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: )

372 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: )

320 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: )

1,799 reads

Blog Post

Azure Data Explorer

Azure Data Explorer (ADX) was announced as generally available on Feb 7th.  In short, ADX is a fully managed data analytics service for near real-time analysis on large volumes...

2019-03-14

305 reads

Blogs

T-SQL Tuesday #203: Risk and Reward

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This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...

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...

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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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