References
Here’s what people are blogging and tweeting about us!!!
@palominodb is the best DBA ever
7:50 AM Jun 25th from TweetDeck
Dogster.com – Great Database Consulting
SELECT great(Database Consulting) FROM ‘Dogster, Inc’
For most of the past year we have had the pleasure of having one of the best DBA’s in the business working with us at Dogster and Catster, Laine Campbell. I have known Laine since 2000 when she joined Travelocity as a Senior DBA and we have worked together off and on since then. Recently, she has been putting more effort into developing her consulting business and Dogster is very grateful that she did.
Castfire.com – (Wonderful) DBA’s are a wonderful thing
Many sites worry about the Digg effect — their traffic can be overwhelming. We have always built with the mindset of having all of customers getting Dugg at the same time and it has worked like a charm. Yesterday, however, we got the true Digg effect: Federated Media is running video ads through Castfire ON Digg. Instantly, our system monitors alerted all of us that the system was starting to perform slowly under the increased load. Uh oh…feels scary!
Dogster-com – Nice Performance Boost By Migrating MyISAM Tables to InnoDB
Recently we migrated 18 MySQL MyISAM tables to InnoDB. (We would have changed another 20 smaller ones if we weren’t hamstrung by a OS issue we’ll be resolving soon.)The change has significantly reduced the overall load as well as short-term spikes on our master database. Below you see a chart of our primary master’s 15, 5 and 1 minute average loads over the last 3 weeks. As you can see this critical machine is now much calmer and ready to handle significantly more capacity.
read the full blog post here
Client Recommendations
“I hired Laine to do day-to-day management and administration of Technorati’s databases. But we got so much more than that by making her a part of our team. She helped us to rethink our database architecture, and to automate processes that were formally manual, if done it all. Her deep experience in architecting large database systems for scale and stability, and her ability to work side-by-side with operations staff and technology management, make her a huge asset. I’ve since recommended Laine to a number of other companies, and will continue to do so.”
“In a word, Laine is awesome. She is a database expert who can wrangle a database into submission in no time, solve complex operational problems, work extremely well in a small, close knit team, and somehow always respond to on call emergency issues no matter the hour. As a twenty year database veteran, I am impressed with the depth of Laine’s knowledge and abilities, but most importantly how well she can triage critical issues quickly while also making sure to define a strategy that can be implemented by others to avoid the situation in the future. At Technorati we have multiple, large scale, critical database clusters running on several different versions of MySQL. Laine has been adept at understanding the specifics of our situation and stays in sync with the team despite only working with us part time. I am always impressed with the simplicity of her professional approach. She states what she needs to get the job done right but always leaves it to us to state the priorities. I never have to question the quality of her recommendations or her work; it’s dead on. Laine is an amazing individual with expertise anyone with large database systems would benefit from.”
“Moving as much data as we do at Transpera, efficient operation of all of our databases was something we couldn’t afford to ignore. When we did the math, it became clear that the DBA position fell into that annoying niche of “essential / expert skillset required/ not a fulltime position/ on-demand response required.”
I found Laine on LinkedIn, actually, and she (as well as her consulting company, PalominoDB) came highly recommended. She integrated very easily with both my engineering and operations staff, and was soon emerged in meetings on both sides. Within a few weeks, Laine had isolated many of our SQL query bottle necks, and worked with operations for smoother topology for the frequently tapped databases.
As much as I hate this overused phrase, Laine removed one of the things that kept me up at night (literally) in a 24/7 data intensive company. I’d hire her again in a heartbeat. Highly recommended.”
“Laine is a great DBA. Her skills and resources are second to none. She is friendly, helpful and does what it takes to get the job done. You would be lucky to have her manage your databases.”
“Laine is a rare find. In over 20 years of managing IT and Operations, I have never worked with someone as technically competent with all types of database technologies. Laine is able to manage many projects and clients at the same time and with excellent results. With Laine’s expertise, we were able to outsource our DBA function for a fraction of the cost of a full-time DBA. Laine is able to quickly come up to speed and provide valuable help in the form of database solutions vs. simple management. Laine’s ability to work with engineering, operations, and product management is exceptional. Laine is someone I would love to work with in the future, she is fantastic resource for success.”
“Having worked with Laine in the past at Travelocity, I was very confident in hiring her as our DBA consultant. In her first day she had identified many ways in which we could improve our database systems. She has been key to our ability to scale and increase performance and yet stay within our resource limits.”
Atom Entertainment/MTV Networks
“Laine has done DBA consulting for us since 2006. We have worked with her on a variety of projects. A major project was just completed to completely reorganize our membership database. We have had great results with Laine and she is very highly recommended.”
“Laine easily understood what our requirements were, did effective research to design and confirm a plan, and followed up through to execution. It was a pleasure to work with her and I would hire her again.” June 18, 2007
“Laine was an exceptional worker, and a tremendous assest to the team and to the company. Her knowledge of Database architecture was superb, and her problem solving ability unmatched. Laine was always ready and willing to step in and accept the most difficult of project tasks, and was always willing to provide her opinion and recommendations on how best to proceed. I would recommend Laine without any hesitation.”
“Laine is a highly skilled technical manager. She possesses proficiency in areas like project management, team leadership, negotiation, mentoring, conflict resolution, and architecting useful solutions to complex technical and organizational problems. Laine would be a great asset to any environment that requires a technical manager to bring leadership, organization, stability, and vision.”
“Laine is a highly technical DBA who sets a very high standard. She expects the very best from herself and those she works with. I found Laine to be aggressive at learning new technologies and great at applying them to solve various business challenges.
Laine is a great catalyst for positive change. She addresses issues straight on, precise and professional yet able to look at the human aspect of the issue; this is a quality I find ever so hard to find. She is a true leader and I will work with her again.
