Data & Databases
with perspective.

Choosing Database Constraints for Business Rules

A practical guide to data invariants: define which identifiers must remain unique, avoid relying on one form to protect rules shared by several writers, and verify the outcome with a worked example.

Connection Pooling for Web Application Databases

A practical guide to connection ownership: estimate concurrent database work per application process, avoid giving every new process an oversized pool that exhausts database connections, and verify the outcome with a worked example.

Data Validation During Historical Imports

A practical guide to import reconciliation: define acceptable formats before processing the source, avoid silently dropping invalid rows or applying an import twice, and verify the outcome with a worked example.

Database Backups That Can Actually Be Restored

A practical guide to recovery verification: define recovery objectives with the data owner, avoid treating a successfully created backup file as a completed recovery test, and verify the outcome with a worked example.

Designing Audit Trails That Preserve Meaning