Blogs

The best bit about SQL Saturdays: nearly everyone interacts with other people

May 21, 2019

Today I was looped in on an email thread about the pros and cons of attending a specific event. One person on the thread asked if any of us had attended the event in the past, and whether or not event attendees were engaged with presenters and vendor representatives.

My immediate thought was: of course the attendees were engaged, because the event is a SQL Saturday. I’ve never been to a SQL Saturday where the attendees weren’t engaged.

But, I realized that it’s a fair question.

How to recognize the early stages of burnout, and my treatment plan

in sql

May 14, 2019

I recently realized that I’m in the early stages of burnout.

Paying down technical debt

in devops, sql

May 7, 2019

One of the cool things that I do as an Evangelist at Redgate is to periodically visit company headquarters in Cambridge. The other Evangelists and I get to meet with every software developer, product manager, and UX designer at Redgate over a series of meetings. That’s really cool. We talk about things that they’ve released lately, what they’re looking at doing in the near future, and we get to give feedback based on what we hear from the community and from folks in the sales process. We also get to share what we personally think should happen in these products now.

What is Automation?

in devops

April 29, 2019

Today I got a bit closer to a meaningful definition of automation, as it applies to the software development process. I’ve been turning this concept over in my head for a while, which is partly related to the dreaded question of licensing.

Should release cadence be slow if you do not have database load testing?

in devops, performance-tuning

April 23, 2019

I got a question recently about a panel discussion on Database Development Disasters at SQL in the City Streamed. I had framed a question as, “how fast should development go without load or performance testing?”

Upcoming full day training: How to Architect Successful Database Changes

in sql

April 19, 2019

I’m excited to be teaching a full day session with Steve Jones at the SQL PASS Summit on Tuesday, November 5, in Seattle.

Steve and I will be discussing proven patterns to version and deploy changes successfully.

Take the 2019 State of SQL Server Monitoring Survey

in devops

March 19, 2019

Calling all Database Administrators, Developers, Analysts, Consultants, and Managers: Redgate has a survey open asking how you monitor your SQL Servers.

Take the survey before April 5, 2019.

The SQL Server Data Row Size Question: Why is It Bigger?

March 19, 2019

This morning, I received the following question from a user:

Hello Madam,

Could you please clarify SQLServer “Data Row” size:

If I run the script below on SQL Server 2012, then Slot(row) Size is 710 bytes

if I run the same script against SQL Server 2016 and above, then Slot(row) Size is 724 bytes.

Why to Avoid Using the Current Database Name in Object Definitions in SQL Server

in sql

March 18, 2019

I’ve recently published an article, “Why You Shouldn’t Hardcode the Current Database Name in Your Views, Functions, and Stored Procedures,” over on Simple Talk.

PASS Summit 2019 Call for Speakers is Open - How I Sketch Out My Submission Ideas

in sql

March 13, 2019

Are you interested in speaking at the Professional Association for SQL Server’s annual Summit conference? The call for speakers is now open, and you may submit up to three sessions between now and March 31, 2019.