The Rate of Change of Data

Phil Factor argues that the database should be the primary source not only of the current data values, but also of the volatility of the data, its rate of change. Surely, then, it makes sense for the database to control the caching strategy.

Generating Plots Automatically From PowerShell and SQL Server Using Gnuplot

When you are automating a number of tasks, or performing a batch of tests, you want a way of automating the production of your plots and graphs. Nothing beats a good graphical plot for giving the indications of how the process went. If you are using PowerShell and maybe also SQL Server, it pays to use a command-line plotting tool such as Gnuplot to do all the hard work. It turns out to be handy for a range of data jobs, turning PowerShell into a handy data science tool.

Using striped backups with SQL Clone

If you’re a Redgate SQL Backup customer, occasionally you’ll need to convert your SQL Backup (.sqb) files to the native SQL Server backup format (.bak), perhaps to perform native database restores on a server where SQL Backup isn’t installed. This produces a striped backup, because each thread used when making the backup will produce a separate file. Can we use a striped backup produced in this way, or indeed any striped backup, as the source for a SQL Clone image? Short answer: we can! Let’s see how that works.

Do I Need to Learn Linux and R and Python?

The SQL Server platform is growing, but Steve Jones notes that this might not really affect our jobs.

How to deploy a database plus static data using SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare

This article from Tony Davis describes how to the use the Redgate SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare GUIs to get the current version of a database schema, and its static data, into version control, and then automate database deployments from the version control system using SQL Compare's command line and PowerShell.

It’s not you, it’s me (I/O troubleshooting)

Monica Rathburn talks about a few of the more common elements she always checks for when troubleshooting I/O problems.

Audio Attacks

We will start to deal with more and more types of data. Steve Jones worries about the possibility of hacking.

Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse - Part 4

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a new enterprise-class, elastic petabyte-scale, data warehouse service. Join Arshad Ali as he discusses round-robin and distributed tables, and how to create them. He also discusses how partitioning works in SQL Data Warehouse and looks at the impact of choosing the right distribution key. As a bonus Arshad shows you how to leverage PolyBase to quickly and easily import or export data from SQL Data Warehouse.

Training: Zero to BIML

A four-day course aimed at BI developers who want to use Business Intelligence Markup Language (BIML) to generate SQL Server Integration Services packages.

Byte Me: Taking it to the top