Pros and Cons of Database Sharding for Performance and Maintenance
Large databases usually have a negative impact on maintenance time, scalability and query performance. For maintenance, these large single databases have to be backed up daily while the amount of actual changing data might be small. For performance, tables without correct indexes result in full table or clustered index scans. As the data grows the total query time increase linearly. How can we decrease downtime for the maintenance window for large databases and optimize the performance of daily queries?
The SQL Server 2016 Plan
Steve notes SQL Server 2016 went out of support this past week. What are you plans if you run this version?
Implicit Conversions Cripple SQL Server
Learn about implicit conversions, which can dramatically affect the performance of your workload.
The Mythical Bus Accident
Preparing for disaster is important, both at work and in your personal life.
Vector search in SQL Server: VECTOR_DISTANCE, VECTOR_SEARCH, and index trade-offs
Learn how to use VECTOR_DISTANCE and VECTOR_SEARCH in SQL Server to find semantically similar data.
A Security and AI Fail
Security is an important consideration for anyone working with data, but it's especially a concern with AI.
How Clustering can be Used as a Preprocessing Technique for Classification in Azure Machine Learning
Learn about using classification as a technique to prepare your data for additional machine learning analysis.
Confession Time: I Never Taught You About B-Trees.
I work with databases for a living. I teach people, and I help them via consulting. And as far as I can remember, I’ve never written something about how b-trees work.
It’s 2026. Why are databases still failing GDPR compliance audits?
This article examines three recurring database-layer failures documented in the EDPB’s 2026 enforcement findings: the complexity of executing erasure across relational schemas, the backup paradox that can silently undo compliant deletions, and the audit log contradiction that traps organizations between two competing obligations.
Blogs
Why companies use Palantir and how we help implement it in the Czech Republic
Discover how Palantir connects enterprise data, supports AI-driven decision-making and helps companies turn insights...
Why companies use Palantir and how we help implement it in the Czech Republic
Palantir is an American software platform that brings together business data from different sources...
Wait… Could This Be the End of Index Maintenance?
While attending SQLCon and FabCon Europe in Barcelona, there were a lot of announcements...
Forums
Pay for Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Pay for Performance, which is...
Packing and Decoding Device Status Codes with LEFT_SHIFT() and RIGHT_SHIFT() in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Packing and Decoding Device Status...
SQL Server Audit Failures
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Audit Failures
Question of the Day
SQL Server Audit Failures
If I have a SQL Server Server Audit setup, what are my options for configuring the instance in the event it can't write to the audit log?
See possible answers