Pros and Cons of Database Sharding for Performance and Maintenance
Large databases usually have a negative impact on maintenance time, scalability and query performance. For maintenance, these large single databases have to be backed up daily while the amount of actual changing data might be small. For performance, tables without correct indexes result in full table or clustered index scans. As the data grows the total query time increase linearly. How can we decrease downtime for the maintenance window for large databases and optimize the performance of daily queries?
The SQL Server 2016 Plan
Steve notes SQL Server 2016 went out of support this past week. What are you plans if you run this version?
Implicit Conversions Cripple SQL Server
Learn about implicit conversions, which can dramatically affect the performance of your workload.
The Mythical Bus Accident
Preparing for disaster is important, both at work and in your personal life.
Vector search in SQL Server: VECTOR_DISTANCE, VECTOR_SEARCH, and index trade-offs
Learn how to use VECTOR_DISTANCE and VECTOR_SEARCH in SQL Server to find semantically similar data.
A Security and AI Fail
Security is an important consideration for anyone working with data, but it's especially a concern with AI.
How Clustering can be Used as a Preprocessing Technique for Classification in Azure Machine Learning
Learn about using classification as a technique to prepare your data for additional machine learning analysis.
Confession Time: I Never Taught You About B-Trees.
I work with databases for a living. I teach people, and I help them via consulting. And as far as I can remember, I’ve never written something about how b-trees work.
It’s 2026. Why are databases still failing GDPR compliance audits?
This article examines three recurring database-layer failures documented in the EDPB’s 2026 enforcement findings: the complexity of executing erasure across relational schemas, the backup paradox that can silently undo compliant deletions, and the audit log contradiction that traps organizations between two competing obligations.
Blogs
A New Word: Gnossienne
By Steve Jones
gnossienne– n. the awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private...
Exploring DiskANN: Part I: Understanding the Algorithm before the disk
How I used AI for this postChatGPT to generate images based on info specifically...
Learning Tool – Deepstash
By Brian Kelley
A few months ago I started using Deepstash. Deepstash breaks books into the key...
Forums
When the Token Meter is Zero
Comments posted to this topic are about the item When the Token Meter is...
Understanding Temp Tables and Table Variables in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Understanding Temp Tables and Table...
The Data API Builder MCP Server Tools
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Data API Builder MCP...
Question of the Day
The Data API Builder MCP Server Tools
The Data API Builder MCP Server, v2.x, includes a number of tools. What actions can these tools perform in your database?
See possible answers