5 Strategies to Refactor SQL Code
Code refactoring is a common process when developing in procedural languages – and essential to developing high-quality code – yet somehow often gets overlooked in SQL.
How Important Are Real Time Decisions?
There has been a push to build real time analytics and decision support systems. Steve discusses whether this is a good idea for many organizations.
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The UNISTR Function
I am not much for working in languages other than English. That's my native language and I know little about others. However, the last few years I find myself using emojis more and more in quick communications as they seem to add some fun to the interaction. And those interactions need to be stored in […]
How to Query JSON Data Quickly in SQL Server, Part 2: SQL Server 2025
SQL Server 2025 and .NET 10 bring several new improvements to storing JSON natively in the database and querying it quickly.
SQL Server Licensing is Simple
Over the years I've had no shortage of licensing questions for SQL Server. At times it's felt a little crazy. Look at the licensing guide. Choose EE or SE and the number of cores. Then check if you're using VMs. Oh, and consider the cloud, and which cloud you're running a workload on. It's simple […]
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 5: Data Growth and Fast Auto-Grow Mechanism
In this level, we learn about the database file size growth in Hyperscale.
SQL Server DBaaS Vulnerability: Decrypting System Code & Exfiltrating User Data
Security in cloud environments is both challenging and fascinating, particularly for Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offerings like Amazon RDS, GCP CloudSQL and Alibaba ApsaraDB RDS. The cloud vendor acts as the system administrator, managing the operating system, patching, and backups, while the user manages their data and databases.
Build a Test Lab of SQL Server 2025 on Windows Server 2025 using Hyper-V Virtual Machines
Create your own test lab on Hyper-V to evaluate SQL Server 2025 and Windows Server 2025
Don't Let Corner Cases Drive Your Design
When we design a database or system, we often do so with corner cases in mind. We don't have to do this.
Troubleshooting Common SQL Server Errors: 823, and 824
Learn about the critical 823 and 824 errors in SQL Server and how to deal with them in this article.
Blogs
Funny Money: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
While wandering around the documentation looking for some Question of the Day topics, I...
Why Database AI Agents need Layers?
By Arun Sirpal
Third part in my Ai series with databases. When building AI solutions within the...
Un-Migrating From the Cloud: T-SQL Tuesday #199
By Steve Jones
This month we have a very interesting invitation from Koen Verbeeck. He has hosted...
Forums
Backup Availability Group
Please I am hoping for some feedback Specifications: Windows Server 2022 SQL Server 2022...
How Do the Experts Become Experts?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Do the Experts Become...
Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 4 – Preparing for Production Deployment
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments...
Question of the Day
Secure Communications
As of June 2026, what is the best version of TLS to use with SQL Server?
See possible answers