Starting to Program
This Friday Steve Jones asks what resources might help the new DBA learn to program better. Pick the language of your choice and let us know what resources have worked well for you.
2012-07-06
310 reads
Editorials
Clouds, Costs, and Data Analytics
The cloud can be good or bad for your company, but it can easily be a costly endeavor that doesn't save you money. Steve Jones some data analysis is needed to ensure you have a cost effective cloud infrastructure.
2012-07-05
159 reads
2012-07-04
82 reads
Fix Failures Fast
A new study from Microsoft Research looks at failures in PCs. Steve Jones thinks there are a few things worth talking about for DBAs.
2012-07-03
150 reads
Security and Honesty
Today Steve Jones talks security and the need for us to share information about issues, especially those that impact security.
2012-07-02
145 reads
2012-07-02
338 reads
The High Availability Poll
Most customers and clients wants highly available systems, with 100% uptime if possible. However most don't want to pay for them, and eventually tolerate some outages to keep costs down. This Friday, Steve Jones asks what is your environment like.
2012-06-29
158 reads
Password Help
Passwords control most of our access to computer systems and provide some level of authentication, but their security depends heavily on their strength and privacy. Steve Jones says you can set a good example for others and hemp improve security on all systems.
2012-06-28
230 reads
The Redmond Agenda
The things that are important to Microsoft might not be the same ones that are important to you as a customer. However Steve Jones thinks that the potential changes in the release strategy may be good for data professionals.
2012-06-27
93 reads
Pioneering with PowerShell
In PowerShell, Phil Factor believes we have a true novelty: a Windows Scripting language that outsmarts Perl and Python and Ruby and one that will continue to cause radical changes to Windows server applications, and the tools we use to administer them.
2012-06-25
199 reads
Blogs
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations
Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption
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