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

Data Lakehouse & Synapse

I am starting to see this relatively new phrase, “Data Lakehouse”, being used in the data platform world. It’s the combination of “Data Lake” and “Data Warehouse”. In this...

2020-09-17 (first published: )

796 reads

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: )

272 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: )

630 reads

Blogs

dataMinds Connect 2026 – Slides & Scripts

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You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)

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How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...

The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server

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“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...

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Forums

SSL/TLS Cert Validity Periods Decreasing

By Phil Parkin

Hi, to all of you who are using CA certs on SQL Server boxes...

It's Never Just One Thing

By Grant Fritchey

Comments posted to this topic are about the item It's Never Just One Thing

Calculating Min-Max Normalization in PowerBI

By Dinesh Asanka

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Calculating Min-Max Normalization in PowerBI

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Question of the Day

Checking the Error Log III

If I want to run sp_readerrorlog on SQL Server 2025, what permissions do I need?

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