Precise Software Adds Performance Management For SQL Server

Precise Software Solutions

Available now, the Precise/Indepth software uses technology developed by the company with Microsoft to glean better metrics about database performance.

"We co-engineered our collection methodology with Microsoft to extract metrics, and right now we're the only ones using that," said Tom Murphy, director of product marketing for Precise, based here.

The goal of such products is to optimize database performance and sniff out application degradation and other problems before they occur. Precise has offered performance management for Oracle databases for eight years and for IBM's DB2 since last year. This is the company's first implementation for Microsoft SQL Server. Precise/Indepth competes with offerings from BMC Software, NetIQ and even the performance monitoring capabilities shipping with SQL Server itself.

"Our No. 1 competitor is probably SQL Server, which has Enterprise Manager built in. We need to show people why they need something beyond that," Murphy said. "For one thing, at the 35,000-foot view, [Precise/Indepth can collect data faster from SQL Server than SQL Server itself can because we use a new API that Microsoft doesn't leverage yet."

Secondly, he maintained that Precise/Indepth can correlate the activity of SQL statements with database objects and users, which SQL Server itself doesn't do.

Prices for the software range from $3,000 to $15,000, depending on the number of CPUs, Murphy said.

SQL Server is the fastest-growing database in market share, according to recent surveys.In May, Gartner reported that for calendar year 2001, Microsoft SQL Server's market share rose almost 18 percent to 16.3 percent of the total, up from 14 percent the previous year.