Blogs

Join me for an upcoming webinar on Data Masking: Insights and Actions

November 21, 2018

Click the image to register for the webcast There has never been a better time to start a project to champion data privacy In a recent Harris poll sponsored by the payment company Stripe, over 1,000 C-level executives were asked to rate which factors they feel are most threatening to their business. The #1 item that executives rated as “somewhat” or “very” threatening to the success of their business is security / data breaches.

Watch: Getting executive buy in for DevOps - 3 top tips (video)

in sql

November 19, 2018

High DevOps performers report greater workplace satisfaction than their peers. But implementing DevOps isn’t a matter of being great at writing code: to become a high DevOps performer, you need the powerful catalyst of executive support.

Fix My Functions: Speeding Up Scalar and Table Valued UDFs (video)

in execution-plans, functions, sql-server-technical-posts

November 14, 2018

Last week, I presented on the topic of TSQL User Defined Functions (UDFs) in SQL Server at the PASS Summit.

PASS Summit 2018 - Keynote Day 2 Commentary

in sql

November 8, 2018

It’s the second main-session day of the Summit for the Professional Association of SQL Server. I had a great breakfast this morning with Brent Ozar, along with Nathan and James from my first timer group. If you attend Summit for the first time in the future, this is a great program and you should join up.

PASS Summit 2018 - Day 1 Keynote Announcements

in sql

November 7, 2018

Good morning from Seattle, at the Summit for the Professional Association of SQL Server.

I’m lucky enough to be sitting at the blogger table this morning, watching the keynote of announcements.

Register for my upcoming session on digital transformation

in course-announcements

November 2, 2018

I’m excited to have a session accepted to GroupBy, a free online conference targeting the Microsoft data platform community. The conference is sponsored by Brent Ozar Unlimited, and sessions are chosen by community votes.

Watch: The single question to predict success for DevOps (31 minutes)

in sql

November 2, 2018

What if you could assess the performance level of your team by asking one simple question? In his recent webinar with Redgate, Gene Kim (@realgenekim) suggests that you can.

Interviewing for your first tech job - slides

in sql

October 8, 2018

I was lucky to get an opportunity to present a session to some college students at Seminole State College in Florida last week.

I was in town for SQL Saturday Orlando– a fantastic event on its own. The organizers run a simultaneous seminar for students at the college studying software development and IT topics, and it’s an opportunity where they can hear from professionals in IT professions. I gave a session on interviewing best practices.

DevOps Terms - and Why They Matter to Database Specialists

in dear-sql-dba

October 4, 2018

In this 20 minute session, I define scrum, continuous deployment, test driven development, DevOps, and related concepts. I close with a quick discussion of why Database Administrators and Developers should care about DevOps.

SQL Change Automation, Visual Studio, and the Unknown SQL Server Platform error

in sql

October 3, 2018

I recently set up Redgate’s SQL Change Automation in Visual Studio 2017, and I ran into a confusing error when I started trying to use it. For any other folks out there searching on “Unknown SQL Server Platform,” here’s how I got past it.

Spoiler: Visual Studio suggested updating Microsoft’s SQL Server Data Tools, which failed for me and wasted a lot of time. Updating Visual Studio did fix my issue.