Beyond Monitoring:

Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data

Environment
Move beyond monitoring and proactively manage your data
environment
January 2006

Corporate Headquarters EMEA Headquarters

Embarcadero Embarcadero Technologies,
Technologies Ltd.
100 California Street Thames House
12th Floor 17 Marlow Road
San Francisco, CA 94111 Maidenhead
www.embarcadero.com Berkshire
SL6 7AA
United Kingdom
www.embarcadero.co.uk
Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

Table of Contents
The First Step: Measure ...................................................................................................................3
The Next Steps: Manage and Improve.............................................................................................4
Transaction Timing ...........................................................................................................................4
Measuring Unpredictable Response Times .................................................................................5
Measuring Unpredictable Occurrence Patterns ...........................................................................5
Data Usage Patterns ........................................................................................................................6
Measuring Transactions with Unpredictable Purposes................................................................6
Measuring Unpredictable Access Paths ......................................................................................6
Storage Requirements......................................................................................................................7
Measuring Unused Data ..............................................................................................................8
Data Usage Products for Performance Management in the Complex Data Environment ...............8
Embarcadero Technologies Security Solutions –Monitoring and Management Made Easy ...........8
About Embarcadero Technologies ...................................................................................................9

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

We all want optimal database performance, and in the past we could rely on traditional
monitoring techniques to help us achieve that. But in today’s Complex Data Environment (CDE),
traditional database monitoring is no longer an adequate tool for managing database performance.

Over the last two decades, corporations have reshaped themselves to compete in a world driven
by the changing needs of the customer. Data is paramount for processing critical transactions and
making decisions that increase competitiveness. Today’s CDE includes many database types:
transactional, data warehouses, data marts, operational data stores, departmental, mixed-use, ad-
hoc, reporting, and so forth. These have become the vehicles to provide corporations the
information needed to survive and grow.

Whatever the type of application, databases drive the application and are the backbone of the IT
infrastructure. IT departments are charged with providing better and faster access to the right data
while controlling the bottom line. IT is responsible for providing constant availability to vast
amounts of data throughout multiple, heterogeneous databases. With data being a key asset to an
organization’s operations, IT must ensure the peak performance of the CDE.

How can IT management understand what is happening at the data level of their operations and
use that information to improve and ensure performance and end user satisfaction? The answer is
in three simple steps:

• Measure
• Manage
• Improve

It is difficult to manage when we don’t know what we don’t know! Since we can’t improve what
we can’t manage, and we can’t manage what we can’t measure, IT must first focus on measuring
the complex data environment. Then we can use the measurements to gain insight into steps that
can be taken to improve performance, control costs, increase efficiency and improve IT resource
planning.

The First Step: Measure

Which metrics are most useful for measuring data environments? The answer has changed over
time.

In simpler times, databases had limited purposes, such as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP),
in which technicians could predefine and control the types of transactions that would occur and
could easily optimize performance for those transactions. There was predictability about what
data would be accessed and exactly how. Back then, internal metrics were adequate for ensuring
performance was stable and meeting service levels.

But in today’s CDE, databases serve broader purposes. They provide a foundation for managing
historical information and serve as a basis for business intelligence. The world of the CDE is
typified by instability, and the nature of the work being done is inherently unpredictable. Usage
patterns may change daily! Even many OLTP systems have evolved to mixed-use, in which non-
OLTP activity can interfere with OLTP transactions.

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

To manage performance today, we need external metrics in addition to the internal ones. What do
we mean by internal and external?

Internal Metrics – These focus primarily on the internal workings of the operating system and
the database, and include metrics such as cache hit rates, CPU usage, disk I/O activity, and so
forth. These make up the core of traditional monitoring.

External Metrics – These focus outside the operating system and the database, on the interaction
of users with the data, such as who is using what data, when, how, how long, how often, and from
what applications. This allows IT to understand how the business is using the data in order to
proactively manage and provide the best performance possible.

The Next Steps: Manage and Improve

As large, complex data environments become an integral part of the way in which organizations
regularly conduct their business, certain problems arise:
• Usability – Efficiency of access to data becomes an issue in the face of large
amounts of data, and response times can go beyond acceptable limits
• Predictability – The growth of the workload in the IT environment becomes
unpredictable
• Manageability – Undisciplined and unstructured growth in the volume and usage
of data becomes very hard to manage
• Cost – The amount of money spent on the IT data environment, especially
database licenses and disk storage, becomes very significant

The challenge for IT is to understand the underlying factors that drive these problems and how
they can be managed and improved to ensure end user satisfaction. Then IT can make informed
decisions on how to improve the usability, predictability, manageability and cost of their data
environments.

The underlying factors all derive from the differences between yesterday’s simpler data
environment and the modern CDE. They are:
• Transaction timing
• Data usage patterns
• Storage requirements

Now let’s look at these underlying factors and at recommendations on how to manage and
improve them.

Transaction Timing
Many CDE transactions are fundamentally different than predefined transactions. Predefined
transactions are measured in the number of seconds required for execution. Typically they require
the access and manipulation of only a few units of data, so response time is expected to be
immediate. And they occur at predictable times of the day.
CDE transactions, on the other hand, have response times from sub-second up to many hours.
Thirty minutes is not an unusual response time for a CDE transaction. CDE transactions may

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

involve a few units of data or millions of units of data. And they may occur at unpredictable
times of the day.

So then, CDE transactions have:

• Unpredictable response times
• Unpredictable occurrence patterns

Because of these very fundamental differences between unpredictable CDE transactions and
repetitive, static transactions, measuring and monitoring must be different as well.

Measuring Unpredictable Response Times

The response time for CDE transactions has two relevant measurements:
• the time it takes for the first data to be returned from the query
• the time it takes for the last data to be returned from the query

In some cases the difference between the two times will be minimal or even zero. But in other
cases the difference will be substantial. Both measurements need to be made because the end
users’ perception of response time is shaped by both measurements. Some will care about how
long it takes to get any data. Some will care only how long it takes to get all the data. For these
types of applications, longer response times may be acceptable, as response time of a few seconds
may not be expected.

Just because a response time is long, it does not mean it is a problem. IT management must
determine what is acceptable to the end-user.

By measuring response times by department, user, query type, or which tables are accessed, IT
can work with users to determine if the response times are a problem and changes can be
explored. Perhaps new query tool capabilities are needed. Maybe queries could be run outside of
peak usage times or at night, when there is less usage. Perhaps there are network issues that can
be addressed.

In the end, IT must know 1) the response time for first data returned, 2) the response time for last
data returned, and 3) user expectations for the above two measurements so that management and
improvement can be addressed.

Measuring Unpredictable Occurrence Patterns

The amount of concurrent activity affects performance. Response time can vary throughout the
day as the workload varies. A five-minute response at 8:00 a.m. turns into a 20-minute response
at 2:30 p.m. An important aspect of managing the environment is to look at the differences in
response times throughout the day. There are many factors that can affect these response times.
Some items to consider are:
• How many queries were running at that time of day
• What types of queries were being run
• What was the actual SQL text the user submitted
• Who were the users
• What applications were in use

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

IT can address improving access and performance of data environments once they have a
comprehensive view of all daily activities. By understanding the activities of the day and the time
of day when they occurred, IT management can identify ways to manage the varying workload.

When we identify peak periods and light periods, we may be able to shift some queries to the
lighter times, smoothing out response times. Users may need additional training or new tools.
Perhaps a SQL tuning tool may be needed or the user used an improper or unsupported SQL
generator. IT management needs to be aware of how the choice of tools or lack of training can
affect performance.

Data Usage Patterns

Like transaction timing, data usage patterns are also fundamentally different between CDE and
predefined workloads. In OLTP, for example, there are usually a finite number of pre-designed
transactions, and they follow predictable access paths through the data. But there are an infinite
variety of CDE transactions that may occur, and there is no predictable pattern to the complex
access paths that may be used.

So then, CDE transactions have:

• Unpredictable purposes
• Unpredictable access paths

In a word, the workload of modern data environments is one of inherent instability and
unpredictability. Yet this workload requires management as much as a static, predictable
operational workload.

Measuring Transactions with Unpredictable Purposes

The very nature of complex data environments causes unpredictable questions of a database.
Often times, the results drive the users to ask additional questions, adding to the volume of
unpredictable queries. Ad hoc querying of a database makes it extremely difficult to tune the
database, something that is easily done in a predefined environment.

Also, whereas workload sampling is adequate for monitoring predefined environments, the
unpredictability of CDE workloads requires that data usage tracking be continuous so that we
have a complete picture of who uses what data and how. This ensures that our data management
decisions are based on a true understanding of how the business uses the data.

Measuring Unpredictable Access Paths

Comprehensive tracking of all queries submitted identifies the data important to the end users and
how the end users are using data. Once usage becomes clear, then patterns can be understood and
we can improve the data design. For example, if users are making queries that manually join and
summarize two tables, adding a denormalized summary table might be the answer.
To effectively manage data usage, we must be able to identify:
• What data is being used
• How much data is being returned to the end user after an access has been made
• What tables are frequently joined and with what columns
• What columns are used for row selection

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

• Whether repetitive queries are being submitted

Once usage patterns are understood, IT can take the following steps to improve access to the data
and, ultimately, the performance of the query:
• Indices can be added
• Redundant units of data can be intelligently deleted
• The physical location of data can be optimized
• The merging of tables with like patterns of access can be accomplished
• Summary tables can be built
• Standard queries can be designed

In short, once the pattern of access and usage of data are understood, there are many ways in
which the data can be manipulated in order to make data access most efficient. However, without
knowing about the usage of the data, there is no way to intelligently reorganize it. Data usage
tracking allows us to find patterns so we can ensure that the data design keeps up with the
changing needs of the business users.

Storage Requirements
Another major issue in the management of CDE systems is managing and controlling the volume
of data. Clearly, these systems demand a large amount of historical data. The historical data
requires large amounts of storage. In the past, some small amounts of historical data have been
contained in operational systems. But for the most part historical data has been kept to a
minimum in operational systems. However, with CDE systems, there is exactly the opposite
trend. CDE systems may contain multiple years of historical information and huge amounts of
disk space are required.

In addition, the CDE requires the storage of fine detail. Detail is required in order to let the users
look at data in more than one way. Since there is no way to accurately predict what data will be
needed, it is necessary to store data at the lowest level of detail.

Finally, summary data is stored as well as detail data. Summaries are stored to make some CDE
transactions run faster. This requires space over and above the detailed data.

The CDE often grows at an astonishing rate. When these environments first grow beyond their
hardware capacity, we generally expand disks, processors and database licenses. As they mature,
it is natural for the pattern of growth to continue. But at some point in time, as growth continues
the question must be asked:

“Is ALL the data actually going to be used?”

There will be a point at which significant data has collected, yet much of it is not being used.
When this point is reached, economically and technologically, it makes sense to remove unused
data and reuse the space the data has been occupying rather than to purchase new storage. In
addition, by removing dormant or redundant data, user access times are improved.

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

Measuring Unused Data

Data usage products allow IT to manage performance by finding out what data is actually being
used and what data is not being used. By measuring and tracking data usage, IT management can
remove data intelligently – that is, remove unused data for the purpose of reclaiming storage.
Data usage tools can reduce the cost of additional storage, processors and licenses and improve
user experiences accessing data.

Data Usage Products for Performance Management in the

Complex Data Environment
As we have seen, there is a powerful case to be made for the monitoring and management of
complex data environments. The key to efficiently building and managing data is to understand
how the data is being used.

We saw that traditional monitoring focuses on the internal functioning of an operating system or
database management system. By going beyond the internals and focusing on how users are
interacting with the data, IT management gains a comprehensive view of how business actually
uses the data environment.

By getting real-time and historical insight from external metrics – who is using what data, when,
how, how long, how often and from what applications – regular improvements can be made that
ensure peak performance of mission-critical applications across the enterprise. We can improve
business performance, control costs, increase efficiency and effectiveness for users, achieve
service level promises and enhance the user experience.

In summary, by including data usage tracking in our performance management strategy, we

enable the business to react quickly in a competitive business climate, which ultimately ensures
success both for the user community and for IT.

Embarcadero Technologies Security Solutions –Monitoring

and Management Made Easy
Embarcadero DSAuditor, a leading data auditing solution, helps to secure critical data, ensure
data privacy, and enable regulatory compliance by monitoring database access and activity. Its
network-based approach enables reporting on sensitive events such as database, schema, and
permissions updates, all without impacting performance. Broad cross-platform support simplifies
security management.

The types of activity that are measured include:

• User sessions, queries, table/column accesses and dormant data

• The speed of requests made against the data
• Identification of exactly what data is being requested
• Identification of the users submitting requests
• Identification of when those requests are being submitted

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Beyond Monitoring: Manage the Performance of Your Complex Data Environment

• Location of the requests that are being submitted

• When the results of a request are being returned
• What type of request is being submitted
• How much data is being sought
• SQL requests made to tables and/or columns
• SQL updates of tables and/or columns
• How many rows of data are in the result set
• Other SQL activity
• Transaction response time

Embarcadero’s solutions provide 24X7 usage tracking of all user sessions, queries, tables/column
accesses and dormant data. Extensive data usage reports provide information on a daily, weekly
and monthly basis for analysis. IT Management now has the facts to manage and improve the data
environment.

About Embarcadero Technologies

Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of strategic data management solutions that
help companies to improve the availability, integrity, accessibility, and security of corporate data.
Nearly 12,000 customers, including 97 of the Fortune 100, rely on Embarcadero Technologies
solutions to maximize their return on corporate data assets and to meet the challenges of
explosive data growth, escalating data security requirements, and complex, multi-platform data
environments.

Embarcadero, the Embarcadero Technologies logos and all other Embarcadero Technologies product or service
names are trademarks of Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective
owners.

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