What Can AI Really Do?
Steve asks you what you think AI can do for you today, with a few suggestions of what he sees.
Why Your Index Isn't Being Used? - Reading Execution Plans to Find the Real Culprit
Built the index, but SQL Server still scans the whole table? Learn how to read execution plans and find exactly why your index is being ignored.
Improve Query Performance in the Fabric Warehouse with Clustering
Learn how to improve performance issues in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse and leverage cloud-based data analytics effectively.
We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn
Last week I stood in front of a classroom at Washington State University and looked out at a room full of students who had done everything right. They had studied hard, were earning their degrees, built their portfolios, and showed up with genuine enthusiasm for careers in technology. They wanted to know what the industry […]
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
A few lessons learned in building ETL pipelines and tricks to ensure you can easily maintain these over time.
Why I Don’t Like Shared Development Databases
Today, Kendra explains why she doesn't like shared development databases.
When, and when not, to use LLMs in your data pipeline
LLMs should be used in data pipelines for unstructured text, semantic search, and natural language queries – but avoided for deterministic, high-volume, or regulated tasks. Drawing on my real-world experience building large-scale ML systems, in this guide I’ll explain exactly where LLMs belong in your data pipeline and, just as importantly, where they don’t.
Restoring Azure Key Vault Keys and Validating SQL Server TDE Recovery: Level 7 of the Stairway to TDE
Learn about restoring your keys from an Azure Key Vault in the event of a DR situation.
Writing Before Reading
We often learn to write code before we really learn to read it, which seems like a problem to Steve.
There Are Days When I Feel Like Giving Up on the Plan Cache and Query Store.
In theory, SQL Server performance monitoring is pretty simple: 1. Review the server’s top wait types, 2. Find the queries causing those wait types, 3. Fix those queries, or improve the way the server reacts to them (indexes, settings, etc.). But in practice, step 2 is awful because:
Blogs
Power BI Performance in 2026: A Practical Guide to Faster Semantic Models and Reports
By James Serra
Originally published April 2022; substantially updated July 2026. This post is a complete replacement...
Getting Started with Azure SQL Developer on Macbook
The idea behind Azure SQL Developer is for anyone to build, iterate, and test...
AI Experiments: Claude Solved a DAB Issue
By Steve Jones
I’m sure many of you are using AI regularly, perhaps chatting, perhaps using some...
Forums
SQL Agent Job Automated Change Capture Process
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Agent Job Automated Change...
Another Model, More Data Loss
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Another Model, More Data Loss
Finding a Database Master Key
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding a Database Master Key
Question of the Day
Finding a Database Master Key
Where do I check for the existence of a Database Master Key (DMK) in SQL Server 2025?
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