We use a broad brush to highlight the biggest no-nos in web application scalability.

We dig into scalability, steering to the richest areas to focus on.

MySQL on Amazon EC2, the what, how and when.

We highlight some of the big differences between the two database engines. We’re also working on revamping this content, so stay tuned for more.

Interviewing a MySQL DBA – a guide for managers. Also helpful if you’re gearing up for an interview.

Hiring Guides

This two part guide for a hiring manager, focuses on the MySQL Database Operations role.

A long time favorite, a hiring guide for Oracle DBAs.

Devops is the latest craze in bringing the worlds of operations and development together.  We talk about how to identify and attract such a candidate.

Today the cloud is *almost* synonymous with Amazon Web Services and their Elastic Compute (EC2) cloud offering.  Want to hire the best, here’s the step-by-step guide.

Howtos

Caching caching everywhere.  Learn to do it right.

Hotbackups make building replicas a snap.  Avoid the downtime & speedup the process.

Get your backups right so you can get some sleep at night!

Learn how to automatically spinup new MySQL slaves in Amazon EC2.

Industry Commentary

A decade ago startups large and small were running on Oracle, but no longer.  As the shift intensifies, it becomes harder and harder to find the right talent.  Here’s why.

High availability ain’t what it used to be.  Here’s why nobody is really achieving so-called five nines.

We argue that technologists with broad experience are needed to achieve scalability for today’s high traffic high transaction websites.

Startup & Small Business Advice

You’ve heard all the hype.  Now for some medicine.

Our three part guide takes you through ten steps to building a successful consulting business.  This is as much a guide for freelancers or wanna be consultants, as it is for startups, and those wishing to hire good temporary resources.

Book Reviews

Learn about scalability from the guys at AKF.

Here’s a great how-to book, short and to the point.  Optimizing those queries!

Building a startup doesn’t have to mean big money. Stay efficient and build those margins.

Jeff Jarvis champions Google, but we flip the question around.

Hidden Gems

Cut through the hype.  Which types of applications really do lend themselves to deploying in the cloud?

Ask some tough questions before you deploy everything in the cloud.

Migrating your application from Oracle to MySQL, you may be in for a bumpy road.  Here are a few things to watch out for.

Soup to nuts guide to deploying applications on Amazon Web Services EC2.