Tony Davis

Tony Davis is an Editor with Red Gate Software, based in Cambridge (UK), specializing in databases, and especially SQL Server. He edits articles and writes editorials for both the Simple-talk.com and SQLServerCentral.com websites and newsletters, with a combined audience of over 1.5 million subscribers. You can sample his short-form writing at either his Simple-Talk.com blog or his SQLServerCentral.com author page.

As the editor behind most of the SQL Server books published by Red Gate, he spends much of his time helping others express what they know about SQL Server. He is also the lead author of the book, SQL Server Transaction Log Management.

In his spare time, he enjoys running, football, contemporary fiction and real ale.

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11 August 2016
11 August 2016

Software Animism

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The tendency to attribute malice to inanimate objects is deeply entrenched in the human psyche. In a famous account from Ancient Greek times, a bronze statue caused the death of an angry demonstrator when it toppled onto him while he was whipping it with a flail. The statue was put on trial, found guilty of … Read more
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03 June 2016
03 June 2016

Over-SQL-Engineering

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In a recent blog post, Jonathan Kehayias demonstrates a clever way to “multi-thread” maintenance tasks, when they need to run against very large (i.e. multiple terabyte) databases. The tool he used? Good old-fashioned Service Broker. Simply create some basic Service Broker objects, an activation procedure to automate Ola Hallengren’s maintenance procedures, bind the activation procedure … Read more
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20 May 2016
20 May 2016

SSMS Renaissance

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For many good reasons, DBAs and database developers use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), not SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). It is a great relief for them, after several SQL Server releases-worth of general neglect, to see some renewed developmental vigor behind SSMS. Until the approach of SQL Server 2016, DBAs could have been forgiven … Read more
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05 May 2016
05 May 2016

9 Clickbait Simple Talk Titles You Won’t Believe Exist!

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At Simple-Talk, we specialize in practical, down-to-earth technical articles, and usually choose our titles to match. There’s no mistaking what “Comparing Networking options in Azure“ might be about, for example. Nor is there much room to doubt what’s in store in “Debugging data flow in SQL Server Integration Services“. Are we wrong to be so … Read more
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21 April 2016
21 April 2016

JSON-rise

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Microsoft was slow to meet the demand to be able to store and retrieve data in JSON, the native data format of ubiquitous JavaScript-driven web sites and mobile applications. Its late entry into the market, Azure DocumentDB, still has a lot of ground to make up; in the meantime, MongoDB has managed to fill the … Read more
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11 March 2016
11 March 2016

A Programmer Walks Into a Bar…

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Conference season is upon us. Sessions, hands-on labs, round table debates, so many opportunities for learning! Of course what they don’t admit on the conference websites and brochures is that all the important business at a conference takes place not in the sessions, but at the many impromptu social events, usually at a local ale … Read more
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11 February 2016
11 February 2016

Does Anyone Do This Stuff

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“Does anyone actually do this stuff?” This question came from a member of the audience at one of Brent Ozar’s training classes on SQL Server Database Continuous Integration. Mercifully, plenty of people confirmed in the comments that Database CI was alive and well, which was a relief, since I’d been toiling for several days on … Read more
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14 January 2016
14 January 2016

Real Developer Heroics

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One of the strange paradoxes of team development is that effort beyond the call of duty is generally discouraged. Developers who are new to team working assume that, if they work wonders to solve apparently intractable programming problems in record time, then all around them will smile in gratitude. The instinct to solve problems is … Read more
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31 December 2015
31 December 2015

The Genuine Article

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On Simple-Talk, we try to make sure that Information Technology is presented in an interesting way. We all tend to have more patience with a pedestrian article or blog that has information that solves an immediate problem, and we find the necessary energy to wade through the dull bits to get to the nectar. More … Read more
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18 December 2015
18 December 2015

Workplace Politics

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The IT workplace can often be stressful when untoward things happen. Maybe, it is business managers who demand new platforms, applications, and functionality to support bold new strategic objectives. The IT team, perhaps, begins to crack under pressure of an ever-increasing backlog of work to unrealistic deadlines while somehow holding together a creaking and patched-together … Read more
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03 December 2015
03 December 2015

Squaring the NoSQL Circle

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NoSQL was a bold new revolution. Many of these databases are schema-less, or rather the schema is implicitly defined by the developer, and therefore is flexible and can evolve. NoSQL databases lend themselves to very simple key-value access patterns; there is no need to design complex relations, or perform joins in ‘archaic’ languages such as … Read more
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19 November 2015
19 November 2015

Issue Tracking Systems: Good Servant, Bad Master

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Over time, many bug and issue tracking systems decline into a graveyard for bug-reports, a place where problems are buried rather than resolved. I’m not a developer but even so, any mention of bug-tracking systems elicits unhappy memories. I was once one of the Business ‘stakeholders’ for a system. We performed user-acceptance tests to check … Read more
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14 August 2015
14 August 2015

Basic SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting For Developers

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The speed of a slow SQL Query can almost always be improved. In SQL Server, the query optimizer determines the best way of executing the query, based on the evidence it has. The same query can be executed in many different ways as the data size increases, new indexes become available, or as the data distribution changes. If the appropriate index doesn't exist or can't be used, then SQL Server shrugs and does the best it can. Tony Davis explains how to find out what a query needs to perform w… Read more
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03 July 2015
03 July 2015

The Railmap Towards Easier Query Tuning?

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Recently, I’ve been getting more and more engrossed in SQL Server Execution plans for various reasons, including editing the forthcoming third edition of Grant Fritchey’s book. There are certain infographics that ‘speak’ to everyone. They represent highly complex concepts clearly and unequivocally. Unfortunately, the SQL Server graphical execution plan is not one of them. I … Read more
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