A Christmas poem and a contest from Simple Talk.  Read more...

A table doesn't so much "have" a clustered index as a table "is" a clustered index.  Read more...

With the release of Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and the new generation of Sandy Bridge Xeon processors, your organization is likely to get many tangible benefits from upgrading your current database infrastructure with a complete platform refresh.  Read more...

The main goal of this article is to present some tips to help professionals that need to work with complex, big, and hard to understand database models that anyone may came across some day.  Read more...

There is no better way of understanding new data processing, retrieval, analysis or visualising techniques than actually trying things out. In order to do this, it is best to use a server that acts as data science lab, with all the basic tools and sample data in place. Buck Woody discusses his system, and the configuration he chose.  Read more...

On Thursday August 20th 12PM noon Central, James Serra will discuss how companies can consolidate their enterprise data with the new feature of SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services.  Read more...

Unifying the reference data across an enterprise can be a bigger job than expected. This article describes one approach to doing so.  Read more...

With the introduction of SQL Server 2012 Microsoft officially supports local disk TempDB in SQL Server cluster configurations. This tip will show you how to configure TempDB on a local disk when installing your SQL Server 2012 cluster.  Read more...

We’d like to learn more about software development at your company. Complete our 5 minute survey and get a chance at winning a $50 Amazon gift certificate.  Read more...

Learn the basics of Reporting Services, what it is, and what it can do from you. From MVP Jessica Moss, we have a new series that can help you get started with this part of SQL Server.  Read more...

It is easy to create a basic matrix in Report Builder. However, it takes some practice in order to format and dispay the matrix exactly how you want it. There are a large number of options available to enhance the matrix and Robert Sheldon provides enough information to get you the point where you can experiment easily.  Read more...

Learn everything about MDX by drawing only on your SQL knowledge.   Read more...

Not only is the DBA responsible for the running status of the Services, they are responsible that the Service is running with a proper owner.  Read more...

After winning a number of awards for our software, Red Gate is giving away books to 300 people as a celebration.  Read more...

A brief introduction to getting started with QlikView.  Read more...

In SSIS, when we use 'parent package variable configuration' the order of event execution is quite different than the normal execution order. In this article we will see what the impact on execution order when we use 'parent package variable configuration'.  Read more...

A common topic for questions on SQL Server forums is how to plan and implement upgrades to SQL Server. Moving from old to new hardware or moving from one version of SQL Server to another. There are other circumstances where upgrades of other systems affect SQL Server DBAs.  Read more...