SQL Server 2016 : In-Memory OLTP Enhancements
Aaron Bertrand takes a look at the changes in store for In-Memory OLTP (the feature formerly known as "Hekaton").
Automate Your Backup and Restore Tasks
A new article that shows how you can automate a basic function that many environments need: the backup of a production database and the restore on a development system.
Solve Common SQL Server Restore Issues
Understanding backup and restore processes is essential for developers and DBAs to be more confident when dealing with uncommon situations and having the ability to suggest flexible solutions related to these processes. In this article, Sergey Gigoyan answers some key questions relating to backup and restore.
Declarative SQL: Using UNIQUE Constraints
In SQL, you can express the logic of what you want to accomplish without spelling out the details of how the database should do it. Nowhere is this more powerful than in constraints. In this introduction to Declarative SQL, Joe Celko demonstrates how you can write portable code that performs well and executes some complex logic, merely by creating unique constraints.
Security Decisions
This week Steve Jones looks at how we make secutiy decisions for our systems, and whether this is really the best way to do things.
Exploration of SQL Server 2016 Always Encrypted – Part 1
With the introduction of SQL Server 2016 you now have a new way to encrypt columns called Always Encrypted. With Always Encrypted, data is encrypted at the application layer via ADO.NET. This means you can encrypt your confidential data with your .NET application prior to the data being sent across the network to SQL Server. In this article, Greg Larson explains his experience with exploring setting up a table that stores always encrypted data.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Respect
By Steve Jones
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” –...
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation...
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
locking down agent for new user on our dev machine
hi , a new user wants to be able to add sql agent jobs...
SQL Server Enum Implementation: A Single-Row View Strategy for Avoiding Magic Values
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Enum Implementation: A...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT I
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37What is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 3;See possible answers