The first week following on from the Christmas break is a very hectic one for us Data Professionals.

Your customers are keen to get straight back to business immediately and get the year off to the best possible start, meaning your skills and services will be in high demand. To help ensure you get your year off to a fantastic start take a look at some of these:

• 10 Things Every DBA Should Do
• The Best DBAs Automate Everything!
• 5 Days to Outstanding DBA Customer Service
• Stop Asking and Start Making Decisions Today
• Why Every DBA Needs a Buddy
• Outstanding DBAs Make Relationships a Priority

For blog authors the end of one year and the beginning of another provides the opportunity for review of what worked and what didn’t. It’s always interesting to see which posts proved the most popular, surprisingly often not what we expect to do well. In a twisted sense of irony it’s often those posts that we blog authors think are great pieces of writing that often tend to sink like lead balloons. Thankfully we are occasionally saved by the Google traffic gods and the magical content that just continues to pull in the traffic year after year, what bloggers worship and call Pillar Content. On to the content already then…….

Here’s what you enjoyed reading the most from the blog in 2011:

1. The Database Administrators Primary Responsibility
2. SQL Server Memory Configuration, Determining MemToLeave Settings
3. Performing fast SQL Server delete operations
4. The SQL Server Buffer Pool and Buffer Cache Hit Ratio
5. Why you should be using the FULL Recovery Model
6. How to Become a SQL Server DBA
7. Top 10 Junior DBA Interview Tips
8. 10 Things Every DBA Should Do
9. How to identify the most costly SQL Server queries using DMV’s
10. My Guide to Passing MCTS Exam 70-432

The most enjoyable part of the whole blogging gig is being able to share the awesomeness of SQL community with all of you folks reading this right now. You honestly really are what makes our community a great thing to be a part of. This year I hope to meet many more of you in person.

Thank you and I wish you the very best for the New Year!