Why a monitoring tool is an essential tool for growing server estates

As we continue into the era of supporting more and more database platforms in our data estates, self-monitoring goes from being a very difficult task to a truly daunting task. I am personally advanced at diagnosing Microsoft SQL Server performance issues, but when that PostgreSQL server gets added, I just have to hope nothing goes wrong for a few years while I learn.

Democratizing Self Service Cloud Analytics and ELT Supporting Modern Cloud Data Management Approaches

Many organizations struggle with democratizing access to data and analytics in the cloud, particularly for self-service purposes. As a result, data and analytics projects often require significant IT involvement, leading to delays, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies. Additionally, data analytics, ELT, and BI tools often require specialized technical expertise, making them inaccessible to a broader range of users. To address these challenges, organizations can adopt cloud-based data and analytics platforms that provide self-service capabilities and support modern cloud data management approaches.

What are the biggest challenges organizations face in their digital transformation efforts?

As part of a recent Redgate Summit which focused on data modernization, Grant Fritchey interviewed Pramod Sadalage, a Director at Thoughtworks. They discussed data and DevOps, and the typical challenges organizations come across in their digital transformation efforts. Grant Fritchey shares this Q&A.

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The ten habits for highly successful compliant database DevOps

Database DevOps has come of age. Now seen as a key technical practice which can contribute to the successful implementation of DevOps, it stops the database being a bottleneck and makes releases faster and easier.

To implement it successfully, there are ten areas which teams should focus on.

DAX CASE Statement Functionality with IF, SWITCH and SWITCH True

The CASE expression is one of the most valuable tools in your T-SQL toolbox. I use it in almost every query I write. However, there isn't a direct equivalent of CASE in DAX. Since it's a different language entirely, I don't expect it. As my grandmother used to say, I am not surprised, just disappointed. If you don't know, DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a language for creating custom calculations and aggregations in Power Pivot, Power BI, and other data analysis tools. Two functions in DAX come close to replicating the functionality but come with limitations. Which one of these functions should you use? Please stay tuned.

Improving the Quality of your Database Monitoring

Database monitoring should be as simple as possible, and yet still allow the users to drill into sufficient detail to be able to recommend a fix to the problem. The trick is to adopt a layered or 'tiered' approach.

Snowflake Temporary Tables vs. Transient Tables

When working with Snowflake, it is important to understand the different types of tables available and when to use each one. In this tutorial, we will compare Snowflake temporary and transient tables, highlight their similarities and differences, and provide examples of when to use each type of table.

Piping, Filtering and Using Flyway Output in PowerShell

Flyway's output is often overwhelmed with verbose messages, most of which we can ignore but some of which provide vital warnings about failed compilations, or useful details about what a migration or callback did. I'll show how to use some pipeline-aware PowerShell functions to filter out and save the bits we want and pass the results along in a form that is useful to the next process in the pipeline.

Using TOP clause in a SELECT statement

There might be a time when you might want to return just a few rows of a result set, instead of the complete set. This might be useful if you want to just validate a selection criteria or a few rows of data. For whatever the reason the TOP clause can be used to return a specific number or a percentage of rows from a result set. This article will cover using the TOP clause in a SELECT statement and how it can be used to return a partial set of records.