SQLServerCentral Editorial

A Matter of Degree

So we had an interesting debate on college degrees and how much weight to give them in an interview recently. Near the end someone mentioned they were curious what types of degrees people had as well as those the worked with. There were some interesting comments, and I decided that this might make a nice Friday poll.

SQLServerCentral Article

Designing Cross Database Queries

As systems get bigger, servers consolidated, and SQL Server back ends more types of applications, the need for cross database queries for reports, updates, and more will continue to grow. Steve Jones looks at a few ways that you can design your linkages and talks about why he prefers one over the other.

External Article

Keep Your Data Secure with the New Advanced Encryption Standard

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a National Institute of Standards and Technology specification for the encryption of electronic data. It is expected to become the accepted means of encrypting digital information, including financial, telecommunications, and government data. This article presents an overview of AES and explains the algorithms it uses. Included is a complete C# implementation and examples of encrypting .NET data. After reading this article you will be able to encrypt data using AES, test AES-based software, and use AES encryption in your systems.

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Working with PASS

I joined PASS in 1999 and attended the inaugural Summit in Chicago. It was in the lower level of a hotel just on the river, I went to the last White Sox game of the year, and got to see Kalen Delaney speak about this newly released SQL Server 7.

SQLServerCentral Editorial

An Hour in Time

Daylight Savings time switches a little later this year. In fact it's November 4th this year, after having been in October for all of my life. In case you don't remember which way we move the clocks, here's a saying: Spring forward, fall back.

Blogs

Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency

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As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...

March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates

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On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...

How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025

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When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...

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Forums

Multiple Deployment Processes

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes

How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases

By Kunal Rathi

Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...

Upgrading Admin Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries

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Question of the Day

Upgrading Admin Queries

I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?  

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