What's New in SQL Server Reporting Services 2016

Koen Verbeeck provides an overview of the new features and capabilities found in SQL Server Reporting Services 2016.

Change the Collation Setting for Clustered SQL Server 2014 Instance

In this post I will show a procedure to change collation settings of SQL Server 2014 cluster instance.

5 Advantages of Load Balancing For IT Companies

As an IT company, it is crucial that you maintain uptime and monitor the performance of various processes. By making database load balancing a key element, you can ensure that your processes and websites run smoothly. Tony Branson explains.

Byte Me: Wrong turn

Configuring Integration Services in a SQL Server 2016 Cluster

In this post I will show a procedure to configure Integration Services in a SQL Server 2016 Cluster.

Why Would I Ever Need to Partition My Big ‘Raw’ Data?

Whether you are running an RDBMS, or a Big Data system, it is important to consider your data-partitioning strategy. As the volume of data grows, so it becomes increasingly important to match the way you partition your data to the way it is queried, to allow 'pruning' optimisation. When you have huge imports of data to consider, it can get complicated. Bartosz explains how to get things right; not perfect but wisely.

Service Broker Error Handling

How to handle errors raised during Service Broker Queue Processing.

Implementing a custom sort

Rob Farley discusses some solutions and gotchas for implementing a custom sort using ORDER BY in T-SQL queries.

How to Start Big Data with Apache Spark

It is worth getting familiar with Apache Spark because it a fast and general engine for large-scale data processing and you can use you existing SQL skills to get going with analysis of the type and volume of semi-structured data that would be awkward for a relational database. With an IDE such as Databricks you can very quickly get hands-on experience with an interesting technology.

Getting more done with OUTPUT

Use OUTPUT to perform an INSERT and a DELETE at the same time.