Matthew McGiffen

I started my career in IT as a developer with Visual Basic, C# and ASP working with SQL Server backends. For the last ten years though I’ve focused on the SQL Server side of things. Currently I’m working for a leading software vendor for the financial industry as a DBA, doing a mixture of development and data architecture. If I have a speciality it is in making things run faster.

Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/

Setting up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

You can set up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) when you first create a database, or you can apply it to...

2018-01-26

2,664 reads

How does Query Store capture cross database queries?

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

When I was writing my post Capture the most expensive queries across your SQL Server using Query Store a question crossed...

2017-11-16

632 reads

Avoiding confusion with SQLCMD variables

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

SQLCMD variables can be a useful way of having changeable parameters for your SQL scripts, allowing you to specify the...

2017-11-01

10,129 reads

Bug with STATISTICS TIME?

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

I love the STATISTICS IO and STATISTICS TIME commands. They are such a powerful and easy way to be able...

2017-10-17

507 reads

Setting up Change Data Capture (CDC)

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

As mentioned in my post Auditing Data Access in SQL Server for GDPR Compliance CDC can be a useful tool for...

2017-10-03

17,038 reads

When Deadlocks Become Art

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

We’ve all had to solve deadlock issues. Identify the two conflicting pieces of code, work out an appropriate change to...

2017-09-19

694 reads

Setting the Sample Rate for Auto Stats updates

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

SQL Server functionality can move on pretty quickly sometimes, and it’s not always all about the big features but the...

2017-09-12

2,150 reads

Viewing the Statistics Objects Used to Create an Execution Plan

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

A while ago now I was running some Performance Tuning workshops and was asked how you can find out which Statistics...

2017-09-01

407 reads

How to be a bad interviewer

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

In the monthly SQL blogging party that is T-SQL Tuesday (brainchild of Adam Machanic), Kendra Little has invited us this...

2017-08-08

1,421 reads

Manually updating Statistics

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

Even though SQL Server automatically updates statistics in the background for you, you may find there are times when you...

2017-08-01

2,428 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