The Era of The Shared SQL Server Database is Finally Ending

For more than 20 years, many small and medium SaaS companies have built products with complicated business logic and a flexible user experience on the .NET stack using an architecture with a shared SQL Server database. This approach has kept the production environment relatively simple.

These companies have new incentives to move away from this architecture because agentic development lands new business rules on the shared database fast enough to painfully cut velocity and add significant risk to deployments.

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When NOT to Choose SQL Server to Store Your Data

I recently posted on LinkedIn that I was interviewing for a SQL Server database administrator role for the first time in a long time. I invited folks: “Ask me your favorite interview question!”

Stephen Vakil had a great one: “when should you use SQL Server to store your data?”

For situations where SQL Server is already in use and there’s a relatively low barrier to entry, I think it’s simpler to turn this question around and ask, “When is SQL Server not a good choice for storing your data?”

This post is also available as a podcast episode, and on YouTube.

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Why NoSQL Database Adoption Is Not a One Way Journey

A coworker shared with me recently that a customer is wholly investing in adopting non-relational datastores.

“Is NoSQL taking over?” they asked.

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