Annette Allen 17 March 2021

What a year for the Technical Community

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The last year hasn’t been easy and most of us, especially in the IT world, have learnt to exist inside our own 4 walls. One thing that has kept my husband and I (we are both DBA’s!) going is the data platform community. The community has given me so much over the years, the satisfaction … Read more

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Annette Allen 07 May 2020

Isn’t the technical Community great?!!

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With everything that’s been going on in the world recently and all events being cancelled or postponed you might mistakenly think that people’s ability to learn and stay in touch would dissipate. You couldn’t be more wrong. User Group Meetup Hub I am the UK Regional Mentor for PASS which means that I’m the go-to … Read more

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Annette Allen 18 February 2020

Women in Tech – where are you?

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That’s a strange title I hear you say but it’s an honest question. I’ve worked in IT now for over 20 years and have got used to working in an office full of men. In my current role out of about 10 members of the technical team there are 2 of us which, makes it … Read more

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Annette Allen 11 December 2019

Service Pack – Fix Missing MSI issue

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You know what it’s like, you are running a service pack on SQL Server and 99.9% of the time it all runs smoothly but that odd 0.1% of the time when it doesn’t is usually in the middle of the night with no one around to call on. Well to spare you some pain I’ve … Read more

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Annette Allen 10 March 2019

SQLBits and Data in Devon 2019

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This is my first blog in a while and I’m sorry it’s not a technical one. You may be aware but I’m one of the SQLBits organisers which means that for the last few months all my spare time has been devoted to SQLBits organisation. We were really pleased with how the event went and … Read more

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Annette Allen 12 July 2018

I’m presenting this year

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This year I decided that I wanted to give more back to the community in the way of sharing my (limited) knowledge. The first thing I did was talk to the folks at Redgate and started blogging. I haven’t presented a session for a while because I’m usually too busy organising events but I decided … Read more

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Annette Allen 20 June 2018

Building a SQL Azure Database from TeamCity

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I’m in the process of setting up a new environment using Azure SQL Databases, previously in Azure we’ve just used an Azure VM with SQL Server on it. I’m also fairly new to setting up a Continuous Integration environment and in-house we use Team City, so in this blog and probably the next few I’m going … Read more

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Annette Allen 10 June 2018

Installing and setting up TeamCity

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I’ve just started a project where I’ve had to set up Team City from scratch. Whilst I’ve used Team City extensively I’ve never had to start from the beginning, so I thought I’d document the steps I took. TeamCity is a Continuous Integration tool is free to use for small teams. It connects to your … Read more

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Annette Allen 20 May 2018

My thoughts from Redgate’s SQL Privacy Summit

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Last Friday (18th May 18) I attended Redgate’s SQL Privacy Summit in London. Before I go any further, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m based in the UK so GDPR is very much in the forefront of our minds and I am a Friend of Redgate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend all day … Read more

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Annette Allen 14 May 2018

When is good enough, good enough?

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Currently the project I’m working on is using Azure’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and we want to move to using Azure SQL Database on Platform as a Service (PaaS). The one thing stopping us doing that was cross database scripting, known in Azure terms as an Elastic Query. Before we agreed the move to … Read more

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Annette Allen 11 May 2018

GDPR – What do we need to know?

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On 25th May GDPR comes into force. I’ve been learning everything I can about GDPR to ensure my systems adhere to the regulations and will be attending Redgate’s SQL Privacy summit, details and registration here on Friday 18th May in London . However I’ve been really shocked at the amount of developers I know who … Read more

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Annette Allen 07 May 2018

I’m speaking at SQL GLA

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I am one of the organisers of SQLBits and this year we decided to make some real effort with the Community Corner. Craig Porteous (@CPorteous) happened to offer to help at a time when we were considering how to make that happen. Craig runs Glasgow User Group and SQL GLA which ran for the first … Read more

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Annette Allen 05 May 2018

Who comments code?

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I am a firm advocate of commenting code, but you need to make sure that you are commenting the right thing. I worked on a project last year and then the project was paused. I’m now back on it full time, some 6 months later. I wrote most of the database code and all calls … Read more

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Annette Allen 03 May 2018

I’m finally blogging

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I have finally decided to start blogging and Redgate have kindly given me a platform to do it. So, what am I going to blog about? Well pretty much anything and everything that I come across that is vaguely SQL Server related. Hopefully a lot of Azure content while I’m getting to grips with it. … Read more

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Annette Allen 16 October 2013

SSIS Basics: Using the Merge Join Transformation

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SSIS is able to take sorted data from more than one OLE DB data source and merge them into one table which can then be sent to an OLE DB destination. This 'Merge Join' transformation works in a similar way to a SQL join by specifying a 'join key' relationship. This transformation can save a great deal of processing on the destination. Annette Allen, as usual, gives clear guidance on how to do it.… Read more

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Annette Allen 28 January 2013

SSIS Basics: Using the Conditional Split

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The Conditional Split can route data rows to different outputs depending on whatever criteria of the data that you wish. It works rather like the SWITCH block in a procedural language. Annette shows how to add a conditional split to your data flow.… Read more

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Annette Allen 27 November 2012

SSIS BASICS: Introducing the Foreach Loop Container

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The Control flow components of SSIS can cause a great deal of puzzlement to anyone learning SSIS, especially the Foreach Loop. Annette continues her popular 'Basics' series by showing how to use the Foreach Loop container for copying files.… Read more

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Annette Allen 23 October 2012

SSIS Basics: Using the Execute SQL Task to Generate Result Sets

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The Execute SQL Task of SSIS is extraordinarily useful, but it can cause a lot of difficulty for developers learning SSIS, or only using it occasionally. What it needed, we felt, was a clear step-by-step guide that showed the basics of how to use it effectively. Annette has once again cleared the fog of confusion… Read more

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Annette Allen 08 August 2012

SSIS Basics: Introducing Variables

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In the third of her SSIS Basics articles, Annette Allen shows you how to use Variables in your SSIS Packages, and explains the functions of the system-defined variables.… Read more

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Annette Allen 12 June 2012

SSIS Basics: Adding Data Flow to Your Package

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Annette continues her popular series for SSIS beginners by showing how a data flow task can be used in a package to move data from a SQL Server database to an Excel file and insert an additional column into the Excel file that's based on derived data.… Read more

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