Always Abstract
When developing your code, should you use views? There are reasons why you might choose to do so, or not do so, however Steve Jones thinks you should consider abstracting your systems.
News From EAP Testing
Jonathan Allen takes a peak at the EAP release of SQL Prompt 6 and some of the cool new things you can do to speed up writing SQL.
Guidance
When you are looking to help someone improve performance on a system, there isn't a single set of steps you provide. The advice and guidance you provide will vary, depending on the situation.
Upgrading the GIS application and database.
In this article I will mention a specific issue that I experienced during my last GIS application and database upgrade.
Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2012
The columnstore index in SQL Server 2012 stores columns instead of rows, and is designed to speed up analytical processing and data-warehouse queries. Whilst columnstore indexes certainly do that effectively, they are not a universal panacea since there are a number of limitations on them. When used appropriately, they can reduce disk I/O and use memory more efficiently.
New SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Untrusted Foreign Keys
A foreign key points to a primary key that must exist in another table, for example, column X in Table 1 must also be present in Table 2. The key protects this link, and only valid data can be inserted in the foreign key column. An untrusted foreign key may threaten a database’s referential and data integrity.
SQL in the City Seminar Denver 2013 – SQL Development Seminar
Join Red Gate for a free seminar on September 27 (the day before SQL Saturday Denver). Steve Jones, SQL Server MVP and editor-in-chief of SQLServerCentral.com, will present best practices for SQL Server database development, in addition to showing Red Gate tools in action.
Implementing, loading and optimizing a Type 2 Slowly Changing Fact Table
This article shows how to implement a Slowly Changing Facts Table, how to overcome the problems encountered when using the MERGE statement to process the data and suggest a minimal set of indexes to aid data loading and quering.
The End of Privacy: Tragically Comical Edition
It’s hard to avoid privacy-based stories at the moment, with growing concern over government snooping and the limits of power. But where I’m based, in the UK, there’s a new, fully-privatised invasion of privacy. One marketing company has created an outdoor wi-fi basestation that grabs your phone’s MAC address as you pass, with the idea […]
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services Partitioning Performance Demonstration
How much of an improvement in processing time can a simple SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) partitioning structure provide? Can you provide any examples? Does this processing time improvement only apply to the fact tables? Check out this tip to learn more.
Blogs
Why Database AI Agents need Layers?
By Arun Sirpal
Third part in my Ai series with databases. When building AI solutions within the...
Un-Migrating From the Cloud: T-SQL Tuesday #199
By Steve Jones
This month we have a very interesting invitation from Koen Verbeeck. He has hosted...
T-SQL Tuesday #199: Back to the on-prem
It’s the second tuesday of the month, which means T-SQL Tuesday time! This month’s...
Forums
How Do the Experts Become Experts?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Do the Experts Become...
Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 4 – Preparing for Production Deployment
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments...
Secure Communications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Secure Communications
Question of the Day
Secure Communications
As of June 2026, what is the best version of TLS to use with SQL Server?
See possible answers