The Effect of NOLOCK on Performance

Using hints in a query is something that most DBAs don't ever seem to bother with, but when they do, NOLOCK seems to be their hint of choice. Wayne Fillis brings us a detailed examination of how this particular hint actually affects the performance of your system.

Understanding Graphical Execution Plans - Part 3: Analyzing the Plan

Learn how to examine and read a SQL Server execution plan in this article. This is the third part of a short series from Darren White that examines execution plans and imparts the basics on an important skill for DBA's and SQL developers alike.

Using A Block Predicate to Restrict Row Updates and Inserts

If you are using row level security in SQL Server 2016 you might find users are updating or inserting rows of data that keep them from seeing the row after they have performed the update or insert statement. If you want to prevent this from occurring, you can use a blocking predicate.

Byte Me: Avoiding Detection

Introducing Minion CheckDB by MinionWare

Minion CheckDB completes the MinionWare maintenance and backups suite in style. Each solution is plug-and-play for the busy DBA, and deeply configurable for those shops with in-depth needs.

The Future is Now - An Internet of Things Infographic

A look at the positive and negative aspects of IoT in this infographic.

Planning for Successful Data Management

It is the data, in particular, that sets Database Lifecycle Management apart from the mainstream of application delivery. Data entities, and the way that organisations understand and deal with them, have their own lifespan. If we neglect the management of data, we risk disaster for the organisations that use it. If we take data management seriously, databases become a lot easier.

Loading Non Duplicated Data Using SSIS

Learn how you can easily load data from a file that isn't duplicated, discarding those rows that are.

SQL Server v.Next : STRING_AGG Performance, Part 2

Aaron Bertrand starts digging deeper into the performance of string concatenation methods STRING_AGG and FOR XML PATH.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse with PowerShell

We will teach how to create a new SQL Azure Data Warehouse using Powershell