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SIOS Technology to Exhibit Its SANLess Clustering Software for SQL Server in at PASS Summit 2014 in Seattle

SAN MATEO, CA – October 30, 2014 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced it will showcase its SAN and SANLess clustering software at PASS Summit 2014. This annual event is the world’s largest, most-focused, and most-intensive conference for Microsoft SQL Server and BI professionals. Over 2,000 companies from around the world send their staff to receive top-notch training, technical tips, and make connections to take their SQL Server skills to the next level. As an exhibitor and sponsor of a breakfast panel and PASS to Prizes, SIOS will showcase its product offerings in booth #408 in the PASS Summit Exhibit Hall at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA, November 4 – 7.

The SIOS Exhibit
In booth #408, SIOS will showcase its products that add real-time block level replication and configuration flexibility in Windows Server Failover Clustering environments. SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition software is an ingredient that integrates seamlessly with Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) to provide SANLess cluster protection where shared storage clusters are either impossible or impractical, such as cloud, virtual and high performance storage environments.

PASS the Bacon: SQL Server Experts and MVPs Breakfast Panel
SIOS and SanDisk are co-sponsoring the PASS the Bacon breakfast at PASS Summit 2014, which will be held on Thursday, November 6, at 6:45 am and will feature an interactive panel discussion with four SQL Server experts and MVPs about a variety of real-world strategies for achieving cost-efficient high performance and high availability in SQL Server. Topics include: Maintaining high performance in high availability SQL Server environments, cost-efficient techniques for protecting SQL Server from downtime, and leveraging flash storage in database scenarios for more than performance. Register here to attend.

PASS to Prizes
SIOS is also a sponsor of the ever popular PASS to Prizes game November 4-6. Attendees must stop by and collect a stamp from various booths in the Exhibit Hall to be eligible to win a prize. Look for the game card in your conference attendee bag. Drawings for PASS to Prizes will take place at 4:35pm on Thursday, November 6, to win one of the following: Microsoft Surface Pro 3, Xbox One Madden NFL 15 Bundle, Cannon Rebel DSR Camera, or Beats by Dr. Dre Wireless Headphones.

Additionally, SIOS is raffling off two $250 gift cards. Visit its booth #408 for a chance to win. The drawings will take place at 12:30 pm on Friday, November 7.

SIOS will also be awarding a $10 Starbucks gift card once per hour throughout the show to randomly selected participants who are wearing the official SIOS PASS t-shirt on the show floor.

Denny Cherry Presents SQL Karaoke
SIOS is also sponsoring “Denny Cherry presents SQL Karaoke” on Tuesday, November 4, 9:00pm – 2:00am at Cowgirls Inc., 421 1st Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104. Registration is mandatory for SQL Karaoke. Register here: http://us.sios.com/2014-11-sql-karaoke/.

About SIOS Technology Corp.
SIOS Technology Corp. makes SAN and #SANLess software solutions that make clusters easy to use and easy to own. An essential part of any cluster solution, SIOS SAN and #SANLess software provides the flexibility to build Clusters Your Way™ to protect your choice of Windows or Linux environment in any configuration (or combination) of physical, virtual and cloud (public, private, and hybrid) without sacrificing performance or availability. The unique SIOS #SANLess clustering solution allows you to configure clusters with local storage, eliminating both the cost and the single-point-of-failure risk of traditional shared (SAN) storage.

Founded in 1999, SIOS Technology Corp. (http://us.sios.com) is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

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SIOS, SIOS Technology, SIOS DataKeeper, SIOS Protection Suite, Clusters Your Way, and associated logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of SIOS Technology Corp. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Beth Winkowski
Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Phone: 978-649-7189
Email: bethwinkowski@US.SIOS.com

Experience matters, especially when administering database systems. The lessons we learn early in our careers, particularly the painful ones, stick with us a long time. This is mostly a good thing, but sometimes we apply the wrong lesson to the task in front of us. In database administration, it’s easy to head in the wrong direction, especially when we’re trying to balance the need for both efficiency and performance.

New lesson, different day

Most database administrators did not begin their careers as DBAs. Most of us started in development or system administration and eventually specialized in database systems. Unfortunately, some of the lessons learned along the way in those other fields are the exact wrong ones for a database system.

For example, system admins have to manage storage as efficiently as possible. Many central storage systems are sold to reduce storage use through consolidation. System and storage virtualization also seek to efficiently use technical resources by assigning the minimum resources possible to a particular workload.

DBAs also have to manage storage resources. The problem comes when DBAs manage storage the same way they did as general IT system administrators.

As DBAs, our primary goal is to make data usable for the business. While we don’t want to waste our platform resources, we also don’t want to cause problems through false efficiency.

Managing for best resource efficiency often leads to performance problems. This is especially true when trying to minimize the storage footprint of a Microsoft SQL Server database system.

5 Database Practices That Are Hurting Your Performance

Several common practices actually trade performance for space efficiency:

Using Auto-Grow to manage free space
Shrinking databases
Shrinking logs
Not rebuilding or reorganizing indexes
Shuffling backup files to offline storage

The last practice in the list is particularly frustrating. All businesses should have adequate backup storage to meet their recovery targets. Saving a small amount on the cheapest resource available (second- and third-tier storage) while wasting the most expensive resource available (skilled DBA time) is mismanagement at its worst.

Business management emphasizes cost savings, mainly because that is easily measured. But what business executives and users really want is a zero-problem IT infrastructure, including a database platform that performs quickly and consistently. Saving a few hundred dollars worth of storage space probably won’t even get you an “attaboy” from your boss. A slow database system or a missing critical backup will get noticed — just not the way you want.

When you are looking at your database management practices and processes, ask yourself, “What goal does this process enable?” Are you managing for performance or managing for space?

Consult the experts at SIOS to discuss solutions for your particular environment. Experienced technicians at SIOS can provide helpful insight to customers who are implementing high-performance, highly available SQL Server systems.