External Article

Deleting Files in the Cloud

The public perception is that, when something is deleted, it no longer exists. Often that's not really the case; the data you serve up to the cloud can be stored out there indefinitely, no matter how hard to try to delete it. Rob Sheldon investigates, and finds the cloud a worryingly public place.

Technical Article

SQL Saturday #337 - Portland, OR

SQL Saturday is coming to Portland on November 1! Join us for a free day of SQL Server training and networking. Speakers at this event include Red Gate's Grant Fritchey, Kathi Kellenberger, Benjamin Nevarez, and more. There are also 3 paid-for pre-con sessions for this event. Register while space is available.

External Article

Improving the Quality of SQL Server Database Connections in the Cloud

To access SQL Server from the client, you use TDS protocol over TCP. This is fine over reliable LANs but over the internet these connections are relatively slow and fragile. TDS is still used to connect to databases in the cloud, but you need to use a combination of the new features such as connection pools and idle connection resiliency to make applications faster and more reliable. Edward Elliott shows you how.

Blogs

Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents

By

A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...

Car Update: August 2026

By

It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...

Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To

By

An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires

By Pat Wright

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires

Backing Up a DMK

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK

The Quiet Part

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Backing Up a DMK

In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?

See possible answers