Stairway to Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database is Microsoft’s fully managed cloud relational database service in Microsoft Azure. With many companies moving to cloud based solutions Azure SQL Database is a leading option for the data tier that many consider.

The aim of this stairway course is to give you a comprehensive practical guide on how to begin creating Azure SQL Databases whilst trying to convey some very important practical knowledge on the way. This stairway course assumes that you have absolutely no knowledge of Azure and after completing it you will become comfortable with creating logical SQL servers, databases, correct security configuration around firewalls and logins hence allowing you to connect to the database via SQL Server Management Studio.

Stairway to Machine Learning Services

This is a series designed to help you learn more about Machine Learning Services using both R and Python. We will cover the architecture, installation, configuration, and use of Machine Learning Services to run complex analysis on your data.

Stairway to Row-Level Security

This series looks at row based access control in SQL Server 2016+ as implemented in the Row-Level Security feature.

Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata

In addition to the data that our clients and customers store in a database, there is a tremendous amount of meta data, 'data about data', that describes how the database is set up, configured, and what the properties are for the various objects. This stairway aims to demystify and explain how you can query and use this meta data to more effectively manage your SQL Server Databases.

Stairway to U-SQL

As Microsoft continues to expand the Azure platform, they have enhanced its ability in ways that are quite different from what we've come to expect from SQL Server. Learn about the new language from Microsoft, U-SQL, designed to work with Data Lakes and Big Data in Azure.

Stairway to Dynamic Data Masking

This stairway will examine Dynamic Data Data Masking, introduced in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2016. This should allow you to implement Dynamic Data Masking in your application, understanding the implications of the various masks used on different datatypes.

Stairway to SQL Server Extended Events

Erin Stellato, a Principal Consultant with SQLskills.com, explores the use of Extended Events as a diagnostic data collection tool or SQL Server. She describes how to define efficient low-overhead event sessions that exploit fully the vast number of events, as well as the powerful filtering and data collection options, offered by this new event collection infrastructure. She also demonstrates simple techniques to analyze event data and identify and troubleshoot the causes of poor SQL Server performance, such as long-running queries that consume vast amounts of CPU and I/O resources. It is time to embrace Extended Events and understand all that it has to offer, and Erin's stairway is the perfect place to start.

Stairway to Columnstore Indexes

SQL Server 2012 and later offer a very different type of index from the traditional b-tree, the in-memory columnstore index. These indexes use a column-based storage model, as well as a new 'batch mode' of query execution and can offer huge performance increases for certain workloads. But how are they built, how do they work, and why do they manage to have such a dramatic impact on performance? In this stairway, Hugo Kornelis explains all, with his usual mix of concise description and detailed demonstration.

Stairway to Advanced T-SQL

This stairway will contain a series of articles that will expand on the T-SQL foundation that you learned in the prior two T-SQL stairways, Stairway to T-SQL DML and T-SQL Beyond the Basics. This stairway should help readers prepare for passing the Microsoft Certification exam 70-461: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

Stairway to SQL Server Virtualization

Virtualization is becoming more and more common, and without an understanding how virtualization works, the DBA will have blind spots when attempting to resolving performance issues, such as reduce resource contention, or improve the backup and restore operations, and so on.