In a move that will arguably change international data interactions forever, the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a law that drastically increases protections for EU citizens’ personal data. This law effects companies within the EU, as well as organizations like universities or corporations within the United States that have any sort of online interaction or data sharing with EU citizens, with consequences in the millions of dollars if companies do not comply. Below, we’ll take a look at the GDRP in relation to technology as a whole, and specifically regarding U.S. universities.

As today’s data needs only increase – in size, scope, and depth, companies begin to turn to new methods and systems for managing these vast quantities of data. And blockchain is being discussed as possible solution for these storage and management issues. This article will go into a brief overview of the role blockchain can play in data management and the positives and negative effects of its implementation.

To the business owner, ads seem like an enticing and easy way to generate clients and revenue. And Google AdWords, at first glance, seems to be the perfect way to utilize the Internet's best search engine to make the most money. However, this isn't always the case. Below, we'll outline some of the tips and tricks for making the most of AdWords, with least cost to you and your business. 

A blockchain is a decentralized technology that acts a digital open distributed ledger and is used to record transaction data between two parties that is both verifiable and permanent. Made famous, or infamous, by Bitcoin, this article will separate the entities and focus on the technology behind blockchain, and its potential application. Blockchains are composed of a block, a timestamp and the transaction data, as well as a cryptographic hash of the previous block that links the two by cryptography. A single blockchain exists within a network of computers and cannot be edited without changing all other blocks - by design, making them permanent and resistant to change. As such, participants can track, control, and verify transactions efficiently and securely. A good example is to picture a blockchain as a giant spreadsheet that has been shared hundreds of times across a network of computers that exist solely to update the spreadsheet regularly.

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The Problem:

SharePoint is, of course, a monster of an application platform with many configuration quirks.  As a DBA supporting a content database utilized by a SharePoint environment, I ran across a problem:  After installing SharePoint, there is no way for the application administrator to tell the DBA the real database name. 

The Reason: 

During installation, an alias is created for the database.  Unless you write that name down or name the alias something that reflects the database name, there is no clear way to determine the name of the database, either in the application or in the configuration files.

The Solution:

Since the solution was not particularly obvious, I’d like to share it, so that another DBA does not have to solve the issue at the worst possible time:  an outage.

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