A bunch to unpack here. Let's start with the nerdier stuff.

You list a bunch of events for capturing query metrics, but, you're missing a few, sp_statement_completed for example, since you're...

Personally, I'd go with what I'm familiar with and can support. If you're better in AWS, that's probably your best bet.

HOWEVER...

I would also be very cautious about moving your friend...

If I were doing a lot of external data, I'd absolutely be looking at Polybase. It's a way to query the data in place that's more efficient than some...

I'd look at this article by Jonathan Kehayias. I think it covers what you're looking for. In general, you may not have a direct, "HERE IS THE ONE PIECE...

Education.

Get extended events out and set up data collection. Show them how long queries take. Show them how blocking works, and how sometimes, you simply can't guarantee 2 seconds of...

If you've been running without partitions for 12 years or so, why add them back? Partitions are all about data management, not performance. If you're not dealing with all the...

Ha! I was just coming down to say something similar. I suspect we're going to be seeing a LOT...

Oh, I know all too well how people try to avoid doing new & different stuff. The issue to me is pretty clear though. Learning is a skill, like any...

Bob Ward's pre-con was a pretty compelling reason to go to Austin's SQL Saturday.  I saw a 2 hour-ish presentation about a year ago by Bob Ward on 2022. ...

As emphatically strong a suggestion as I can make...

If you get the opportunity to take the all-day class on SQL Server 2022 put on by Bob Ward of Microsoft, jump...

I hadn't considered that. I will definitely have duplicates of natural keys that exist in different statuses while some of the status should be able to duplicate and Active...

Misunderstood. Apologies. So,...

Shifting gears a bit, I'm hoping this year that work will be happy to pay (or at least contribute) to me getting out and going to some SQL based...

Whoops. You didn't have to...

That got posted before I intended.

Natural keys for relational references within the DB are always bad. Natural keys can change which destroys referential integrity, they can't survive data corrections,...