit Vault console. The cost and effort required to accurately monitor audit information across all database systems is significantly reduced and data can be extracted from one source for proof of regulatory compliance.

Instant Threat Detection

For internal security, the speed of threat detection is paramount. Regular examination and analysis of audit data can significantly reduce the risks of internal security violations: unauthorized activity can be identified and restricted quickly with minimal impact to the organisation.

With Audit Vault, conditions can be set up to record actions and automatically fire an alert when Audit Vault Collectors transfer data containing activities that violate security and governance policies. Issues can be detected and investigated in near real time.

Summary

Oracle’s Database Vault and Audit Vault products make it possible to:

• Implement an extra security layer between DBAs and databases
• Achieve true separation-of-duties and employee accountability for data security without consuming valuable resources
• Automate the collection of audit data, monitoring and reporting processes to turn audit data into a key security resource for detecting unauthorized activity
• Prove compliance with strict data security regulations

For more information:

According to Oracle, their own innovative storage technologies can help companies to cope with their expanding storage infrastructure. StorageTek technology can help organisations achieve continuous access to data and operational efficiency whilst cutting costs and conserving energy.

Oracle site Consolidation and cutting edge tape storage and drive technology, along with StorageTek Modular Library Systems, as a key route to ‘saving energy and reclaiming datacenter floor space’.

According to a recent Oracle White Paper, “By reclaiming datacenter floor space with low-power, capacity-dense tape solutions, organizations can reduce real-estate costs and store more information at less cost”.

Oracle’s White Paper can be found at :
http://docs.oraclewhitepapers.com/oraclewhitepapers/oracle-consolidate-storage-533/

On 15th August 2010, four teams from Xynomix will swim 400 metres, cycle 10 miles then run 5 kilometres, competing against 400 other triathletes of varying abilities.

The teams will be made up of Oracle and SQL Server database administrators, database support sales and marketing personnel, and the MD himself, Andy Elcock.

Says Mr Elcock: “I am proud to see so many employees taking up the challenge of the Erewash Triathlon. Many of us have not competed in anything like this before, but we could not pass up the challenge to compete and raise money for such a worthwhile cause”

According to Xynomix Marketing Executive, Jules Pedersen, the decision to raise money for Cancer Research was a fairly easy one: “Cancer Research is a cause close to everyone’s hearts. There are so many worthwhile charities out there, but unfortunately I’m not sure that anyone could say their life has not been affected by Cancer in some way.

Xynomix’ cycle to work inititive last year encouraged many of us to get fit and it’s great that so many of us have decided to take that further for such a great cause”

The teams will be wearing shirts displaying the Xynomix logo. Jules Pedersen appeals: “If you are at the triathlon, please give us a cheer – you might just keep us going!”

Xynomix employees have been training steadily for the past few months and hope to raise £800 for Cancer Research.

If you would like to sponsor us, please visit our Just Giving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/xynomix-limited

Put to the test on a two-node Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX600 S5 Server equipped with Intel® Xeon® X7560 2.26 GHz processors on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, Oracle 11g has far outstripped the best IBM DB2 result on the SAP BI-D Standard Application Benchmark so far. The system achieved a throughput per hour of 182,112 query navigation steps per hour with a 94% CPU utilization of the central system.

When the arrangement was measured from a one-node to two-node configuration utilising Oracle Real Application Clusters [Oracle RAC], the system achieved a throughput of 854,649 and 1,624,629 query navigation steps to show a 90% scalability capacity along with outstanding performance and high availability. The one-node and two-node results also delivered over four times the throughput per processor and a higher performance per core than the best result of IBM DB2 on the SAP BI-D standard application benchmark.

Says Xynomix representative Jules Pedersen, “This impressive benchmark result from Oracle proves the performance and scalability capacity of Oracle 11g and Oracle RAC. We can deliver sales information around the benefits of 11g and RAC as much as we like, but results like these speak for themselves. The Oracle 11g and Oracle RAC partnership delivers enterprise class, performance database systems that can achieve maximum availability and incredibly high levels of query throughput”

According to Xynomix, increasing numbers of enterprise organisations are realising the potential of Oracle 11g and upgrading from other versions of Oracle. Requests for Oracle 11g installation and support have almost tripled year on year since the 11g database was launched.

Xynomix also suggest that Real Application Clustering, or RAC, is installed at a large number of enterprise customers throughout the UK. Says Jules Pedersen: “RAC is a highlight of Oracle 11g. As our customers upgrade their versions of Oracle, or install Oracle 11g fresh, we are always keen to help them take advantage of the benefits that this database technology offers. High availability and scalability are important factors at the moment. RAC and 11g really deliver on those”

To discuss 11g and RAC technology, please:

Source: Oracle

Oracle Managed Services providers Xynomix are at the forefront of Oracle RAC development and installation. System architecture, node partitioning, hardware configuration and cluster virtualisation are just a few of the aspects of Oracle RAC design and implementation that we deal with on a daily basis.

Many organisations have the internal skills to install Oracle RAC unaided and various ‘step by step’ guides to installing basic Oracle 11g RAC on Linux, Unix and Windows populate the internet. However, developing and installing enterprise-grade Oracle Real Application Clusters requires expertise and experience in Oracle database and RAC installation, even more so if the database systems are mission-critical.

If your organisation decides to install RAC technology using internal skills, you may find our expertise useful at some point. Assistance can be delivered in the following formats:

• Consultancy – For advice at the planning stage and an evaluation of how best to move the project forward. Or for advice or practical help during the project – we will be happy to assist you.
• Support – When the cluster is set up, Xynomix can put together a support contract that will ‘health check’ to ensure that the RAC technology is set up to achieve optimum performance and deliver assurances that your systems stay highly available, finely tuned, fully patched and correctly licensed using the most cost effective metric.
• Smart Licence Solutions – With direct routes into Oracle for the most up to date licence options, terms and conditions, we can deliver licence evaluations and advice for real savings.

For more information, please:

As more and more IT decision makers use website such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to make connections, source news and identify key information, the influence of social networking is expected to increase further.

According to the article, social networking presents a way of ‘reaching out to customers’, with 64% of UK IT chiefs using online publications to keep abreast of industry developments.

The article, authored by Simon Quicke, can be found by clicking here

Xynomix are embracing Social Networking. Would you like to see what we’re up to?

• Visit www.twitter.com/Xynomix for helpful ‘tweets’ on news from the worlds of Oracle, SQL Server and Xynomix
• See www.oracle-advice.co.uk for general information on Oracle and Oracle Support services
• Visit www.xynomix.com and check the right hand side of the homepage for regular news updates
• Sign up to our Xynomix newsletter: http://www.xynomix.com/newsletter