Recent Discussions
10012026 - TechTalk Recap - Oracle Resiliency—Choosing the Right Data Protection Approach🛡️
If you missed our latest TechTalks session, Lester Wells and I explored an important reality for Oracle teams: there is no single data-protection feature that covers every failure scenario. Keeping Oracle resilient means looking beyond a simple “backup or HA” decision. The right approach layers protection for local failures, site failures, operational recovery, and logical corruption—then aligns each layer to the application’s business requirements. What you missed 👇 🧭 HA and DR are different problems. High availability helps applications continue through infrastructure failures; disaster recovery protects against a broader site-level event. Both matter, but not every database needs the same RPO or RTO. ⚡ Snapshots improve operational recovery. Fast, space-efficient snapshots can help reduce backup and recovery pressure, refresh dev/test environments, support reporting copies, and provide recovery points for ransomware or user errors. 🏢 ActiveCluster is designed for continuous availability. For metro-distance deployments that meet latency requirements, synchronous replication can provide zero RPO and zero RTO protection against array or site failure. 🌍 ActiveDR extends protection across distance. Continuous, asynchronous replication supports disaster recovery where synchronous replication is not practical—and enables non-disruptive DR testing. 🧩 Layered protection covers more failure modes. Oracle RAC, ActiveCluster, ActiveDR, Data Guard, Flashback, and snapshots each address different risks. Combining the right layers helps protect both availability and recoverability. 🔎 Replication does not replace logical recovery. A bad write, accidental delete, or corruption can replicate correctly. Point-in-time snapshots and database-level recovery tools remain important parts of the plan. One of the best practical examples was using ActiveDR to bring up and validate a DR environment without disrupting production. That makes it easier to test your recovery plan more often—before you need it. 🎥 Catch up on the session HERE🎥 💬 Which Oracle resilience challenge is top of mind for your team: backup windows, recovery time, site-level availability, DR testing, or protection from logical errors? Share your perspective in the comments.Database Solutions Sessions at Accelerate 2026
Accelerate 2026 is right around the corner! Explore modernizing database infrastructure for consistent low latency, hybrid cloud simplicity, and reduced operational overhead across SQL Server, Oracle, and SAP. If this sounds right up your alley, we’ve curated a list of must-attend breakout sessions focused on all things Database Solutions. Check out these don't miss sessions: Maximizing Hybrid SQL Server 2025 on Azure with Everpure Cloud Database Mythbusters: What Actually Matters in the AI Era (and What Doesn’t) Preparing for Oracle 26ai: Best Practices for Performance, Scale, and Resilience Accelerating SQL Server Operations from Hours to Minutes 🎤 Featured Speaker We are thrilled to have Anthony Nocentino (left) sharing deep-dive insights into this much sought after topic. Will you be joining us in person? Drop a comment below with the session you're most interested in and what you hope to learn! We can’t wait to see you there!Ask Us Everything About Storage for Databases!
💬 Get ready for our March 2026 edition of Ask Us Everything, this Thursday, March 19th at 9 AM Pacific. This month is all about Storage for Databases! If you have a burning question, feel free to ask it here early and we'll add it to the list to answer tomorrow. Or if we can't get it answered live, our Everpure experts can follow up here. Anthony Nocentino, rarsenault-pure & dpoorman are the experts answering your questions during the conversation and on the community. See you this Thursday! (Oh, and if you haven't registered yet, there's still time!) Or, check out these great self-serve resources: Solutions Page: https://www.purestorage.com/solutions/databases.html Blogs: https://blog.purestorage.com/perspectives/sql-server-2025-mission-critical-workloads/ https://blog.purestorage.com/solutions/data-platform-oracle-ai-database-26ai/ https://blog.purestorage.com/purely-technical/using-t-sql-snapshot-backup-multi-array-database-snapshots/ https://blog.purestorage.com/products/exploring-modern-data-storage-challenges-and-changes/Taking Snapshots of Databases on VMFS Datastores
Hey friends - hopefully you all are taking advantage of our snapshots for copy data management? Well, those of you who use VMDKs know that there's an extra headache thanks to the VMFS datastore layer. Fortunately, I've just published some new examples in our Github repository and have written up a solution overview on my blog! Check it out! https://sqlbek.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/taking-snapshots-of-databases-on-vmfs-datastores/ Github: Refresh VMFS VMDK(s) with Snapshot Point in Time Recovery – VMFSPure Report Podcast: Databases!!!
Catch up with Anthony Nocentino on the latest episode of the Pure Report podcast where we dive into trends in database operations and the impact of AI on DBA roles - plus how new Pure platform announcements and Fusion drive better efficiency and performance for SQL Server and Oracle. Anthony tackles the pressing challenges faced by database environments today, including fragmented storage infrastructure, manual provisioning, and the complexities of compliance, disaster recovery, and hybrid cloud strategies. He sheds light on how these issues contribute to real-world burnout among DBAs and infra team members. The discussion will also cover the evolving roles of these professionals as they increasingly become platform performance engineers, cloud strategists, and data ops troubleshooters in a world of multiple database engines and unpredictable resource needs driven by AI workloads.
Accelerate Breakout Replay: What’s New in SQL Server 2025: AI, Performance, and Pure Storage Optimization
Explore SQL Server 2025’s AI, vector search, REST support, and see how Pure Storage boosts performance for modern database workloads. Speaker: Anthony Nocentino https://www.purestorage.com/video/webinars/whats-new-in-sql-server-2025/6375342106112.htmlAccelerate Breakout Replay: Accelerate Enterprise AI with Your SQL and Oracle Operational Databases
Demystify AI for storage pros: explore RAG, embeddings, and vector indexing in SQL Server 2025 and Oracle 23ai. Speakers: Anthony Nocentino & Ryan Arsenault https://www.purestorage.com/video/webinars/accelerate-enterprise-ai-sql-oracle/6375340112112.htmlIf DBs in Containers is Cool, Consider me Miles Davis
Are your cool friends all running databases in containers? Well its not about being trendy, it's about consistency and velocity. Running databases as a containers allows you to: Use the same tooling as your application stack Use declarative configurations through GitOps Use the same platform to provide networking, storage, and scaling - hint: Its Kubernetes Use identical platform APIs everywhere Enjoy faster startup and shutdown procedures Provide Fine-grained control over CPU and memory, not wasted on operating systems Less patching OK, thats as much of a pitch as you'll get from me. VMs are a tried and true method for running your databases, but it might be worth testing out DBs in containers if you're a Kubernetes shop. You might find some additional efficiencies.
