Database people are used to changing the hardware of the server on which a problem database resides, or making changes to indexes and database settings, but humans and their organisations are far more difficult to tune and optimise than databases.  Read more...

This year we will see a large number of upgrades from Microsoft to much of its technology stack. Can IT Pros handle the load?  Read more...

In a guest editorial, Rodney Landrum reflects on his career path as a an information-hungry generalist.  Read more...

Forget what you thought you knew about SQL Server certification, as Microsoft has completely redesigned the SQL Server 2012 certification program, making is more difficult, costly, and time-consuming to attain.  Read more...

Phil Factor welcomes SQL Server support by Amazon RDS, as an alternative to having Microsoft as service provider as well as software provider, via the PaaS formerly known as Azure.  Read more...

Steve Jones talks about security, and the developer's role in ensuring secure code.  Read more...

Having noticed a very low rate of migration to the latest version of SQL Server, Brad McGehee asks - when will you upgrade to 2012?  Read more...

This week Steve Jones talks about forever day bugs, those bugs in industrial systems that haven't been patched, and are not likely to be ever fixed.  Read more...

Phil Factor on the irresistible urge to write code in the public domain, and the occasional desire to be free from the snails-trail of software that needs maintainence.  Read more...

There's an IT skills gap in many companies, which is forcing managers to get creative. Steve Jones says now is the time to look for some cross training at work.   Read more...

Tony Davis argues that the WITH REPLACE option of the RESTORE DATABASE command is a case where the naming of the option masks its true "JFDI" nature…  Read more...

You need a quiet couple of hours poking about with DMVs, and checking execution plans to get to the bottom of the a query issue, but you can't make a copy the production database either. It's too big, and the data is private....  Read more...

A disconnected model is only really needed in the absence of a properly-defined database interface. We, as developers, create a rod for our own backs by insisting on treating a database in a way we wouldn't treat an object, let alone an assembly or namespace.   Read more...

This past week the big news in the SQL Server space was the release to manufacturing of SQL Server 2012.  Read more...

A lot has been written about the potential performance benefits of SQL Server data compression; but hard performance data? Not so much.  Read more...

A lot has been written about the potential performance benefits of SQL Server data compression; but hard performance data? Not so much.  Read more...

If only the English language had a range of words to describe all the different types of database, there would be so much less confusion in the industry.  Read more...

In SQL Server, we treat XML with a reverence that is disproportionate to its importance. The SQL Server team have indeed gone big on XML, as Michael Cole’s book reveals. The industry has gone big in another direction: JSON.  Read more...

Certification is on Steve Jones' mind this week after quite a few training opportunities have popped up lately.  Read more...

It seems inevitable that many customers will end up paying more to get the same features they have today, under the new SQL Server licencing model, unless they respond to Microsoft's creativity with some of their own.  Read more...