How I Troubleshoot a Slow SQL Server Live

No two SQL Server environments are alike. A fix that resolves a performance issue in one environment may not work in another because every SQL Server instance has different...

TRY_PARSE Limitations: #SQLNewBlogger

I got a notification from a question I’d posted at SQL Server Central: Getting the Average. A user had posted their repro didn’t work, with no real comment. As...

When Your Microsoft Fabric Capacity Runs Out: Optimize, Scale Up, Scale Out, or Isolate?

Microsoft Fabric makes it wonderfully easy to put many analytics workloads on one platform. Power BI, data engineering, warehousing, data science, real-time analytics, Copilot, and other experiences can all...

Accessing the Data API Builder MCP Server from VS Code

I recently started playing with the MCP Server for SQL Server, which is a part of the Data API Builder (DAB). I’m not sure why there wasn’t a separate...

SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices

SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices

In the Windows administration world, it's pretty much a standard practice to rename the local administrator...

Stanford Emerging Technology Review 2026 Report is out

Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing are two areas of emerging technology that receive most of the tech news. However, the Stanford Emerging Technology Review tries to include any relevant...

Asynchronous Replication of Snapshots from an ActiveCluster Pod to a Third Array

I’ve been rebuilding my three-site SQL Server demo lab, and I ran into something I’ve wanted for a long time. If you’ve ever designed a SQL Server environment on...

From DBA or Data Engineer to AI Engineer: A Realistic Path

If you spend your days tuning queries, managing pipelines, or keeping a production database alive, you already carry most of what an AI engineering role needs. What is missing...

SQL Server gMSA: Why So Many DBAs Still Aren't Using It in 2026

SQL Server gMSA: Why DBAs Still Aren't Using It in 2026

Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSAs) solve the classic service-account password problem - just look at...

Methodology for dealing with bad data in production

Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad data in production. If you’ve never been in this situation, having a plan beforehand is...