SQL Server 2016 SP1 – A significant change to licencing
A lot has been written about the change of licencing in SQL 2016 SP1. Here's my two-pence worth.
2017-05-17
10 reads
Matthew McGiffen DBA
Splitting Strings on SQL Server 2016
A small change, but a great one, in SQL 2016 is native support for splitting strings.
This has to be about...
2017-05-09
781 reads
Tuning Parallelism on SQL Server
Thoughts on how to think about parallelism in SQL Server - and how to tune it.
2017-04-18
13 reads
Working with Data in Always Encrypted
In this post we’re going to create some encrypted columns in a table in a test database and look at some of the practicalities and limitations of working with...
2017-04-10
9 reads
Understanding Keys and Certificates with Always Encrypted
This post attempts to explain in simple terms what keys are involved in Always Encrypted, how they get used, and the implications of those facts.
2017-04-03
9 reads
SQL Server 2016 – Always Encrypted and the GDPR
The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming, bringing new rules about the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
For...
2017-03-28
5,637 reads
SQL 2016 – Clone Database with Query Store
This is a quickie post to introduce the new DBCC command CLONEDATABASE.
Okay so this isn’t technically a SQL Server 2016...
2019-04-26 (first published: 2017-03-20)
2,357 reads
SQL Server Query Store
Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature in SQL 2016. Certainly by the...
2019-04-26 (first published: 2017-03-13)
6,348 reads
SQL Server 2016: The Coolest New Feature – Live Query Stats
This is the first in a series of blog posts about how great SQL Server 2016 is, and why you should...
2017-02-23
1,476 reads
Blogs
Advice I Like: Knots
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Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Upgrading Admin Queries
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers