Big Data architectures
Over the last few years I have been involved in reviewing the architectures of various companies that are building or have...
2016-05-12 (first published: 2016-04-29)
3,134 reads
Possible PARAMETER SNIFFING Scenario in SQL
When you undertake some performance improvement task, you think it is frustrating however at the same time you tend to...
2016-05-11 (first published: 2016-04-29)
3,706 reads
A New Look & A New Direction
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you...
2016-04-28
809 reads
Power BI Is Finally in the Azure Trust Center
With the most recent announcement of Power BI’s inclusion in the Azure Trust Center, it is a good time to review...
2016-05-11 (first published: 2016-04-28)
2,686 reads
April MVP – Chris Yates
The April MVP nomination is Chris Yates (B|T).
Chris is one of those individuals that always have a positive outlook on...
2016-04-28
884 reads
Dynamic Security in Power BI
UPDATE: the feature has changed since its introduction. For more information, see the update at the bottom of the post.
In...
2016-04-28
2,828 reads
New Pluralsight Course – Understanding and Using Essential Tools in Enterprise Linux 7
My new course “Understanding and Using Essential Tools in Enterprise Linux 7” in now available on Pluralsight here!
This course targets IT professionals that design and maintain RHEL based enterprises....
2016-04-28
12 reads
New Pluralsight Course – Understanding and Using Essential Tools in Enterprise Linux 7
My new course “Understanding and Using Essential Tools in Enterprise Linux 7” in now available on Pluralsight here!
This course targets...
2016-04-28
1,041 reads
Red Gate Dependency Tracker - Making Databases Into Moving Art
data structures are art
If anyone thinks that working with complex data structures is boring... I don't know what world they...
2016-04-27
1,062 reads
PowerShell – SQL Databases Backup Status Report of Multiple Servers
This post is a requirement from one of my blog reader.
There are plenty of scripts available to get the backup...
2016-04-27
3,028 reads
Blogs
The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers