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

Data Lakehouse & Synapse

I am starting to see this relatively new phrase, “Data Lakehouse”, being used in the data platform world. It’s the combination of “Data Lake” and “Data Warehouse”. In this...

2020-09-17 (first published: )

783 reads

Blog Post

More ADLS Gen2 enhancements

On the heels of More Azure Blob Storage enhancements come more enhancements for Azure Data Lake Store Gen2 (ADLS Gen2): Archive tier is now GA: The archive tier provides...

2020-07-14 (first published: )

263 reads

Blog Post

Power BI FAQ

Power BI has become hugely popular and I find common questions about functionality and features, so I thought I would put in this blog some of those questions with...

2020-06-23 (first published: )

611 reads

Blog Post

Monitoring Power BI

There are a number of options for monitoring Power BI that I wanted to mention: Performance analyzer: Find out how each of your report elements, such as visuals and...

2020-06-02 (first published: )

730 reads

Blogs

A New Word: on tenderhooks

By

on tenderhooks – adj. feeling the primal satisfaction of being needed by someone, which...

Ramblings about data communities and your contributions, no excuses

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I have been active in the data community throughout my career. I have met...

SQL Server Journey till 2025 (brief)

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Quick Summary for Microsoft SQL Server till 2025, I am fortunate to be part...

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Forums

Simulating Mercury’s Orbital Motion Using Pure T-SQL (NASA 2025 Dataset)

By NKTgLaw

SQL Server is typically viewed as a transactional or analytical database engine. However, it...

Azure SQL Database | CREATE EVENT SESSION [Blocking_Capture] ON DATABASE

By DanielP

Hello, Is there a way in Azure SQL Database to change the 'Blocking Process...

Having a Little Fun at SQL Server Central

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Having a Little Fun at...

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Question of the Day

String Similarity I

On SQL Server 2025, when I run this, what is returned?

SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY('SQL Server', 'MySQL')

See possible answers