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

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: )

837 reads

Blog Post

Data Mesh defined

The two latest trends in emerging data platform architectures are the Data Lakehouse (the subject of my last blog Data Lakehouse defined), and the Data Mesh, the subject of...

2021-02-19 (first published: )

778 reads

Blog Post

Data Mesh defined

The two latest trends in emerging data platform architectures are the Data Lakehouse (the subject of my last blog Data Lakehouse defined), and the Data Mesh, the subject of...

2021-02-16

1 reads

Blog Post

Data Lakehouse defined

As a follow-up to my blog Data Lakehouse & Synapse, I wanted to talk about the various definitions I am seeing about what a data lakehouse is, including a...

2021-02-02 (first published: )

571 reads

Blog Post

Syncing SQL databases

There are various ways to keep SQL Server databases and SQL Database/SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI) databases in-sync asynchronously that I will discuss in this blog. The main use...

2021-01-05 (first published: )

736 reads

Blogs

Going to Cloud? Look at the Shared Responsibility Model

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The bottom line here is this: the idea that a CSP takes care of...

How Long Will It Take to Learn SQL? The Truth Might Surprise You

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In today's data-driven world, SQL (Structured Query Language) is a blazing-hot skill. It's your...

Flying Halfway Around the World to Australia

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I leave tonight for Australia. I was in London 3 days ago, so this...

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Forums

Fine-tune SQL for better performance

By don075

I have been asked to fine-tune the following SQL that was written by a...

Row-level security in SQL server

By dzukik0711

In this scenario, I seek assistance in implementing row-level permissions for a table named...

SSIS Web Service task SSL errors

By smithloo

I've tried different credentials, target server versions, etc. hitting our Primavera WSDL. Works great...

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Question of the Day

Initial Config of tempdb

What are the initial config sizes for the tempdb primary data files, secondary data files, and log files in SQL Server 2022?

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