SQL Server Upgrades: In-Place or New Server?

This isn’t a religious debate.   I have a client right now debating how to handle SQL Server upgrades across all of their dev and test environments. And it’s...

Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files

I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to determine how many people were protecting data in dev databases and how often. TDM creates...

PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI

I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started to build this in PowerPoint. I decided to switch to Claude and ended up with...

Making Sense of Microsoft’s AI Strategy: Work IQ, Fabric IQ, Foundry IQ

A few weeks ago, I found myself staring at a slide full of new Microsoft AI names and thinking… wait a second. Work IQ. Fabric IQ. Foundry IQ. Agent...

Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes

Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes

After tempdb, msdb is often the most abused system database, growing unchecked until it tanks...

SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS

Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now runs successfully on Docker Desktop for macOS without needing OrbStack.

Webinar: Navigating the Database Landscape in 2026

For a number of years, we’ve produced the State of the Database Landscape report, based on surveys and research we do every year. I have found it very interesting...

Reality (And Limits) of Instant File Initialization for Transaction Logs in SQL Server 2022

Reality (And Limits) of Instant File Initialization for Transaction Logs in SQL Server 2022

If you’ve spent any time tuning SQL Server, you’ve probably heard “Turn...

Three Ways to Use Snowflake Data in Microsoft Fabric

Organizations increasingly want Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric to coexist without duplicating data or fragmenting governance. With Fabric OneLake and open table formats like Iceberg and Delta, there are now...

A New Word: Dolorblindness

dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s pain, only ever searching their face for some faint evocation of it, then rifling through...