In my previous career many years ago, I worked at a hospital along with about ten other pharmacists. The department manager came up with one primary metric for evaluating pharmacists: the average time taken to fill each drug order. While this system did produce a metric, it was the wrong one. The worst pharmacist in … Read more
Microsoft continues to enhance the performance of SQL Server with new features. In this article, Monica Rathbun explains how to work with columnstore indexes, a different way to store tables that can drastically improve the performance of specific workloads.… Read more
There are those who argue that time doesn’t really exist; it’s just an illusion. That debate won’t keep you from storing and manipulating dates and time in SQL Server. In this article, Joe Celko discusses some of the many ways that SQL Server treats temporal data types.… Read more
Some of the terms in the DevOps pipeline, such as CI and CD, can be confusing. In the second article of this series, Robert Sheldon explains these terms and how they fit in the DevOps pipeline. He also talks about some of the tools you might use.… Read more
I was talking recently with a friend about features of SQL Server 2019 (still in CTP at the time of this writing). I thought that while Microsoft provides features that will benefit any size shop, the exciting new feature they are promoting is Big Data Clusters. This feature allows you to query data from many … Read more
Attributes in Unity allow you to add features like strings and menu items to objects. In this article, Lance Talbert shows you how to add attributes that can then be tested while in editing mode. … Read more
Data sources and datasets are critical components of an SSRS report, but many people new to SSRS struggle to understand them. In this article, Kathi Kellenberger shows you how to create these components and explains when they should be shared vs. embedded. … Read more
Many organisations still run their companies on SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2. There are many reasons to upgrade, but the most pressing reason is that extended support has run out. In this article, Brian Kelley explains what this means, tells you about some of the features you’ll gain if you upgrade, and provides some options. … Read more
Importing data from one system to another is a common task for database professionals. It’s possible to spend a lot of time figuring out what the schema should be for the target table. In this article, Rodney Landrum demonstrates an interesting solution to automatically figure out the data types and un-nest delimited data.… Read more
Now that school is out for the summer, my grandson Thomas is spending quite a bit of time at our house. This year his parents decided that, at 12 years old, he was too old to go to a day-care/summer camp program. He will probably take over quite a bit of the yard work and … Read more
Today, more organisations are adopting DevOps over older, traditional practices. In this article, Robert Sheldon explains DevOps and compares it to Waterfall and Agile methodologies. … Read more
In this article, Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman continues teaching SQL Server DBAs how to navigate Linux. She demonstrates usings aliases, setting up environment variables, and examining processes.… Read more
The process of putting together a team of technical people once was largely centered around getting a group of similarly minded people. How people worked was valued more than how well they could accomplish their job. Finding people who could work together smoothly was a big focus when picking new team members, and was a … Read more
There is quite a bit of suffering within tech and caused by tech, from poorly commented code to shaming someone who asks a question on a forum. In this article, Samuel Nitsche explains why compassionate coding is a better way to go. … Read more
A level in a game is the player’s world. It’s possible to create levels that the player can manipulate. In this article, Lance Talbert shows you how to create a project that gives the player the ability to make changes to the level.… Read more
In this article, Kathi Kellenberger demonstrates how to create a project and report using the SSRS Report Wizard. The wizard is fine for getting started, but you’ll soon learn about its many limitations. She also explains how reports fit in projects and solutions.… Read more
As database changes are added to the DevOps pipeline, unit testing of those changes becomes crucial. In this article, Adam Hafner describes unit testing and how it applies to databases.… Read more
SQL Server has many tools used to make it secure. In this article, Robert Sheldon demonstrates several of these features including SQL Server Configuration Manager and the Vulnerability Assessment tool.… Read more
We humans have been the most successful animals on earth. We’ve accomplished this by changing the environment to suit our needs instead of always adapting ourselves to fit the environment. We use tools, we invent, and we solve problems. Of course, many other species use crude tools, but none have done anything like inventing computers, … Read more
Power BI is an excellent tool for departments or small organisations getting started with their BI solution. Unless some time is spent organising the solution, however, it can become cluttered. In this article, Gogula Aryalingam explains how to streamline the solution to keep it organized and efficient. … Read more
Compliant Database DevOps
