Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley is an author, columnist, and Microsoft SQL Server MVP focusing primarily on SQL Server security. He is a contributing author for How to Cheat at Securing SQL Server 2005 (Syngress), Professional SQL Server 2008 Administration (Wrox), and Introduction to SQL Server (Texas Publishing). Brian currently serves as an infrastructure and security architect. He has also served as a senior Microsoft SQL Server DBA, database architect, developer, and incident response team lead.

Interests: Chess, Reading, Soccer (Football), Baseball, Animals, Theology

The weakest link in database security

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

The weakest link in database security is the same as for most all IT security: people.
Because the weakest link is...

2014-03-06

946 reads

Security #Datachat on Twitter Tonight

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Tonight, at 9 PM Eastern, I’ll be participating in a #datachat on SQL Server security. It’s sponsored by Confio (now...

2014-02-27

984 reads

Presenting on Top SQL Server Vulnerabilities

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

On February 19th, 2014, I’ll be giving a webinar from 3-4 PM Eastern on the Top SQL Server Vulnerabilities. You...

2014-02-18 (first published: 2014-02-12)

1,949 reads

#TSQL2sDay – Data marts across a shaky WAN link

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

It sounded good in principle, especially given the requirements and the limitations:
We needed our various sites to be able to...

2014-02-11

701 reads

Presenting on Security at Midlands PASS

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

On Thursday, February 13, 2014, I’ll be at Midlands PASS in Columbia, SC. We’ll be meeting from 5:30 PM to...

2014-02-10

355 reads

Being a Better IT Pro - Grammar

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

In my IT career, one of the things I have found that sets me apart is my ability to write....

2014-01-22 (first published: 2013-12-23)

16,490 reads

Free Online SQL Server Training for the Week of January 12, 2013

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

If you’re a training provider and I’ve missed you, please drop me a line at brian {dot} kelley {at} sqlpass...

2014-01-09

728 reads

Being a Better IT Pro – Keep It Short

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Keep your emails and communications as short as possible.
Make sure you cover everything you absolutely need to, but nothing more....

2014-01-08

397 reads

Being a Better IT Pro – Get to the Point

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

When writing emails or other communications, state your point or request right at the beginning.
For instance, if you need...

2014-01-07

428 reads

Being a Better IT Pro – Grammar

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

In my IT career, one of the things I have found that sets me apart is my ability to write....

2013-12-23

389 reads

Blogs

2025 Wrapped for Steve

I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...

The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world

This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...

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Forums

SQL Server 2019 - Agent job PowerShell step issue

I have a couple of SQL Agent job steps which run PowerShell commands of...

Database security permissions save script

By Srinivas Merugu

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Database security permissions save script

Database backup job steps

I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services...

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Question of the Day

The Large Encoded Value

I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?

See possible answers