SQL Server Data Collector, together with Management Data Warehouse, is a fine and useful component for gathering information centrally about how SQL Server instances are being used, and thereby keeping an eye out for problems. It comes into its own when you have figured out how to configure it to run on maybe hundreds of instances using Central Management Server. Dennes describes how to tame the system so that it scales.
2015-02-04
8,923 reads
Big data is everywhere, and most large IT enterprises have installed one or more big data applications. These applications provide fast access to large stores of data, usually customer or sales data. Your technical staff that supports these applications and the systems that analyze and consume the data didn't exist ten years ago. Who are these new IT professionals, and how should you manage them?
2015-02-03
8,327 reads
SQL-based distributed Cloud Relational databases aren't new, but Amazon's Aurora offers an alternative to SQL Azure, and, being MySQL-compatible, provides the obvious route to the cloud for hosted LAMP web applications.
2015-02-02
8,160 reads
ETL ( Extract, transform, load) doesn't have to be like a spell on hell. To make a success of ETL systems, you need the freedom and ability to make graceful U-turns when you detect a mistake in architecture or configuration: to fix the root problem rather than to merely tackle the symptoms. Feodor lists the eight most common root causes of failure in ETL systems, and how to fix them.
2015-01-30
13,243 reads
In data mining, we sometimes need to perform techniques such as Z-score normalization on numeric data type columns to prevent one column from skewing or dominating the models produced by the machine learning algorithms. Dallas Snider explains how to perform this in SQL Server with T-SQL code.
2015-01-29
9,049 reads
If you can examine and understand execution plans, you can achieve better understanding of the database system and you will write better database code. Grant Fritchey shows you how.
2015-01-28
9,282 reads
The easiest way to determine if there is encrypted data in a database is to get that information from whoever wrote the application. Aside from that, there are a few things you can look for which would suggest that you have encrypted data in a given database.
2015-01-27
7,810 reads
Not all data is discrete; some data types represent a continuum. In SQL, we have to approximate them and live with the special problems of handling continuous data. We need to understand the problems associated with continuous data types, when these will happen, and how it affects constraints and the results of queries. Joe Celko explains.
2015-01-26
8,731 reads
Extreme Programming (XP) is no general panacea; but for the right team, and for a product that needs to release bug fixes and new features as fast as possible, its benefits are obvious. Working on one of Red Gate's most popular tools, SQL Prompt, Aaron Law and David Priddle use XP. But is their adherence to XP a personal preference or does it bring real benefits?
2015-01-23
8,591 reads
While a diminished level of control is certainly a factor to consider when contemplating migration of on-premises systems to Microsoft Azure, especially when dealing with PaaS resources such as Azure SQL Database, you have a range of techniques at your disposal that allow you to control and monitor both the status of and access to your Azure-resident services. One of these techniques is SQL Database auditing.
2015-01-22
9,981 reads
By Brian Kelley
Do you have a case where you have a named instance you'd like to...
I’ve been running this blog on Hugo for a long time, and like most...
By Steve Jones
I was trolling the docs and noticed the SIGN() function. I have never written...
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item RegEx Functions I
Which of these RegEx functions need compatibility level 170 in SQL Server 2025?
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