James Serra

James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last nine years. He is a thought leader in the use and application of Big Data and advanced analytics, including data architectures such as the modern data warehouse, data lakehouse, data fabric, and data mesh. Previously he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. He is a popular blogger (JamesSerra.com) and speaker, having presented at dozens of major events including SQLBits, PASS Summit, Data Summit and the Enterprise Data World conference. He is the author of the book “Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh”.

Blog Post

Modern Data Warehouse explained

I created a short YouTube video (20 minutes) that is a whiteboarding session that describes the five stages (ingest, store, transform, model, visualize) that make up a modern data...

2021-05-12 (first published: )

996 reads

Blog Post

Power BI and a Star Schema

I sometimes get asked from customers if they should use a star schema or should they use one large single table/flatfile for their dataset in Power BI. The answer...

2021-03-05 (first published: )

985 reads

Blogs

From Couch-Potato to Triathlete – and What This Means for Your SQL Server

By

Do you know if your SQL Server is really running at its best? To...

Retro Data 2025 – Slidedeck

By

You can find the slides of my session on the €100 DWH in Azure...

The Book of Redgate: We Value Teams

By

This value is something that I still hear today: our best work is done...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Single User SQL Server on Linux

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Single User SQL Server on...

All the Costs of Downtime

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item All the Costs of Downtime

How Well Does the MSSQL Extension in VSCode Work?

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Well Does the MSSQL...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Single User SQL Server on Linux

How can I start SQL Server on Linux in single-user mode to restore the master database?

See possible answers