Couple random thoughts/examples here:

In this context, enterprise data starts to feel like that kitchen drawer we never clean out because we don’t really have a compelling reason. We don’t know...

Markus (11/25/2014)

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You guys must live in a perfect world of applications... However, the bulk of the SQL Server based apps are small companies and don't have the resources or the...

Jason-299789 (11/25/2014)

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lshanahan (11/25/2014)

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One of the Kimball Group's books, The Microsoft Datawarehouse Toolkit deals specifically with implementation using the MS stack which will likely have good examples (I haven't read it...

Just to pile on, DBAs should have no more knowledge of SQLServer-related passwords (user or otherwise) than a Windows Admin should have of the domain they administer - which is...

One of the Kimball Group's books, The Microsoft Datawarehouse Toolkit deals specifically with implementation using the MS stack which will likely have good examples (I haven't read it myself, but...

From the illustrious Mr. Celko:

"I have Mother...

Ed Wagner (11/21/2014)

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APPLY lets you use a TVF (table-valued function) as a table in your query. Think of CROSS APPLY as an INNER JOIN and OUTER APPLY as an...

Recently been trying to wrap my brain around APPLY and it's sibling CROSS APPLY as I have some situations where they could prove useful.

I'm using 2005 at the moment, so...

Ed Wagner (10/21/2014)

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The SQL Server Agent is a big deal. Without it, you'll have to create your own scheduler for things like backups, database consistency checks, index tuning, updating...

Talk about the story of my life. Self-taught in Access, VBA and JetSQL, then graduated to SQL Server. It's a daunting task, but not impossible. Just eat...

Coming from a desktop/field support background, saying "yes" is just this side of a primary conditioned reflex. In most cases - not all - I will pitch in and...

Gary Varga (10/3/2014)

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yazalpizar_ (10/3/2014)

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...What I usually see is that developers think on NoSQL as a hammer and everything else is a nail. Many of them believe is a "SQL Server...

More data isn't necessarily better data - something aptly demonstrated by the Google Flu trends fiasco.

How data is collected is just as important as quantity if not moreso, as anyone...

If I may be so bold as to add a couple:

Grin and Bear It - Sometimes despite all your informed, documented reasons why a certain course of action is unwise...

There's that old saw: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." (Wasn't that Shakespeare?)

So I guess we can re-phrase it: "Some are born...