Local LLM Models at SQL Saturday Boston 2025
I’m starting a long trip at Boston this weekend. I’ll be there Saturday speaking, two sessions I think. At least one. I’m excited for this session as I’ve had...
2025-09-23
25 reads
Blog Posts
Automating SQL Maintenance: How DevOps Principles Reduce Downtime
In the world of modern data infrastructure, SQL databases remain the backbone of enterprise applications. They power everything from e-commerce platforms to financial systems, and their reliability is non-negotiable....
2025-09-22
73 reads
Azure Networking: Designing for Change
Failing to plan is planning to fail. When organizations first begin implementing Azure networking, the focus is often on the immediate requirements: connectivity, security, and performance for your databases...
2025-09-22 (first published: 2025-09-03)
156 reads
Secure Your SQL Estate: Best Practices for Azure SQL Security
The Castle and the Keys Imagine your Azure SQL environment as a sprawling digital estate – a castle of data, with towers of insight and vaults of sensitive information....
2025-09-22 (first published: 2025-09-02)
452 reads
From Couch-Potato to Triathlete – and What This Means for Your SQL Server
Do you know if your SQL Server is really running at its best? To help you answer that question, I’ve recently launched a free 30-minute SQL Server Health Check. In...
2025-09-21
19 reads
Retro Data 2025 – Slidedeck
You can find the slides of my session on the €100 DWH in Azure on Github.
The post Retro Data 2025 – Slidedeck first appeared on Under the kover of...
2025-09-20
14 reads
SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances
Old Reliable Still Matters If you’ve been around SQL Server for a while, you’ve heard of Failover Cluster Instances (FCIs). They’ve been part of SQL’s high availability toolbox since...
2025-09-19 (first published: 2025-09-03)
214 reads
The Case of the Forgotten Compatibility Mode – Scooby Dooing Episode 3
Like any good mystery, some SQL Server problems look spooky on the surface but have a very simple culprit hiding in the shadows. Every good Scooby-Doo episode starts with...
2025-09-19 (first published: 2025-09-03)
257 reads
A Prompt AI Experiment
Prompt AI released recently and I decided to try a few things with the tool that might help me in database work. I’ve had to do this task, but...
2025-09-17
104 reads
Fabric Real Time Data: Making the Shift from Batch to Live Insights
Embracing the New Paradigm Fabric real-time data signals a fundamental shift in how organizations transform raw information into actionable insights. For decades, leaders have relied on batch processing as...
2025-09-17 (first published: 2025-08-25)
145 reads
Blogs
A Career of Memories
By Steve Jones
Annabel retired from Redgate Software this week. Across most of my career at Redgate,...
Rethinking Index Maintenance: Why avg_fragmentation_in_percent Is Outdated and What You Should Do Instead
By Tim Radney
As a SQL Server DBA with years of experience tuning production environments, I’ve seen...
Microsoft Build 2026 announcements
By James Serra
Once again there were a number of Microsoft Build announcements related to data and...
Forums
Changes, Happiness, and a Few Tears
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BCP on Linux
Comments posted to this topic are about the item BCP on Linux
You Probably Don't Need a Vector Database
Comments posted to this topic are about the item You Probably Don't Need a...
Question of the Day
BCP on Linux
When running bcp on Linux, what is the field terminator?
See possible answers