The 2013 Tribal Awards
The inaugural 2013 Tribal Awards kick off today and Steve Jones has a few thoughts.
SQL Server Database Backup and Restore with Windows Azure Blob Storage Cloud Services using T-SQL Commands
SQL Server 2012 introduces a new feature to issues backups on the Windows Azure Blob Storage service directly and restore from there when needed. But how does it work and how to get started using T-SQL commands for backup and restore operation?
What is a Database Administrator today?
Today we have a guest editorial from Jim Youmans that asks "what does it mean to be a DBA today?"
Cloud Services for the DBA
A critical part of any DBA's role is implementing the systems that will improve in the long term their organization's guardianship, use and understanding of its data. Too often, however, this gets lost in the fog of immediate and urgent tasks. Gareth Marlow explains why he believes Cloud services will play an increasingly prominent role in helping DBAs achieve their strategic goals.
Partitioned Views
A look at Partitioned Views, their advantages, disadvantages backed up by examples and statistics.
SQLServerCentral apologizes and you can win a book
After a plagiarized article this week, a content for you.
SQL Server Database RESTORE WITH MOVE or not WITH MOVE
Mike Eastland frequently restores production databases to various development servers. The drive layouts between the servers are almost never the same. He is constantly shuffling files on his development servers due to space constraints, which in turn breaks the automated restore scripts because the MOVE clauses are invalidated. Does he have to use the MOVE clause every time he does a restore?
Competition or Cooperation
Would you rather work with people, or compete with them? Steve Jones has comments on the Microsoft Stack Ranking system that seems to encourage the latter.
Getting Started with Microsoft Power Query for Excel
Power Query, provided as part of Microsoft Power BI self-service solution, is an Excel add-in that can be used for data discovery, reshaping the data and combining data coming from different sources. Power Query is one of Excel add-ins. Read on to learn how to install and get started using it.
Blogs
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes
How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Upgrading Admin Queries
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers