Advanced Incident Response
Having a known and documented incident response plan is important these days, as more and more companies are having security incidents.
COALESCE(), ISNULL() , NULLIF() and alternatives in SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL
In this article we look at the SQL functions COALESCE, ISNULL, NULLIF and do a comparison between SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL.
Introducing Pinal Dave to new SQL Monitor features
Pinal Dave from SQL Authority has used – and been a fan of – SQL Monitor since it launched in 2008 (fun fact: it was named SQL Response back then!) There are, however, a few newer features that Pinal isn’t too familiar with, and we were delighted to introduce those to him in this short video.
Understanding Azure Data Factory Pricing
Learn how Azure Data Factory charges you for use and how to estimate what your charges would be based on a few examples.
Why you need to go beyond dynamic data masking
Data masking is defined as replacing sensitive data with a realistic fictional equivalent. But do you know there are 2 key types of Data masking, and what each offer? Join SQLServerCentral Editor, Steve Jones, in this 30-minute webinar to find out more.
Working with MySQL Views
Views in MySQL allow you to save a predefined SQL query. Robert Sheldon explains the benefits of views and how to create and query them.
Virtual Events Are Here To Stay
This week was the MVP Summit. As was the case for the last couple of years, the event was entirely virtual. We were shown a bunch of new and interesting things by Microsoft. We were able to talk to each other and to the engineers at Microsoft. I'm honored that I've been an MVP and […]
Executing Notebooks in a Stored Procedure
Writing notebooks in Azure Data Studio is a great way to keep a number of queries in one place and execute them together. Steve has a way to do this inside a stored procedure.
Power BI in Grafana
An exciting new way of viewing your Power BI visuals. The functionality is a bit limited, but highly desired.
Blogs
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations
Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption
The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
Question of the Day
Symmetric Key Encryption
If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256, KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase', IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value' ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7'; GOSee possible answers