Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

You of course remember that famous scene from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” when the “all-powerful” Wizard is revealed (with the help of Toto) as just an old man with some interesting kit, right? Here’s the link just in case.

At the heart of the Wizard’s shtick was getting everyone’s attention off of what was real, and onto what they thought was real. The wizard had power so long as he kept people focused on reality as he constructed it.

This doesn’t just happen in the movies - in fact, it may be happening to you right now.

In the sea of data that washes over us 24/7, it’s vital that we be able to pull out what the key information is. For instance, in the investigations that were done after 9/11, it was discovered that key data that could have disrupted the plot had been collected by intelligence sources. The problem: the quantity of raw data was so vast that there wasn’t a good way to pick out what was most important. The result: lifesaving data was overlooked.

Many companies seek to address this through the use of dashboards - key information, current information, all on one screen. But what if - like the Wizard of Oz - it was the wrong information?

Many of our clients who use IBM DB2 databases run them with SAP software. One of the “features” of the SAP software is what it calls its “Cockpit.” If you were the Wizard of Oz, you might be tempted to call it a “curtain” because it cloaks what anyone administering your database really needs to know:

1. History


2. Trend charts


3. Cost aggregation


4. Relative weights


5. Performance between two different timeframes

All the “Cockpit” really shows is what’s in the database’s memory. So, all you have to go on concerning the performance of the database is whether the DBA’s phone is ringing and people are screaming at him or her.

Who benefits from a tool that obscures the backend database? It’s certainly not the end user. And what happens when the end user is in the dark with a mysteriously slow database? They either:

1. Spend money on consulting, hardware, and software, or


2. They walk past the smoke and mirrors and take the 15-Second Challenge from DBI Software. We find the problems and fix them in two hours or less—at a fraction of the cost of the consulting, CPUs, memory, and licenses from the other guys.  Guaranteed.

That’s why DBI is the Yellow Brick Road for eight of the top 25 retailers, plus a who’s who of top companies across North America and around the world.