Avoid “Constants” in T-SQL
Here we look at a common query "anti-pattern" that can create performance problems - and how you work around it.
2023-06-14
401 reads
Matthew McGiffen DBA
Executing Queries Using Always Encrypted
In this post we’ll look at how you interact with data that is encrypted using Always Encrypted. The examples here will show how you run queries from SSMS, in...
2023-06-13
37 reads
Success vs. Scalability: Why your biggest success might also be your biggest disaster
There is a scenario I have seen again and again. A company has developed a nice piece of software which many clients are running with happily. Then along comes...
2023-06-12
18 reads
Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2022. What is it and is it any good?
Parameter Sensitive Plan (PSP) optimization is a new feature in SQL Server 2022 that aims to improve the performance of parameterized queries. It is part of the Intelligent Query...
2023-06-26 (first published: 2023-06-08)
329 reads
Identify the (Top 20) most expensive queries across your SQL Server using Query Store
Script to identify the most expensive queries on your database server using the Query Store DMVs. This allows you to look at data from a specific time frame, as...
2023-06-07
323 reads
Setting Up Always Encrypted
In this post we're going to go through the steps to set up Always Encrypted and create an encrypted column. As with my last post we're looking at the...
2023-06-06
33 reads
What is Always Encrypted and how does it work?
Always Encrypted was a new encryption feature added to SQL Server with the 2016 version of the product. Initially it was just available in enterprise edition, but from SQL...
2023-06-21 (first published: 2023-06-05)
359 reads
Introduction to SQL Server Query Store
Introduced with SQL 2016, Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature. In this post we'll just take a brief look at it,...
2023-06-14 (first published: 2023-05-31)
625 reads
SQL Server Backup Encryption and Compression
In SQL Server you can also compress your encrypted backups. Unlike TDE this has been possible with Backup Encryption since the feature was first made available, and there have...
2023-06-12 (first published: 2023-05-24)
358 reads
Statistics Parser
Using Statistics Parser to easily read output from STATISTICS IO and STATISTICS TIME.
2023-05-23
288 reads
Blogs
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...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
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