When developing software, it makes sense to 'fail early, fail often'; to become aware of mistakes quickly and to learn from them. This means being able to deliver software as early in development as possible. This makes it easier to gather opinions and promote discussions with the people who would want to use the application; and then respond to the feedback. … Read more
One of the greatest pain-points in developing a database-driven application happens when the application is in source control,but the database isn't. When the development database is shared, the pain increases, and it is not alleviated by source control alone. Troy Hunt spells out why each database developer must have their own version of the database.
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Grant Fritchey, The Scary DBA, has now taken the leap from being a Simple-Talk author and FoRG(Friend of Red Gate) to being employed by Red Gate as 'product evangelist'. As Bob Cramblitt finds out, it means that Grant gets more time to do what he enjoys doing; talking and writing about SQL Server topics that fascinate him, such as query tuning, execution plans, performance monitoring and backups.
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Bad things tend to happen to developments where the scripts for the database layer are left out of source control. Now that we have the means to do it properly, there are many reasons to make the database an equal partner in the development process. Troy discusses some of those reasons.
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SQL Storage Compress does just that, and encrypts as well, allowing the files associated with a live database to take much less file-space, and securing them from unauthorised access. Why would this be useful, and is it really a free lunch? Brad puts it to the test to find out.
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As a dedicated 'twitcher', Michael's eye is caught by a 'tweet' from Red Jungle. In this case, it was not an exotic species, but a user of SQL Source Control who was pleased with the way that it had saved them considerable time in the development process. Out of curiosity, Michael contacted them to find out more.
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In the first of a series of in-depth software reviews, Brad investigates a newcomer, SQL Virtual Restore. What does it aim to do? How does it achieve it? Why is it safe to use? What are the benefits? Brad aims to answer a range of questions fairly and squarely.… Read more
Sean Duffy, always keen to be on the cutting edge of making his job as a production SysAdmin as painless as possible, puts V3.0 of Red Gate's Exchange Server Archiver through its paces. His verdict: an impressive and transparent tool for managing your Exchange environment.… Read more
If you could design an Exchange email archiver from scratch, what would you do differently and how would you bring it to maturity? Bob Cramblitt talks with three principals from the new Exchange Server Archiver 3.0 development team and gets the inside story on the soul of a new archiver.… Read more
Red Gate Software's approach to testing is famous for its precision and thoroughness. So what's it like to be a tester in such an exacting environment? David Atkinson, Red Gate's test manager, gives us a glimpse behind the scenes.… Read more
