Can’t Find a Solution? Consider Changing the Problem

Sean Hull — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:46:03 +0000

Presentation Abstract
Technology consulting is always one part science, one part thinking on your toes, and one part client relationship.
In a recent engagement at a large educational software services company we were faced with a very challenging
problem. They were running up against a wall as their user base steadily grew. They were growing at a steady
rate, but their database systems were becoming a bottleneck to the application performance and thus the service
they offered their customers.

We looked at the technology involved to scale up based on their growth rates, but found it was becoming cost
prohibitive. They asked us how it could be done cheaper.

Stepping back from the problem, we devised a very unorthodox solution, which upon inspection may seem rather
obvious. Yet the business had been doing things a certain way for so long, they had not considered this alternate
view.

Outline

Introduction
1. Initial meetings with client, discuss problems
2. Review of database systems
3. Cost estimate based on current growth patterns.
4. Discussions with client, and further review
5. Creative problem solving to do more with less hardware.
Conclusions

Learning Objective 1
Measuring growth of database applications

Learning Objective 2
Discussing business needs, and projecting requisite technology needs and requirements.

Learning Objective 3
Balancing technology costs with business requirements, and using creative problem solving to increase

Attendee Prerequisites
Beginning DBA skills.
Basic understanding of internet platform, client, webserver, and database.

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Can’t Find a Solution? Consider Changing the Problem