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SQLServerCentral Editorial

AI Observability Challenges in FinOps as a DBA

I was performing research for requested AI work and noticed that I was viewing the risks from a database perspective.  As the saying goes in the tech industry, “Once a DBA always a DBA…”  As foreign as some of the views were, much of it feels familiar and I simply begin to look at it […]

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2026-07-25

97 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Midjourney, Healthcare?

Certain announcements in AI tell you more about where an industry is heading than any earnings call or research paper ever could, and Midjourney just made one. The company that spent the last few years as the most recognizable name in image generation, the one whose pictures flooded everyone's feeds and defined what people saw […]

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2026-06-20

1,153 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn

Last week I stood in front of a classroom at Washington State University and looked out at a room full of students who had done everything right. They had studied hard, were earning their degrees, built their portfolios, and showed up with genuine enthusiasm for careers in technology. They wanted to know what the industry […]

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2026-05-16

236 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

This Week's AI Trust Problem Became Everyone’s Problem

There’s a saying in security circles: the weakest link isn’t the lock on the front door but the spare key under the mat. This past week gave us two vivid, simultaneous demonstrations of that principle, and if you’re building anything in the AI space right now, both deserve your full attention. The Mythos Leak and […]

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2026-04-04

178 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Why End-User Testing Is Even More Important with AI

I don’t think I’m alone in this frustration, but it crystallized for me recently while trying to do something that should have taken less than two minutes: check in for a flight. What followed was a cascade of app switching and authentication failures. I started in my favorite travel app, moved to one airline app, […]

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2026-03-07

95 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

The AI Bubble and the Weak Foundation Beam

The problem that I continue to struggle with the AI Bubble is not innovation, but who has leverage. The AI industry has quietly constructed a capital stack with too many mutual dependencies and too few independent cash flows. When AI profitability hiccups, the financial impact does not land in one place. It cascades across the entire championship and everyone loses and not all players are equally positioned to survive it. This is the AI Bubble in a foundational nutshell.

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2025-12-13

739 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Economics of AI: What is the Real Cost to Profit?

Artificial intelligence is everywhere: It’s in our tools, our workflows, our marketing pitches…and increasingly, in our bottom lines. But a thought-provoking article published recently on the AI bubble asks a far more sobering question: What’s it really going to cost to profit from AI? Many people will roll their eyes and say, “Isn’t that obvious? […]

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2025-11-08

105 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Lessons from the Postmark-MCP Backdoor

The Koi Security team recently uncovered the first known, malicious MCP server in the wild: a package called postmark-mcp, downloaded over 1,500 times per week, that silently BCCs every outgoing email to an attacker-controlled domain. So, what happened?  High-level, a lot: The attacker cloned the legitimate Postmark MCP repository, made one small but nefarious change […]

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2025-10-04

207 reads

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Building AI Governance and Policies- First Steps

AI has moved from experimental to operational in record time for many organizations. In industries like fintech, healthcare, and retail where sensitive PII (personally identifiable information) and relational databases are the backbone of daily operations, this innovation speed to adopt AI brings enormous opportunity, but also significant risks

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2025-09-27

100 reads

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Backing Up a DMK

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The Quiet Part

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Question of the Day

Backing Up a DMK

In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?

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