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
16 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)
354 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)
162 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
400 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)
625 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)
629 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
5 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
36 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)
533 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Forums
Huge frustration - Database watcher with two elastic pools
Think there's a reason why this is still in preview, but have someone manage...
SQL Server 2025 Query Performance Tuning: Troubleshoot and Optimize Query Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Query Performance...
Is it uncommon for Dev's to have a data model of the source data
This is a generic question. To the moderators, I wasn't sure where to place...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON I
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers