Blog
Tracking new AWS Database Infrastructure Availability
AWS can drop 10+ articles a day just in the What’s New feed. You either need an eagle eye, or luck to keep up if you run multiple AWS database products across multiple regions and managing infrastructure.
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Evaluating Readyset Caching for MySQL
Readyset is a database caching solution for MySQL and PostgreSQL . For applications that have increased load on your primary database, or use scale-out infrastructure to support a high-read workload, ReadySet can be a drop-in solution to address current performance issues.
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Creating a More Realistic Benchmark
Common benchmark approaches fall into two general categories, synthetic testing and realistic testing. You have the most generic operations from a synthetic test, starting with the most simple example using a single table, a single column, and for a single DML operation.
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Testing, Benchmarking, Evaluating
Testing and benchmarking are widely used terms in software technology, each serving a distinct purpose and goal. With the increasing adoption of AI in software development, the term evaluating has become significant and with this the re-emergence of what is quality assurance.
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Your Attack Vector Extends Beyond Production Systems
A common data security issue is the unprotected copying of production data to non-production environments without any redaction, masking, or filtering. This practice poses a serious risk. A malicious actor will target the weakest link in your infrastructure, including non-production accounts and the developer systems accessing them.
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Easy Money-Saving Tips for Your AWS Cloud Spend
There are numerous Cloud Service Provider (CSP) FinOps products that can review, collate, summarize, and recommend ways to optimize your cloud spend. If you’re using one or more cloud providers and don’t actively manage your Cost and Usage Reports (CURs) on a daily basis, investing in such a product is a smart move.
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Why Being Proactive Is Always a Winning Approach
Many companies manage production infrastructure using a reactive model rather than a proactive one. Organizations typically react to warnings and alerts, then implement corrective actions in response. While some companies have well-designed architectural patterns—such as feature flags and rate limiting—that can quickly mitigate the impact of issues, these are merely temporary solutions, not resolutions.
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Migrating off of WordPress - A Simplified Stack
The ongoing drama between Wordpress v WP Engine continues to cross my reading list, but I have permanently removed WordPress from my website. I have finally transitioned away from the complex Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP) stack required for self-hosting WordPress on my professional website.
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WeSQL Introduction – MySQL running on S3
I recently became aware of WeSQL . A MySQL-compatible database that separates compute and storage, using S3 as the storage layer. The product uses a columnar format by default which is significantly more space-efficient than InnoDB.
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Managing SQL Drift: Ensuring Stability in Database Transitions
SQL drift is a significant challenge that occurs when SQL statements from an existing system produce unexpected results after migration to a new environment or system. These issues manifest in several critical ways: SQL statements may generate new execution errors, experience significant performance degradation, or yield differences in data integrity.
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RDS MySQL Aurora 3.07.0 is unusable for upgrades
Yesterday I detailed an incompatible breakage with RDS MySQL Aurora 3.06.0 , and one option stated is to upgrade to the just released 3.07.0. Turns out that does not work. It is not possible to upgrade any version of AWS RDS MySQL Aurora 3.
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Database testing for all version changes (including minor versions)
We know that SQL statement compatibility can change with major database version upgrades and that you should adequately test for them. But what about minor version upgrades? It is dangerous to assume that your existing SQL statements work with a minor update, especially when using an augmented version of an open-source database such as a cloud provider that may not be as transparent about all changes.
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Are you patching your AWS RDS MySQL 5.7 EOL databases?
Recently, I noticed a second AWS RDS MySQL 5.7 version available 5.7.44-rds.20240408. Curious what this was as 5.7.44 is the only RDS 5.7.x EOL version available, I launched an instance to discount this as errant metadata.
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