The End of Year Vacation Burn

It’s been a good year for me. With my sabbatical, I felt like I’ve gotten away from work quite a bit this year. I’ve had a few vacations around...

Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

A bunch of new features for Microsoft Fabric were announced at the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference (FabCon Vienna) recently. Here are all the new features that I found most interesting, with...

The Book of Redgate: Don’t be an a**hole

This was one of the original values: The facing page has this text: No matter how smart you are, or how good you are at narrowly defined tasks, there...

The Challenge of Implicit Transactions: #SQLNewBlogger

I saw an article recently about implicit transactions and coincidentally, I had a friend get caught by this. A quick post to show the impact of this setting. Another...

A Broken Copilot Query

I was testing the new SSMS (v22 Preview 3) with Copilot and ran into an interesting issue. This is part of a series of experiments with AI systems. My...

Set Theory vs. Batch Mode in SQL Server

Set Theory vs. Batch Mode in SQL Server

Not long ago, a colleague of mine was completely shocked when he first heard about SQL Server’s Batch Mode feature. His immediate...

The Mystery of the Locked-Up Database -Scooby Dooing Episode 6

No Scooby-Doo story is complete without footprints leading to a hidden passage. In SQL Server 2025, those footprints point us straight toward the next big feature: optimized locking. And...

From Data Custodian to Innovation Catalyst: The Evolving Role of the CDO

There was a time when the Chief Data Officer lived in the shadows of the enterprise. Their office lights burned late into the night as they combed through spreadsheets...

SQL Server Upgrades

I’ve had this conversation at least a 1000 times over the course of my career working with SQL Server and teaching classes. Is it better to upgrade in place...

Accelerating AI with Confidence: Why Microsoft Purview is Key to Responsible Innovation

Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept. It is here, embedded in the way we work, create, and make decisions. From generative assistants to predictive analytics, AI is...