Taking Stock of Your Career

With almost a quarter of 2020 gone, Steve notes it's be time to stock of your career.

Making SQL Server Function Changes Backwards Compatible

Tagging SQL Server Changes in SQL Monitor

How to use RAISERROR() in T-SQL to send annotations to SQL Monitor, so you can observe the direct impact of application tasks, or server changes, on the SQL Server metrics.

A Data Controversy

A request to rapidly gather data caused some friction recently. Is that something that organizations ought to be prepared to handle?

Evaluating SQL Data Catalog using Docker Containers

Richard Macaskill shows how to use Docker Compose to get SQL Data Catalog up and running in a container, in your SQL Server test lab, and then use it to evaluate its data discovery and categorization capabilities on a containerized SQL Server instance.

Virtual Reality

While we are centuries away from the Holodeck experience, we can take advantage of today’s technology for fun or education.

The Challenge of Contracting

The nature of work might be changing, and Steve has a few thoughts on thinking about your job as always contracting.

Storage 101: Understanding the NAND Flash Solid State Drive

Today, most organization are using solid-state drives for everything from laptops to enterprise database storage and virtual machines. In this article, Robert Sheldon explains how NAND flash solid-state drives work.

Using SQL Monitor Groups in PowerShell

Not only are SQL Monitor Groups probably the neatest and most maintainable way of ensuring that all your SQL Servers have the best possible configuration of alerts, but they represent a powerful way of categorizing your SQL Server estate. In this article, I'll show how to use the SQL Monitor PowerShell API to export these groups, save their settings onto a configuration management system, or compare groups of settings to see the differences between them.

Creating SQL containers on Azure Data Studio Notebooks with Python

Carlos Robles explains how to use Azure Data Studio Notebooks to create SQL containers with Python.