Heading to That Conference
I’ve been working with Ryan Booz a bit more and as we’ve talked over the last few weeks, he has asked me a few times if I’ve booked travel...
2023-06-16
10 reads
Blog Posts
Masking Columns in Azure SQL and SQL Server: Safeguarding Sensitive Data
Information security and privacy are key in today’s data-driven world. Sensitive data needs to be protected from unauthorized access. With column masking in SQL Server and Azure SQL, you...
2023-06-16 (first published: 2023-06-01)
353 reads
Using Data Masker on Chinese Surnames
A customer had a question recently on masking Chinese characters. I thought that was interesting, so decided to test this out. This is a short post on using SQL...
2023-06-16 (first published: 2023-05-26)
159 reads
Avoid “Constants” in T-SQL
Here we look at a common query "anti-pattern" that can create performance problems - and how you work around it.
2023-06-14
396 reads
Introduction to SQL Server Query Store
Introduced with SQL 2016, Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature. In this post we'll just take a brief look at it,...
2023-06-14 (first published: 2023-05-31)
615 reads
Microsoft Announcement: Microsoft Fabric
Yesterday at Microsoft Build, a significant announcement took place—the introduction of Microsoft Fabric, which is now available for public preview. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, went as far...
2023-06-14 (first published: 2023-05-31)
616 reads
Why Aren’t You Monitoring SQL Server
I repeat the phrase “If you aren’t monitoring it, you can’t measure it” all the time. Through my IT career, this has been a constant. If you don’t have...
2023-06-14
2 reads
Executing Queries Using Always Encrypted
In this post we’ll look at how you interact with data that is encrypted using Always Encrypted. The examples here will show how you run queries from SSMS, in...
2023-06-13
27 reads
Across the Water Again
I’m in the UK again, for my second trip this year. This time I have no commitments for speaking or presenting anything. I’m in town for a Marketing get-together...
2023-06-12
15 reads
Build announcement: Microsoft Fabric
The HUGE announcement at Microsoft Build yesterday was Microsoft Fabric (see Introducing Microsoft Fabric: Data analytics for the era of AI), now available in public preview. I have been...
2023-06-12 (first published: 2023-05-24)
531 reads
Blogs
Trace Flag 1448 – Lessons from a Technical Interview
By gbargsley
In SQL Server environments where transactional replication runs alongside Always On Availability Groups (AGs),...
Disable the sa login in SQL Server (and sleep better)
Disable the sa login in SQL Server (and sleep better)If you run SQL Server...
Leadership in Times of Change: Guiding Teams Through Uncertainty, Disruption, and Transformation
By Chris Yates
Change is inevitable. What separates thriving organizations from those that falter is not the...
Forums
Create an HTML Report on the Status of SQL Server Agent Jobs
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Create an HTML Report on...
how to write this query?
Hi everyone I am a bit stuck on how to write this query. Below...
Powershell script to generate SQL server Inventory in CSV format
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Powershell script to generate SQL...
Question of the Day
Azure SQL Database MAXDOP
When Azure SQL Database was originally released, the MAXDOP was set to 0 for each new database. In Oct 2025, what is the default value for Azure SQL databases?
See possible answers