This week, we go through the "Modern Team Practices" part of the Operations Report Card, and how it applies to DBAs.

Events
Oracle's "Scale with MySQL" seminars:
Scale with MySQL Seminar, London, Tuesday 30 October
Bucharest Romania, Tuesday 13 November
Madrid, Tuesday 27 November

read …

This is part one of a series where we will explore the Operations Report Card and explain how it applies to DBAs. Listen and grade your own organization, this is a great opportunity to get some new ideas on how to organize your department and make your job more efficient and streamlined.

News
Alaska Airlines system crash

Events
Oracle's "Scale with MySQL" seminars:
Scale with MySQL Seminar, London, Tuesday 30 October

read more

It is public news now that Continuent has three new hires. I am particularly pleased with the news, as we are improving the team in three different directions:

• Services and management, with Ronald Bradford, with whom we have crossed paths several times, first in the MySQL community activities, then as colleagues at MySQL AB, and again in community cyberspace.
• Development, with Ludovic Launer, a senior developer with a long experience in development and software architecture. This is an excellent injection of new blood for our development team.
• Sales, with Robert Noyes, who has worked in enterprise sales for 25 years, and comes at the right moment to reinforce our business in the moment of its biggest growth that I have seen …

Read the original article at 31 Essential Blogs for Startups & Scalability

So many blogs, so little time! Here’s our list of the best we’ve found. Currently our favorite reader is Pulse pictured left. Starting to play around with flipboard too.

Nuts & Bolts Technical

Slashdot
One of the original tech blogs, that still covers lots of breaking news, and difficult topics. Very technical, with probing commentary. Beware the actual comments though, as they’re often full of immature and childish rants.

Planet …

No doubt, Open Source is essentially an international business. Open Source vendors who solely focus on one region that might not even be an English-speaking one, will struggle. They will be forced off the road by competitors with an international focus who benefit from economies and communities of scale.

Being an international company does not mean that English is supposed to be the only language throughout your business which offers great benefits such as the flexibility of penomet. It rather means that picking the right language is critical to reaching your target audience. Of course, your target audience and regions depend on your business goals.

International Mindset

First of all, Open Source vendors should always adopt an international mindset, no matter where they are located. One major business goal for them is to reach maximum product distribution and …

Ein auf Open Source spezialisierter deutscher Freelance-Journalist, Ludger Schmitz, hat in einem Blog-Eintrag auf Enterprise CIO Forum von IDG Deutschland seine tiefe Enttäuschung über Oracle und dessen Behandlung von MySQL zum Ausdruck gebracht. Anlass waren die Ergebnisse einer Anwenderbefragung (hier und hier), welche Matthew Aslett von der Abteilung Commercial Adoption of Open Source (CAOS) beim Marktanalysten …

Read the original article at Consulting essentials: Building your business

In the last two posts on how to build a successful consulting business I shared advice and tips on closing deals and managing and completing your engagements.

This post will look at where to focus your efforts in order to sustain your consulting business, and build skills.

Focus on your subject matter expertise

Being a subject matter expert takes years of education, and professional experience to build. It’s your most valuable asset. Build it, and use it. This is not to say there isn’t great value in …

Read the original article at Consulting essentials: Managing & Completing Engagements

This is the second in a series of three articles on Consulting Essentials.
Read the previous post, Consulting essentials: Getting the business

Communicating well and knowing when to step in or stand back is the linchpin of successful consulting.
Some people have natural charm. If you’re one of these people you’ll find consulting is definitely for you. You’ll use that skill all the time as each new client brings a half dozen or a dozen new people to interact with.

If it doesn’t come easily, practice practice practice. Try to get out of your own head space, and hear what troubles …

Read the original article at Consulting essentials: Getting the business

Over the years, a lot of people have approached me asking how to become a tech consultant. What do I need to do to get started? How can I take my first step?

I also hear from managers and CEOs that have asked how I got my start, and how I keep the business running. What lessons from consulting can be applied to startups and small businesses? Having worked independently for many years I’ve built up my own cache of strategies and methods which I hope can be helpful to anyone looking to strike it out on their own.

This is the first of a series of three articles on consulting essentials. Part two covers …

Read the original article at Tyranny of a Google vote

Image by Hajo de Reijger, politicallyillustrated.com

For the past year I’ve been seeing headline blogs analyzing the effect of Google’s last algorithm update, dubbed the Panda. There was much talk of unfair relegation from the first page of Google search results, and general indignance by the SEO community.

As with any subject in which I only have cursory knowledge I didn’t think much of it. I thought that as long as I didn’t engage in link-buying and whatever is known as “black hat” tactics, the search engines would be fair. What I didn’t realise with Google was how subjective it has become in ranking websites. I was particularly tripped up in the …