The Small Print
In today's guest editorial, Phil Factor issues a stark warning against cunning salesmen and hidden costs in cloud computing.
2012-11-21
128 reads
Editorials
A Tool for the Job
Phil Factor is puzzled by reading how difficult a relatrional database is to use for certain tasks.
2012-11-20
213 reads
Human Power
It's incredible what humans can accomplish when they work on a problem with passion. This editorial was originally published on Mar 20, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is on vacation.
2012-11-19 (first published: 2008-03-20)
316 reads
SSD Lifetimes
This week Steve Jones looks at the expected lifetimes of SSDs and finds one that might be a nice upgrade for your system.
2012-11-19
259 reads
The Cost of Storage
As DBAs we constantly need more storage, but do we know what the impact or cost of this storage is to our employers? Answer this week's poll.
2012-11-16
143 reads
Failure Lessons
Steve Jones would like to see more disclosure about what works and doesn't work when deploying new systems and software.
2012-11-15
129 reads
The Future of DBAs
What's the future for DBAs with cloud services and computing? Steve Jones talks about what might be coming soon.
2012-11-14
357 reads
Too Much Data
Are you managing too much data? Lots of data professionals feel that way, but fortunately "Big Data" is in the news and bringing more visibility to the challenges we face on a daily basis.
2012-11-13
185 reads
Monitoring is Essential
One of the keys to better availability, scalability, and performance on your systems is understanding what is happening in the instances. That requires monitoring, which Steve Jones sees as essential.
2012-11-12
285 reads
The Data We Give Away
We're all used to storing and protecting data, but how often to we consider the data we're generating every day?
2012-11-12
74 reads
Blogs
Resolving SQL Server Transaction Log Issues Efficiently
By Arun Sirpal
Transaction log issues are one of the quietest ways a healthy database turns into...
Adding an HTTP MCP Server to VSCode
By Steve Jones
I wrote earlier this week about the SQL MCP Server using the Data API...
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
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The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
Question of the Day
Symmetric Key Encryption
If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256, KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase', IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value' ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7'; GOSee possible answers