In Memory of Andrew Clarke, AKA Phil Factor
One of the parts of getting older that really sucks is I seem to attend more funerals than weddings. It’s a sad fact of file, and this was one...
2025-09-15
574 reads
Blog Posts
Leading Through the Noise: Harnessing Data in the Age of Digital Overload
The New Leadership Frontier In today’s digital landscape, leaders are no longer just visionaries. They are navigators of complexity, interpreters of signals, and stewards of trust. Technology has transformed...
2025-09-15
66 reads
SQL Server Log Shipping: The Tried and True of DR
It’s not glamorous, but it works In a world where shiny new HA/DR features get all the press, there’s one SQL Server technology that just keeps doing its job....
2025-09-15 (first published: 2025-08-27)
226 reads
A New Word: Anderance
anderance – n. the awareness that your partner perceives the relationship from a totally different angle than you – spending years looking at a different face across the table,...
2025-09-12
510 reads
AI and Cybersecurity: the Genie is Out of the Bottle
Today's reality is that cybercriminals are increasingly using AI to develop better attacks. This is just the latest reported technique, probably because it's starting to be used more often....
2025-09-12 (first published: 2025-08-21)
244 reads
Free Online Sessions – Building the €100 DWH and Indexing for Dummies
I’m giving two online sessions soon on virtual events that are free to attend. The first one is at Retro Data (20th of September), a new virtual conference focusing...
2025-09-12 (first published: 2025-09-11)
385 reads
The “Kill” Command: What to Consider Before Stopping a SQL Server Process
Whether you’re troubleshooting on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Managed Instance, or Amazon RDS, you will eventually encounter a “lead blocker”—that one high-cost, long-running session holding every other process...
2025-09-12
27 reads
The Strategic Imperative of SQL Performance Tuning in Azure
Aligning Technical Excellence with Organizational Agility Tuning SQL performance in Azure transcends routine database management and becomes a strategic imperative when viewed through an executive lens. Slow database operations...
2025-09-12 (first published: 2025-08-21)
344 reads
Adding SQL Server 2025 to my Laptop
I wanted to do some testing of SQL Server 2025 on my laptop. I have written before how I avoided installing SQL Server on the laptop and use containers...
2025-09-10 (first published: 2025-08-20)
731 reads
Scooby-Doo and the Mystery of Cloud Costs (Let’s have some fun!) – Scooby Dooing Episode 1
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in consulting, it’s that SQL Server, and other database performance tuning isn’t just about faster queries—it’s directly tied to your bottom line in...
2025-09-10 (first published: 2025-08-25)
313 reads
Blogs
No Shortcuts for the SQLCMD Batch Terminator: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I was messing around with SQLCMD and I realized something I hadn’t known. I’ve...
Where Is My SQL Agent? Running Scheduled Jobs Against Azure SQL Database
By gbargsley
One of the first things I review when I inherit a new SQL Server...
AgentDBA vs Critical SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
It’s 07:43. Someone’s already left a message. “Something’s wrong with the DB server.” You...
Forums
Increment a number in a SQL Query based on a value
I have an issue where I have a Bill of Material list of items...
Follow Your Hunch
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Follow Your Hunch
What Happens When You Ask a Local AI to Query Your Database?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item What Happens When You Ask...
Question of the Day
Detecting Characters
I have a SQL Server 2022 English default installation on a server. I want to detect if there are any upper case characters in rows and I have this code:
SELECT CustomerNameID,
CustomerName
FROM dbo.CustomerName
WHERE CustomerName = LOWER(CustomerName)
Here is the sample data I am testing with:
CustomerNameID CustomerName 1 John Smith 2 Sarah Johnson 3 MICHAEL WILLIAMS 4 JENNIFER BROWN 5 david jones 6 emily davis 7 Robert Miller 8 LISA WILSON 9 christopher moore 10 Amanda TaylorHow many rows are returned? See possible answers