Database Benchmarking and Stress Testing: An Evidence-Based Approach to Decisions on Architecture and Technology

This book teaches you how to create empirical evidence in support of business and technology decisions. It’s about not guessing when you should be measuring. Empirical testing is scientific testing that delivers measurable results. Begin with a hypothesis about the impact of a possible architecture or technology change. Then run the appropriate benchmarks to gather data and predict whether the change you’re exploring will be beneficial, and by what order of magnitude. Stop guessing. Start measuring. Let Database Benchmarking and Stress Testing show the way.

Bert Scalzo is an Oracle ACE, blogger, author, speaker, and database technology consultant. He has BS, MS, and PhD degrees in computer science, and an MBA, and has worked for over 30 years with all major relational databases, including Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 LUW, Sybase, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Bert has worked for several of those database vendors. He has been a key contributor for many popular database tools used by millions of people worldwide, including TOAD, Toad Data Modeler, ERwin, ER/Studio, DBArtisan, Aqua Data Studio, and Benchmark Factory. Bert has presented at numerous database conferences and user groups, including SQL Saturday, SQL PAAS, Oracle Open World, DOUG, ODTUG, IOUG, OAUG, RMOUG, and many others. His areas of interest include data modeling, database benchmarking, database tuning and optimization, "star schema" data warehouses, Linux and VMware. Bert has written for Oracle Technology Network (OTN), Oracle Magazine, Oracle Informant, PC Week (eWeek), DellPower Solutions Magazine, The LINUX Journal, LINUX.com, Oracle FAQ, and Toad World. He has written an extensive collection of books on database topics, focusing mainly on TOAD, data warehousing, database benchmarking, and basic introductions to mainstream databases.