James Serra

James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last nine years. He is a thought leader in the use and application of Big Data and advanced analytics, including data architectures such as the modern data warehouse, data lakehouse, data fabric, and data mesh. Previously he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. He is a popular blogger (JamesSerra.com) and speaker, having presented at dozens of major events including SQLBits, PASS Summit, Data Summit and the Enterprise Data World conference. He is the author of the book “Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh”.

Blog Post

Microsoft Purview GA menu’s

The new data governance features in Microsoft Purview are now being made generally available as they are gradually rolled out across various regions. You can view the deployment schedule...

2024-10-02 (first published: )

156 reads

Blog Post

Microsoft Purview FAQ

I get many of the same questions about Microsoft Purview, so I wanted to list those common questions here along with their answers. If your question is not answered...

2024-09-23 (first published: )

219 reads

Blog Post

Microsoft Fabric AI Skill

Are you ready to have conversations with your data? Announced in public preview within Microsoft Fabric is AI Skill, a new capability in Fabric that allows you to build...

2024-09-11 (first published: )

359 reads

Blog Post

Copilot in Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Copilot is an app that uses AI to help you find information, create content, and get things done faster (see What Is Copilot? Microsoft’s AI Assistant Explained).  Copilot is...

2024-07-17 (first published: )

487 reads

Blogs

Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions

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With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...

A New Word: Fawtle

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fawtle – n. a weird little flaw built into your partner that somehow only...

Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets

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AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...

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Where Your Value Separates You from Others

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Question of the Day

Fixing the Error

On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:

SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error?

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