Posts by
Richard Macaskill
Faced with the new challenges of data protection – and increased levels of oversight – many of us working with SQL Server have come to the same conclusion. Quite simply, the column names and free text descriptions available to us to describe the data in our care (or data-containing artefacts like columns, tables and... Read more
I’ve read a lot about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because I’m interested in it both from a professional and personal perspective. I’ve been working with data, as an IT manager in financial services and as a product manager in a data software company, for over 20 years and in many ways the... Read more
If you’ve read anything about the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you’ll probably have seen the phrase Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) used. It’s similar to the current Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) already in place in countries like the UK and a DPIA is expected to address four areas: A description of the... Read more
SQL Clone 2.4 incorporates a new T-SQL script runner that the team can use to mask sensitive or personal data, or to modify security and other configuration settings, prior to creating a clone. In SQL Clone, we first create an image, which is a full point-in-time copy of the database, and from this image... Read more
We all know GDPR is on the way and, to date, most of the articles have been industry-focused, talking about the affect it will have on companies and organizations that gather, hold and process data. I recently wrote about why DBAs should care about it, and advised that you should start your GDPR journey... Read more
You’ve no doubt heard at least something about the GDPR, the EU’s new privacy and Data Management law with its greatly increased maximum fines for non-compliance and tighter definitions for acceptable use of personal information. If you’ve continued reading past paragraph one of any of the many articles, you’ll be aware that the law... Read more
This article describes a lightweight copy-and-generate approach for making a sanitized version of a production database available to development teams with SQL Clone and SQL Data Generator. We build the latest database version (schema only), then copy into it, from the production database, the data for any tables and columns that don’t require masking.... Read more
“Understanding the existing product consumes roughly 30 percent of the total maintenance time.” Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Robert L. Glass. You should be documenting your database schema. I know it, you know it. Having current, accurate documentation available accelerates time-to-resolution for faults, aids tech-to-business conversations, and is a regulatory requirement for a great number of... Read more
We’re pleased to announce that you can now monitor more databases in DLM Dashboard. The latest version, 1.6.2, supports up to 50 databases! Higher database limit was one of the most requested features on UserVoice. Along with the ability to exclude changes using filters, and the option to restrict access to the tool through permissions, we’ve... Read more
From a business risk perspective, data change can be just as significant as code or schema change. Sometimes even more so; an incorrect static (or reference, or master) data change can drive your software’s behaviour more dangerously askew than pretty much any bug can. Imagine treating a retail customer for an investment fund as a corporate... Read more
Richard Macaskill