David Fowler and Adrian Buckman, two database nerds who love nothing more than to spend their time, reading about, researching and sharing all things SQL Server.

David is a DBA with over 15 years production experience of SQL Server, from version 6.5 through to 2016. He has worked in a number of different settings and is currently the technical lead at one of the largest software companies in the UK.

After working in the motor trade for over 11 years Adrian decided to give it all up to persue a dream of working in I.T. Adrian has over 3 years of experience working with SQL server and loves all things SQL, Adrian currently works as a Database Administrator for one of the UK’s Largest Software Companies.

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Blogs

2025 Wrapped for Steve

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I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...

The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world

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This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...

Merry Christmas

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Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...

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Forums

Database backup job steps

By Pete Bishop

I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services...

SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm

By Johan Bijnens

Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression...

The Large Encoded Value

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Large Encoded Value

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Question of the Day

The Large Encoded Value

I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?

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