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

More ADLS Gen2 enhancements

On the heels of More Azure Blob Storage enhancements come more enhancements for Azure Data Lake Store Gen2 (ADLS Gen2): Archive tier is now GA: The archive tier provides...

2020-07-14 (first published: )

268 reads

Blog Post

Power BI FAQ

Power BI has become hugely popular and I find common questions about functionality and features, so I thought I would put in this blog some of those questions with...

2020-06-23 (first published: )

622 reads

Blog Post

Monitoring Power BI

There are a number of options for monitoring Power BI that I wanted to mention: Performance analyzer: Find out how each of your report elements, such as visuals and...

2020-06-02 (first published: )

752 reads

Blog Post

Query Acceleration for ADLS

Just announced is Query Acceleration for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS) as well as Blob Storage. This is a new capability for ADLS that enables applications and analytics...

2020-05-20 (first published: )

448 reads

Blogs

The GO Barrier: Why SSMS Multi-Server Query Waits for the Slowest Connection

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I deployed a schema change to 30 servers using multi-server query and deploy-at-low-priority. Small...

10 Things I Hate About Fabric Deployment Pipelines— And Some Alternatives

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Fabric deployment pipelines look like they solve CI/CD for Fabric content, especially for people...

The Book of Redgate: Evidence

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We aren’t the only company that does this, but Redgate Software does try to...

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Forums

A Challenge of Our Knowledge

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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The memory toll of VARCHAR(MAX) in SQL Server

By sabyda

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The memory toll of VARCHAR(MAX)...

Transaction Log Truncation

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Transaction Log Truncation

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Question of the Day

Transaction Log Truncation

In SQL Server 2025, where can I find information about items that prevent or delay the transaction log truncation?

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