I'd like to add something with regard to open source software.

1. community editions may be free and will get you started but once you get beyond a certain point...

As Jeff says, it depends on the scale.

But if you are talking about a small business startup I'd say use AWS and one of the RDS options as a starting...

That's outsourced to the VAR in the form of...

Look at Amazon instances. High-Memory Quadruple Extra Large DB = 68GB RAM!

It really depends on what your use case is.

Heavy reads and a large database? You are...

Vendor DBs tend to aim at multiple platforms and this boils down to lowest common denominator design.

If the product states that MySQL is supported expect heap tables in SQL Server...

I think the ownership comment hits the nail on the head.

When we moved to agile roles and responsibilities got blurred and initially things got missed because no-one was sure who...

In the digital marketing space there are actually companies that you pay for the privilege of sharing your data! The idea is that by contributing to the identification of...

On 3 separate occassions my wife has had to call the police.

1. Robbery in progress

2. Gas canister fell off a lorry onto a dual carriageway

3. Assault on...

Jeff Moden (7/14/2013)

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What I'd like to see is for MS to get back to some grass roots programming to make T-SQL what it should/could be. For example, fix Bulk...

I suspect its a Northern England attitude. In the interests of maintaining a 558 year cease fire I won't mention the...

Richard Warr (6/25/2013)

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geoffrey.sturdy (6/25/2013)

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"It's also a young person's game. Once you have a family, not sure you can make those trade offs and feel good about it. "

Sorry - but...

Its a sad fact that a percentage of any population will be morally challenged.

Another percentage will be opportunistic. If you had a piece of software and a licence key...

Question Guy (6/24/2013)

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As I like to say, make your job what you want it to be. I want it to be 40 hours or so, therefore it is. ...

If you make the toolset good enough then SQL Server becomes that can be cradle to grave.

It can cope with numpties but in the hands of a master it can...

Bring back Project Barcelona!