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database performance

How THWACK Missions Turn Database Community Engagement Into Product Learning
July 21, 2026
SolarWinds

Noun – thwack (plural thwacks)

  1. An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.

Noun – mission (countable and uncountableplural missions)

  1. (countable) A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself.

All Database Blogs

Effective DataOps Tools for Improving Performance
October 25, 2021
David Klee
Some of the best-selling books of all time are self-help books. Reading about the potential for change always intrigues people enough to buy the book. To succeed in enacting positive…
The Disappearing DBA: Career Advice From a Data Janitor — SolarWinds TechPod 049
September 28, 2021
SolarWinds
The DBA role is complex. Pitfalls exist everywhere you turn, and it can be difficult to survive and thrive. On this episode of TechPod, we’ll help accidental DBAs become a DBA survivors with career…
A DBA’s Habit for Success: CMMI (Part Five)
June 17, 2021
Kevin Kline
We’ve reached the final piece of our five-part series, and while I’m sad to end it, I hope you or your DBA teams have learned enough to move forward with…
What Happens When I Execute a Query?
May 28, 2021
Joey D'Antoni
To many developers and system administrators—and even to some database administrators—database engines are a black box. They’re complex pieces of software that, in some cases, even have their own operating…
Why Does My Database Need Indexes?
May 27, 2021
Joey D'Antoni
Have you ever deployed a new application that ran fine at first, then slowed to crawl as more and more data was added? Or tried to run a report that…
How Query Sampling Improves Database Performance
May 20, 2021
Ed Tittel
Given the overwhelming importance of data to organizations, anything they can do to speed up troubleshooting problems in the databases they use is of great value. If a company can…
How to Speed Database Troubleshooting
May 18, 2021
Ed Tittel

Data provides an essential basis for reports and analytics, with the databases storing the data now driving and informing most custom and line-of-business applications.

Diagnosing Database Performance Problems When You Aren’t a Database Administrator
May 7, 2021
Joey D'Antoni
Deep specialization of IT administrators is a luxury only the largest organizations can typically afford.  Smaller organizations rely on IT administrators with a more generalist skill set because they are—by…
Why Database Performance Is Key to Understanding Application Health
December 4, 2020
Thomas LaRock
Traditional database and application monitoring used to mean talking about a single server, in a single data center, in a single location. Many monitoring tools were—and still are—built around this…
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