Three data marts, three truths about sales: the bus matrix as common ground
Kimball bus matrix to align isolated data marts: conformed dimensions, business processes and comparable sales. Real insurance group case.
Recent
Project Management
5 rules I've seen work in project teams that hold
Project management: 5 rules observed in teams that hold under pressure. Psychological safety, bus factor, outcome vs output, knowledge transfer.
Data Warehouse
MySQL
Before upgrading MySQL: the numbers the customer actually asks for — and how to find them
MySQL 8.0 pre-upgrade assessment: measuring sizes, growth, backup and restore times with information_schema. Real numbers to plan maintenance window.
Oracle
Oracle from On-Premises to Cloud: Strategy, Planning and Cutover
Oracle 19c on-premises to OCI migration: 2 TB with RAC and Data Guard. BYOL licensing, Data Pump, overnight cutover — real chronicle.
PostgreSQL
pg_stat_statements: the first thing to install on any PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL pg_stat_statements: the first query diagnostics extension to install. Find the three queries consuming 80% of database resources.
MySQL
mysqldump vs mysqlpump vs mydumper: the backup that keeps you up at night
MySQL backup tools compared: mysqldump vs mydumper vs mysqlpump on a 60 GB database. Real dump and restore times, parallelism and architectural choice.
Data Warehouse
DWH Partitioning: When 3 Years of Data Weigh Too Much
Range partitioning on an 800-million-row fact table: from 12-minute quarterly queries to 40 seconds. Monthly implementation, exchange and local indexes.
Data Warehouse
Data Warehouse
Three data marts, three truths about sales: the bus matrix as common ground
Kimball bus matrix to align isolated data marts: conformed dimensions, business processes and comparable sales. Real insurance group case.
Data Warehouse
DWH Partitioning: When 3 Years of Data Weigh Too Much
Range partitioning on an 800-million-row fact table: from 12-minute quarterly queries to 40 seconds. Monthly implementation, exchange and local indexes.
Data Warehouse
Ragged hierarchies: when the client has no parent and the group has no grandparent
Ragged hierarchy in the data warehouse: balancing unbalanced trees with the self-parenting technique. Correct drill-down on customers and groups.
Data Warehouse
SCD Type 2: the history the business didn't know it needed
SCD Type 2 in the data warehouse: historicising dimensions with surrogate keys and validity dates. Real case: a customer dimension that evolves over time.
Project Management
Project Management
5 rules I've seen work in project teams that hold
Project management: 5 rules observed in teams that hold under pressure. Psychological safety, bus factor, outcome vs output, knowledge transfer.
Project Management
AI Manager and Project Management: when artificial intelligence enters the project
AI Manager: the professional role that governs the impact of artificial intelligence on architectures, processes and people. Reflections from 30 years in IT.
Project Management
Payment at 60-90-120 days: the Italian normality that doesn't exist in Europe
60-90-120 day payment terms in Italian IT consulting: comparison with European rules. DSO, EU directive 2011/7 and strategies for IT freelancers.
Project Management
Bike vs Car in Rome: the morning that opened my eyes
Commuting in Rome: electric Brompton vs car. 18 minutes vs 50, €35 of parking saved per day. The sustainable mobility choice from a practical view.
Project Management
Smart working in IT consulting: the numbers nobody wants to look at
Smart working in IT consulting: economic and strategic analysis of remote work. Real numbers, KPIs, presenteeism and productivity compared to in-office.
Project Management
When chaos becomes method: AI and GitHub to manage a project nobody wanted to touch
Project management with AI and GitHub: turning a chaotic project into a measurable workflow with issue tracking, code review and artificial intelligence.
Project Management
Standup meetings: why they only work if they last 15 minutes
Scrum standup meetings: why only the 15-minute constraint makes them work. Timeboxing, parking lot and daily meeting rules that hold up over time.
Oracle
Oracle
Oracle from On-Premises to Cloud: Strategy, Planning and Cutover
Oracle 19c on-premises to OCI migration: 2 TB with RAC and Data Guard. BYOL licensing, Data Pump, overnight cutover — real chronicle.
Oracle
Oracle on Linux: the kernel parameters nobody configures
Oracle 19c on Linux: kernel tuning for real performance. Huge Pages, THP, swappiness, I/O scheduler, ulimit — before and after numbers.
Oracle
AWR, ASH and the 10 minutes that saved a go-live
Oracle 19c performance tuning with AWR and ASH: finding a hidden full table scan in a stored procedure in 10 minutes, the eve of a go-live.
Oracle
Users, Roles and Privileges in Oracle: Why GRANT ALL Is Never the Answer
Oracle security: redesigning the GRANT model with custom roles and Unified Audit, applying least privilege. Real case with copy-paste SQL.
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
pg_stat_statements: the first thing to install on any PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL pg_stat_statements: the first query diagnostics extension to install. Find the three queries consuming 80% of database resources.
PostgreSQL
VACUUM and autovacuum: why PostgreSQL needs someone to clean up
PostgreSQL VACUUM and autovacuum: bloat diagnosis on a 200 GB database, reading pg_stat_user_tables and tuning without disabling anything.
PostgreSQL
Roles and Users in PostgreSQL: Why Everything Is (Only) a ROLE
PostgreSQL ROLE: users and roles are the same object. Mental model, GRANT, NOINHERIT and how to build a truly maintainable read-only account.
PostgreSQL
When a LIKE '%value%' Slows Everything Down: A Real PostgreSQL Optimization Case
PostgreSQL optimization: LIKE '%value%' causes full scan. Using pg_trgm and GIN index to turn a wildcard search into a fast lookup. Real case.
MySQL
MySQL
Before upgrading MySQL: the numbers the customer actually asks for — and how to find them
MySQL 8.0 pre-upgrade assessment: measuring sizes, growth, backup and restore times with information_schema. Real numbers to plan maintenance window.
MySQL
mysqldump vs mysqlpump vs mydumper: the backup that keeps you up at night
MySQL backup tools compared: mysqldump vs mydumper vs mysqlpump on a 60 GB database. Real dump and restore times, parallelism and architectural choice.
MySQL
Binary logs in MySQL: what they are, how to manage them, and when you can delete them
MySQL binary log: management, retention and point-in-time recovery. Real case of a server with disk at 95% and 180 GB of binlogs in six months.
MySQL
Galera Cluster with 3 nodes: how I solved a MySQL availability issue
3-node MySQL Galera Cluster for high availability: synchronous replication, quorum, SST/IST. Full configuration against single point of failure.
MySQL
MySQL Users: Why 'mario' and 'mario'@'localhost' Are Not the Same Person
MySQL users and hosts: 'mario' and 'mario'@'localhost' are different entities. MySQL/MariaDB authentication model, common mistakes and correct GRANTs.
MySQL
MySQL Multi-Instance: A Ticket, a CSV and the secure-file-priv Wall
MySQL multi-instance on Linux: exporting a CSV with INTO OUTFILE blocked by secure-file-priv. Unix socket connection and shell workaround real case.
MySQL
Full disk on a MySQL cluster: binary logs, Group Replication, and a migration that leaves no room for mistakes
3-node MySQL Group Replication: migrating binary logs to a dedicated volume without losing quorum. Real case with filesystem at 92%.