I’ve been deliberating over the last few years whether to make the leap into the contracting/consulting world.

Speaking to a good friend of mine last week has again opened up the debate in my head.

There are numerous advantages and disadvantage in leaving a somewhat stable permanenet job to go… Read more

Having ventured into both the SQL Server world and the depths of Oracle RDBMS – Im often asked what the differences between the two are, or more often than not what, what my preference would be in choosing one technology.

Each has its own benefits for their own situations.

But… Read more

Hello Everyone – its been a while.

I’ve been out of the blogging scene over the last year or so due to ongoing work commitments.

I’m back now though and intend on posting updated blogs daily – both useful tips and my somewhat sceptical view of the world !

This… Read more

The latest version of Ideras’ SQL Diagnositc Manager offers some pretty nifty predictive analysis capability. Offering at present, a 12 hour forecast.

This gives you the likelihood of what might happen – a powerful trait for any DBA surely ?

Also the reports “database growth forecast” and “disk space usage… Read more

DevConnections – London June 2011

DatabaseExpertise has negotiated 10 tickets for the main 2 day conference, at an amazing price of  £100!!!

The first 10 people to call Penton with their credit card details on 0161 929 2800, quoting MSD0611 – databaseexpertise.com;  will be registered

Come and hear from… Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Here I continue to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

Juneau (New Development Environment)

Juneau is the code name… Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Here I continue to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

Spatial Features

Not that I get to play around… Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Over the next week or so, I aim to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

FileTable

Another new feature… Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Over the next week or so, I aim to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

Columnar Indexes

Dubbed as… Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Over the next week or so, I aim to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

Day 2 – Contained…

Read more

Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released (is this still unconfirmed?) you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Over the next week or so, I aim to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for. Read more

Ever since the first version of SQL Server (1988??), Microsoft has found some interesting codenames for their releases

• 1993 – SQL Server 4.21
• 1995 – SQL Server 6.0 was called  SQL95
• 1996 – SQL Server 6.5, was called   Hydra
• 1999 – SQL Server 7.0, was called   Sphinx
• 1999 – SQL…

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I attended the SharePoint Best Practices Conference this week in London. As a complete newbie, this event was superb - a lot of quality speakers, experts in the world of SharePoint and loads of knowledge to share.

One of the sessions on Day 2 revolved around what DBAs need to… Read more

Interesting quote from Sharepoint Best Practices Conference :” 17% of IT Pros think benefits of cloud computing outweigh the risks”!!
That’s not too encouraging is it?
Few other points:-
Not all computing resources should reside on the cloud anyway.
It’s not always cost effective?!!
Do your homework before making the… Read more

A bit of fun !

A long long time ago before the dawn of 2010, somewhere to the South of the United Kingdom lay the realm of SQL. The protector of the realm was Hostettler, a Viking DBA with a wealth of experience and renowned fame.

Therein dwelt DBAs of… Read more

Getting at data within a .NET application can be straightforward using built in controls or much more complex through connections, commands and data readers to name but a few. This article is a short introduction to each of the available options.

1. Using a SQLDataSource

The built-in .NET controls for… Read more

The below information has been taken from SSWUG.org.

Oracle Drops the Bomb
Since the purchase of Sun and it’s holdings by Oracle corporation there has been much speculation regarding the leverage Oracle now owns in the Server and RDBMS worlds. An March 23rd Oracle has begun flexing that muscle, announcing… Read more

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be in two places at one time, there were two tracks dedicated to the SQL Server DBA and the topics were equally appealing in both tracks. To start I chose Performance Enhancements in SQL Server 2008. The speaker Bob Beauchemin, A SQL Server developer from Portland, Oregon… Read more

First Things First

At UKOUGs’ Back to Basics Special Event held in London today (Mar 24th), Niall Litchfield presented a very worthwhile session on “Getting the Basics Right”.

Now I’ve been more of a SQL Server DBA in recent years than I have an Oracle one, so this session was… Read more

The title itself would lead you to believe this conference was only for the those looking to master the art of Silverlight or those busting to find out what’s new in the latest version of C# ! But no – over the last couple of years the SQL Server DevCon… Read more