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Mike BenshoofThis blog was originally published in June 2020 and was updated in March 2025. One of the most common support tickets we get at Percona is the infamous “database is running slower” ticket. While this can be caused by a multitude of factors, it is more often than not caused by a bad or slow […]
When talking about the benefits and use cases of ProxySQL with clients, one feature I generally reference is the query rewrite engine. This is a great feature that is often used for sharding (I’ve written about this in the past at Horizontal Scaling in MySQL – Sharding Followup). Another use case I reference is “temporary […]
In a post written earlier this year – Percona Server for MySQL Encryption Options and Choices – I discussed some of the options around encryption in MySQL. Being such a complex topic, that post was meant to clarify and highlight various aspects of “encryption” at different levels. I recently had this topic come up again, […]
DBAs can be set in their ways. Oftentimes, we start with a particular flavor and from that moment until the end of time, it will always be “the best”. In some cases, the debate is actually based on matching the use case to the proper tech (I’m looking at you SQL vs NoSQL). Lately, I’m […]
Install a database server. Give the application team an endpoint. Set up backups and monitor in perpetuity. This is a pattern I hear about regularly from DBAs with most of my enterprise clients. Rarely do they get to troubleshoot or work with application teams to tune queries or design schemas. This is what triggers the […]
Security will always be a main focal point of a company’s data. A common question I get from clients is, “how do I enable encryption?” Like every good consulting answer, it depends on what you are trying to encrypt. This post is a high-level summary of the different options available for encryption in Percona Server […]
In a previous post, A Horizontal Scalability Mindset for MySQL, I discussed the concerns around growing individual MySQL instances too large and some basic strategies: Optimizing/minimizing size with proper data types Removing unused/duplicate indexes Keeping your Primary Keys small Pruning data Finally, if those methods have been exhausted, I touched on horizontal sharding as the […]
As a Technical Account Manager at Percona, I get to work with many of our largest clients. While the industry verticals vary, one main core challenge generally remains the same – what do I do with all this data? Dealing with massive data sets in MySQL isn’t a new challenge, but the best approach still […]
The practice of running databases in containers continues to grow in popularity. As a Technical Account Manager at Percona, I get asked regularly about our Percona Distribution for MySQL Operator. Additionally, I’m asked what I’m seeing in the industry in terms of adoption. In most cases, the questions stem around new deployments. Our DBaaS tool (currently […]
As database footprints continue to explode, many companies are looking for ways to deal with such rapid growth. One approach is to refactor traditional relational databases to fit into a NoSQL engine, where horizontal scalability is easier. However, in many cases, this is in no way a trivial undertaking. Another approach that has been gaining […]
Nobody likes change, especially when that change may be challenging. When faced with a technical challenge, I try to remember this comment from Theodore Roosevelt: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” While this is a bit of an exaggeration, in this case, the main concept […]
Percona Technical Account Managers get the privilege of working with some of our largest enterprise clients day in and day out. As such, we get to really focus on how to best leverage our technology to generate measurable benefits for our users. While it is fun to “nerd out” and always strive to use the […]
The other day on a call, a client asked me an interesting question. We were discussing some testing they were doing in Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). The question came up “since RDS is managed, how can I prove to my security team that the data is actually encrypted?” We’ve all read whitepapers and blogs […]
As discussed in part one, this series is meant to go over some of the biggest differences you will likely encounter when moving from on-premise to the cloud. In this portion, I’ll look at the architectural and operational differences that are commonly seen. Operational and Architectural Differences One of the most common issues I see […]
One of the most common questions I get as a Technical Account Manager (TAM) from clients considering a migration from their current on-premise data center to AWS is “what are the biggest differences I will need to address?” In an earlier post MySQL to the Cloud! Thoughts on Migrating Away from On-Premise I discussed some […]
In an earlier post, I discussed the Shared Responsibility Model in the cloud and how it relates to databases. With either IaaS or DBaaS deployments, much of the operational and security burden is shifted away from the DBA to the cloud provider. I also noted that regardless of the deployment method, there is always a […]
When we think about the cloud, often we consider many of the benefits: scalability, elasticity, agility, and flexible pricing. As great as these features are, security also remains a business-critical concern. In an on-premise environment, every aspect of security is owned by you. Looking at the database layer specifically, these include (but are not limited […]
If you have been around MySQL for any length of time, you are probably aware that choosing the correct data types and optimizing your schema are actually important tasks. A few years back at Percona Live 2016, I gave an introductory talk on schema review and optimization. Here’s the video: I was thinking about […]
As a Technical Account Manager at Percona, I get the privilege of working with some of our largest clients. It is exciting to work where I get to see massive deployments that are pushing current utilization limits. In these environments, however, there are different sorts of challenges that the database teams often face: Automation in […]
I’m sure you’ve seen it – you kick off an ALTER and you get the dreaded “waiting on metadata lock”. In many cases, this is expected if you are actively working on the table. However, I recently had a case with a client where the table being altered was rarely updated and very small (<100 […]