Mini Computing Performance

Performance Management doesn’t just apply to SQL Server, it is just as important in all aspects of engineering.  My cousin Stuart is one such engineer, he takes a standard Mini Cooper (the old kind) and adds a turbo and an Emerald engine control unit (ECU), plus a ton of other tech stuff to ensure the rest of the car can handle the upgrade.  Why not buy a new one? Well there’s a thriving market in the old ones, and all of this wizadry not only increases power it also drops emissions and means that the car is essentially recycled. Of course that has nothing to do with it, people just like the old one.

And looking at this example on photosynth that he’s rebuilt you can see why..

What’s all this got to do with computing? Just like any bit of technology performance tuning is important, and Stuart can pick up similar telemetry form the engine’s ECU..

and then tune the settings (known as maps) to get the engine to perform in a certain way. He does this from a laptop, which at the moment he needs to directly plug into the car, but he can log up to 4 hours of recording. 

In SQL Server 2008 we are a lot better off, we have a way of capturing a lot of telemetry from multiple servers and putting all of this into one database called the performance warehouse.

Stuart meanwhile would like to do this sort of thing and find a way of getting the info off the cars wirelessly or even totally remotely, so that he can provide better customer service. Perhaps that would like something like this from one of our partners Shoothill who have developed a virtual earth/silverlight application that track a hydrogen powered vehicle developed by Ballard Power Systems..

Perhaps one day we will all be able to monitor our cars as well as SQL Server. It would be good for safety, vehicle theft, and the environment, but not so good for personal privacy if everyone can where you are all the time.

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