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

Big Data Workshop

A challenge I have with customers who want to get hands-on experience with the Azure products that are found in a modern data warehouse architecture is finding a workshop...

2019-07-30 (first published: )

366 reads

Blog Post

The Microsoft Power Platform

The Microsoft Power Platform consists of three products: Power BI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow. I find customers are confused on the use cases of these products and how they...

2019-07-08 (first published: )

316 reads

Blog Post

Common Data Model

The Common Data Model (CDM) is a shared data model that is a place to keep all common data to be shared between applications and data sources.  Another way...

2019-06-20 (first published: )

1,767 reads

Blogs

Programmatic Tool Calling with the Claude SDK

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Programmatic Tool Calling with the Claude SDK Every morning somebody on the team runs the...

A New Word: Mauerbauertraurigkeit

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mauerbauertraurigkeit – n. inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends whose company...

Methodology for dealing with bad data in production

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Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad...

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Forums

VACATION!

By Grant Fritchey

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Why SQL Server Database Attach fails and how to repair it

By Nisarg Upadhyay

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Why SQL Server Database Attach...

Fixing P1 Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing P1 Queries

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Question of the Day

BIT_COUNT() IV

In SQL Server 2025, I run this code:

select bit_count('A')
What is returned?

See possible answers