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 Scary DBA Comes to Columbia, SC

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

*sound of glass crashing* *cue theme music*
(in a wrestling announcer’s shocked voice) “It can’t be! He’s not supposed to be...

2014-05-09

691 reads

Understanding the Three A’s of Security for SQL Server

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Do you know what the “Three A’s of Security” are and how they apply to Microsoft SQL Server? Let’s look...

2014-05-01 (first published: 2014-04-22)

7,355 reads

Encrypt usernames and passwords stored in files

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

I was looking at a product recently and came across a rather unpleasant surprise: the install instructions specified that I...

2014-04-02

3,312 reads

Speaking at Midlands PASS Chapter tonight

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

The Midlands PASS Chapter is an official PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) chapter located in Columbia, SC. It’s free...

2014-03-13

461 reads

A summary of the SQL Server security #datachat is live

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

Recently I posted about participating in a #datachat about SQL Server security. As it turned out, we didn’t talk about...

2014-03-12

640 reads

Auditing VMware vCenter Actions (on SQL Server)

by Brian Kelley

Databases – Infrastructure – Security

When you’ve got a SIEM appliance or application, you want actions and events going into it as a central repository....

2014-03-07

1,344 reads

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

947 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

985 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)

1,950 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

702 reads

Blogs

“We love to debate minutiae”

By Brian Kelley

I am guilty as charged. The quote was in reference to how people argue...

Advice I Like: Knots

Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....

Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency

As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...

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Forums

Windows logins for users migrated from DomainA to DomainB

Hi, I have a SQL Server instance where users connect to via Windows Authentication,...

Multiple Deployment Processes

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes

How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases

Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...

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Question of the Day

Upgrading Admin Queries

I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?

See possible answers