As far as I know, we don't have a Business Objects Server, but we do have .net available, which I had not thought of using, as deploying executables is problematic...

We;ve managed to kill the use of Access as a development tool by simply refusing to support applications developed by users or their proxies (hiring programmers outside the normal channels)....

A couple of points here. USB ports can be inactivated by application of a group policy when the computer is booting. It creates pain for many users, but can be...

"Loosing your server role rights, such as sysadmin, after activating an activation role seems like a non-issue. "

This is absolutely true. I can't think of a reason why anyone should be...

Our DBA's have admin rights, but not on their primary logins that are used for general LAN access, email etc. All admin ID's are restricted to use on servers. This...

I'll second the point that access to change data on a production database should be severely restricted. Our DBA's can only change data if they login with a special ID...

We don't allow access to SQL Server by specific user id's, only thorugh group membership. We also do not use SQL logins unless required by an application. If you use...

Save the trace as a SQL script and look for the INSERT statements in the resuling .sql file.

Here's some of the things we do to ensure SOX compliance:

Have an owner for each application who is responsible for approving any changes to the application.

Each database should have an...

We had this problem when there was a SET IDENTITY INSERT ON statement inside the cursor. Apparently, there are some non-obvious actions that are considered schema changes.

If you have several large indexes on a table it is entirely possible the index file will grow faster than the data files. Take a look at the structure of...

This is why all changes to production servers should be tested in a non-production environment first. I don't think that putting email processes on a SQL Server is good practice. Our...

My company has formal documentation requirements for new databses, users, logins, etc. on production servers. Per the policy, all objects must have an owner, so a request for a new...

I'm on a two month trip overseas, so I had to make a similar, though not so limited, choice (I have a 1GB and a 2GB card for my mp3...

I don't think we will see tape go away any time soon. How do you take data offsite if you don't have tape? I do think disk can help improve...