Most IT departments are moving toward ITIL-aligned practices. Gain a general understanding of the ITIL framework and how Database Administrators can take advantage of it.  Read more...

Why are practices like version control, continuous integration and automated deployment being introduced to application development but left on the shelf when it comes to the database? In search of some answers, Redgate spoke to Donovan Brown, Principal DevOps Manager at Microsoft and DevOps advocate. Also known as The Man in the Black Shirt, his unofficial tagline is #RubDevOpsOnIt. He lives DevOps - here's what he had to say.  Read more...

SQL Server 2016 introduced a new feature called Distributed Availability Group. A Distributed Availability Group is a special type of Availability Group that spans two separate Availability Groups. Edwin Sarmiento explains.  Read more...

Equipment can matter for IT professionals. Read a few thoughts from Andy Warren.  Read more...

In prediction, accuracy is key. But it's not all it's cracked up to be as we will explore.  Read more...

This post will show the benefits of test-driven development and including automated SQL Server unit testing within your release pipeline. Even if you have a large code base and no existing unit tests, you can start introducing tests now to make your database code more robust to change.  Read more...

Graph databases are useful for certain types of database tasks that involve representing and traversing complex relationships between entities. These can be difficult to do in relational databases and even trickier to report on. Until now, we have had the choice of doing it awkwardly in SQL Server or having an ancillary database to tackle this type of task. SQL Server 2017 will be bringing graph capabilities to the product but will these features prove to be good enough to allow us to dispense with specialised Graph databases? Dennes Torres decided to find out.  Read more...

Crossword puzzle focusing on SQL Server Security  Read more...

This level introduces keys, constraints, and relationships.  Read more...

This free eBook from Redgate Software will take you from the fundamentals of Statistics, Cost Estimation, Index Selection, and the Execution Engine, and guide you through the inner workings of the Query Optimization process, and throws in a pragmatic look at Parameterization and Hints along the way.  Read more...

Erik Darling explains why your queries aren't scaling in production.  Read more...

In this article, we will learn how to query a csv file stored in the Data Lake using PolyBase.  Read more...

How would you define a DBA role? Here are some of my thoughts.  Read more...

To celebrate the launch of the new Redgate Hub, Data Platform MVP Steve Jones is hosting an educational livestream event alongside the team at Redgate HQ. They’ll introduce you to everything the Redgate Hub has to offer by highlighting some recent technical articles and how-to guides with in-depth live presentations. Register now.  Read more...

Azure Cosmos DB is the latest data service offering from Microsoft. Azure Cosmos DB is a super set of DocumentDB and provides a new set of capabilities. These capabilities make Azure Cosmos DB stand out from other members in the NoSQL database family.  Read more...

Today Steve Jones talks a bit about the US Labor Day holiday.  Read more...

One of the new features of SQL Server 2016 is the ability to time travel in your databases and visit a specific table at a specific point of time in history. You can also use this feature to audit changes or “undo” whole data warehouse updates.  Read more...

A successful launch, and recovery, of SQL Server running below a balloon.  Read more...

In this article, Grant Fritchey looks at the need to ‘shift left’ the database and associated database testing, while keeping sensitive data secure when it is outside the production environment.  Read more...

Phil Factor shows how to use the Mann-Whitney U test in SQL to to find out whether two samples come from the same distribution.  Read more...