Kathi Kellenberger

Kathi Kellenberger is the Editor of Simple Talk and a Microsoft Data Platform MVP. She has worked with SQL Server for over 20 years and has authored, co-authored, or tech edited over a dozen technical books. Kathi is the co-leader of the PASS Women in Technology Virtual Group and a volunteer at LaunchCode. When Kathi isn’t working she enjoys spending time with family and friends, cycling, singing, and climbing the stairs of tall buildings. Be sure to check out her courses on Pluralsight.

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Kathi Kellenberger 06 October 2019

Lessons Learned From Modelling Clay

Editorials

I never allowed my children play with modelling clay in my home when they were young, but changed my mind when grandchildren arrived. I have the perfect table, a discarded fast food restaurant booth, so that the mess stays in one spot. There is one sturdy box to hold all the cans of dough and … Read more

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 01 October 2019

Reporting Services Basics: Adding Groups to Reports

Most SSRS reports are organized into grouping levels where it’s possible to add totals for each group. In this article, Kathi Kellenberger continues her SSRS series by walking through how to create both a Matrix and Table report. … Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 11 September 2019

The Data-Philes Team Meet the Time Traveler

The year is 1999, somewhere in Cambridge, UK. Kathi, a member of the Data-Philes team, is reading a memo sent from her manager. The memo talks about someone who disrupted a project management meeting in London. He claims he is from 20 years in the future. Chris walks in. Chris: Kathi, have you seen the … Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 27 August 2019

SQL in the City Streamed next week!

Blogs

I don’t know when I first heard about Redgate, but it might have been in 2005 when Steve Jones asked me to review their product, SQL Backup, for SQL Server Central. It was quite the coincidence when my manager asked me a few weeks later if I had heard of SQL Backup and would I … Read more

Blogs

Kathi Kellenberger 21 August 2019

Goodbye to the Microsoft Professional Program

I’ve worked with Microsoft technologies for over 20 years and, during that time, earned a good income to support my family and have a comfortable life. Despite that, Microsoft manages to break my heart again and again. Take the sad saga of the Windows Phone. I was working for Microsoft when the first Windows Phones … Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 12 August 2019

Hiding What You Shouldn’t See

Editorials

Back when I was working on a master’s degree, one of our professors told us a story about a colleague who learned how to navigate the Unix system. She was so thrilled about learning this new skill that, in her exuberance, she stumbled upon some hidden human resource files containing confidential information. Eventually, an administrator … Read more

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 02 August 2019

Reporting Services Basics: Parameters

Kathi Kellenberger continues her series on SSRS. In this article you learn how to use parameters that let your report users control how the reports are filtered.… Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 23 July 2019

Measuring the Right Things

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

Kathi Kellenberger 10 July 2019

SQL Server 2019: Features for the Rest of Us

Editorials

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

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 05 July 2019

Reporting Services Basics: Understanding Data Sources and Datasets

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

Kathi Kellenberger 20 June 2019

The State of SQL Server Monitoring 2019

Blogs

UPDATE: Read the full report here. Recently, over 800 participants across a range of sectors and from all around the globe took part in a survey about the state of SQL Server monitoring. This survey from Redgate Software is the only one of its kind and is in its second year. Here are some significant … Read more

Blogs

Kathi Kellenberger 19 June 2019

Keeping Kids Busy During Long School Breaks

Editorials

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

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 30 May 2019

Reporting Services Basics: Creating Your First Report

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

Kathi Kellenberger 28 May 2019

Innovation: A Double-edged Sword

Editorials

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

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 09 May 2019

Why DBAs Must Embrace DevOps

A good day for a database administrator (DBA) is a lot like a good airline flight. A lot of excitement in either situation is bad. In a perfect world, a DBA will be productive and not spending most of their time “putting out fires.” (And fires are never a good idea on a flight!) DBAs … Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 17 April 2019

The Future of Medicine

Editorials

If you are a Star Trek fan, you’ve seen the future of medicine, or at least how the writers imagine it will be. Painless, needleless injections are given by hypospray devices, right through clothing with no chance of cross-contamination. The medical tricorder provides an accurate diagnosis in seconds. Broken bones, illnesses, and injuries are quickly … Read more

Editorials

Kathi Kellenberger 08 April 2019

Reporting Services Basics: Overview and Installation

SQL Server Reporting Services has changed quite a bit since it was introduced in 2004. Despite new analytic services like Power BI, SSRS is still a popular tool for paginated reports. In this article, Kathi Kellenberger explains the architecture of SSRS and walks you through installing an SSRS development environment on your workstation or laptop.… Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 03 April 2019

Scary Stories from the Trenches

If you have worked with databases long enough, you probably have many frightening stories to tell about things that have gone awry on the job or problems that were difficult to solve. Accidently dropping a table or trying to fix an issue with the CIO standing right in your cube, repeatedly asking if you’ve fixed … Read more

Kathi Kellenberger 12 March 2019

Help Shape the Future of SQL Monitor

Blogs

Each year, Redgate runs a survey to ask the folks at companies, from DBAs and Devs to CIOs, about how they monitor SQL Server. Those insights help us understand how we can make SQL Monitor more valuable to DBAs – or anyone responsible for the “care and feeding” of a SQL Server. The Estate Management … Read more

Blogs

Kathi Kellenberger 04 March 2019

Celebrating Women in Tech

Editorials

NASA recently named a facility in honour of Katherine Johnson, the mathematician who performed the calculations for space flights in the 50s and 60s. She was one of the “human computers” whose stories were made famous by the movie Hidden Figures just a few years ago. Until that movie was released, the contributions of these … Read more

Editorials

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