Additional Articles


External Article

Deleting Files in the Cloud

The public perception is that, when something is deleted, it no longer exists. Often that's not really the case; the data you serve up to the cloud can be stored out there indefinitely, no matter how hard to try to delete it. Rob Sheldon investigates, and finds the cloud a worryingly public place.

2014-10-09

8,992 reads

External Article

Improving the Quality of SQL Server Database Connections in the Cloud

To access SQL Server from the client, you use TDS protocol over TCP. This is fine over reliable LANs but over the internet these connections are relatively slow and fragile. TDS is still used to connect to databases in the cloud, but you need to use a combination of the new features such as connection pools and idle connection resiliency to make applications faster and more reliable. Edward Elliott shows you how.

2014-10-07

8,227 reads

External Article

Ninja Immutable Databases

'Immutable' databases operate under the principle that data or objects should not be modified after they are created. Once again they hold the promise of providing strong consistency combined with horizontal read scalability, and built-in caching. Are Immutable databases a new idea? Are they different in any way from the mainstream RDBMSs?

2014-10-03

9,305 reads

External Article

Protect Confidential SQL Server Data Q and A

Following on from a webcast, Tim Smith answers some questions on SQL Server security like: Is It Better To Mask At the Application Level Or The SQL Server Database Level? Are there any options to find SSNs in SQL Server besides RegEx? And, why would anyone store sensitive data un-encrypted in SQL Server?

2014-10-02

8,457 reads

External Article

Filling In Missing Values Using the T-SQL Window Frame

Since SQL Server delivered the entire range of window functions, there has been far less justification for using the non-standard ex-Sybase 'Quirky Update' tricks to perform the many permutations of running totals in SQL Server. One of these related problems is the 'Data Smear'. Do window functions make this easier, and what is performance like? Dwain Camps investigates.

2014-10-01

11,294 reads

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Multiple Deployment Processes

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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases

By Kunal Rathi

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Upgrading Admin Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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Question of the Day

Upgrading Admin Queries

I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?  

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