Robert Sheldon

Robert is a freelance technology writer based in the Pacific Northwest. He’s worked as a technical consultant and has written hundreds of articles about technology for both print and online publications, with topics ranging from predictive analytics to 5D storage to the dark web. He’s also contributed to over a dozen books on technology, developed courseware for Microsoft’s training program, and served as a developmental editor on Microsoft certification exams. When not writing about technology, he’s working on a novel or venturing out into the spectacular Northwest woods.

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09 March 2016
09 March 2016

SQL Server Metadata Functions: The Basics

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To be able to make full use of the system catalog to find out more about a database, you need to be familiar with the metadata functions. They save a great deal of time and typing when querying the metadata. Once you get the hang of these functions, the system catalog suddenly seems simple to use, as Robert Sheldon demonstrates in this article.… Read more
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08 February 2016
08 February 2016

Five Online Database Modelling Services

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To design, or redesign, a database of any complexity, the Entity-Relationship modelling tool becomes essential. The specialized tools that have dominated the industry for a long while are expensive and are installed on a workstation. Now that browser technology has progressed so rapidly, the online database modelling tools have become viable and are starting to attract the attention of database designers. Are they good enough to use now? Robert Sheldon finds out.… Read more
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27 January 2016
27 January 2016

SQL Server System Views: The Basics

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When maintaining or refactoring an unfamiliar database, you'll need a fast way to uncover all sorts of facts about the database, its tables, columns keys and indexes. SQL Server's plethora of system catalog views, INFORMATION_SCHEMA views, and dynamic management views contain all the metadata you need, but it isn't always obvious which views are best to use for which sort of information. Many of us could do with a simple explanation, and who better to provide one than Rob Sheldon?… Read more
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09 November 2015
09 November 2015

The Logical Data Warehouse – Towards a Single View of All the Data

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What is wrong with the Enterprise Data Warehouse? Quite a lot, it seems. By taking the narrow view that the struggle is that of accommodating and interrogating huge quantities of data, then initiatives such as the Virtual Data Warehouse and Logical Data Warehouse could make sense. But what about data quality, security, access control, archiving, retention, privacy and regulatory compliance?… Read more
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03 September 2015
03 September 2015

OpenStack: The Good and Not-So-Good Bits

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OpenStack holds a great deal of promise as a cloud platform built on open standards, and has support from the major players in cloud services. It has the potential for allowing organisations to set up their own private cloud services that are designed to inter-operate. Is it ready yet for companies that want the convenience of cloud solutions, but with more control, and without the large subscription fees? Robert Sheldon finds out.… Read more
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27 July 2015
27 July 2015

The Evolution of SQL Server BI

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It is sometimes hard to keep up with Microsoft's direction in Business Intelligence. Over the years, we've been presented with so many ways of aggregating, processing, graphing, reporting and visualising data, that we felt it was time to take stock and present the Simple BI Timeline, and explain how BI has evolved over the years.… Read more
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28 May 2015
28 May 2015

How to Get SQL Server Dates and Times Horribly Wrong

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One of the times that you need things to go right is when you are doing analysis and reporting. This is generally based on time and date. A sure-fire way of getting managers upset is to get the figures horribly wrong by messing up the way that you handle datetime values in SQL Server. In the interests of peace, harmony and a long career in BI, Robert Sheldon outlines some of the worst mistakes you can make when using SQL Server dates.… Read more
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29 April 2015
29 April 2015

How to Get SQL Server Security Horribly Wrong

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It is no good doing some or most of the aspects of SQL Server security right. You have to get them all right, because any effective penetration of your security is likely to spell disaster. If you fail in any of the ways that Robert Sheldon lists and describes, then you can't assume that your data is secure, and things are likely to go horribly wrong.… Read more
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13 April 2015
13 April 2015

Microservices in Promise and Practice

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Are microservices the cure for the ague of monolithic applications, or do they bring their own problems with them that monolithic architectures have circumvented? Are they capable of delivering applications that are easier to maintain and develop? How can they avoid the failings of service-oriented architectures? Once more, Robert Sheldon gets to the heart of the technical issues.… Read more
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02 April 2015
02 April 2015

How to Get SQL Server Data-Conversion Horribly Wrong

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One of the most certain ways of going wrong with any relational database is to get data conversion wrong. Implicit data conversion is a good feature for the expert but can cause a lot of trouble to the unwary. These boil down to seven ways of failing to get data conversion right. Rob Sheldon explains and gives sage advice on how to avoid the problems… Read more
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10 March 2015
10 March 2015

The Internet of Things: A New World Order?

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Was the marketing hook 'The Internet of Things' conjured up before the technical definition? Are we being persuaded to spend money on fending off yet another fantasy tsunami of data? Already, we have televisions that listen to, and report, your conversations; so are we facing the Science Fiction future of gadgets that report where you go, who you visit and what medications you take? As Robert Sheldon says; "It's big, almost too big to get your arms around"… Read more
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11 February 2015
11 February 2015

Application Containers For Cloud Computing

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Containers promise to make applications more portable and efficient. The technology, originally based on Linux's cgroups, provides a way of running several applications as modular, platform-agnostic packages in isolation on the same server. Docker's open-source approach to containers has dominated the market, and Microsoft is producing its own equivalent Windows system. What next? Will Containers replace VMS? Robert Sheldon investigates.… Read more
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26 January 2015
26 January 2015

Questions About T-SQL Control-of-Flow Language You Were Too Shy to Ask

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Surely, we all know how T-SQL Control-of-flow language works? In fact it is surprisingly easy to get caught out. What, for example, do the BREAK, RETURN and CONTINUE keywords do, precisely, in their various contexts? the answers to this and other questions aren't all entirely obvious, but we're too shy to ask them in public, and risk displaying our ignorance.… Read more
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