Working with Azure DocumentDB: SQL & NoSQL Together
Updating and deleting documents, creating queries, and managing query results in Microsoft's new NoSQL database-as-a-service.
Data Security and AI
Today Steve discusses an aspect of AI that many people are concerned about: data security. Read more and think about how this might affect your organization.
Time Series Data Mining Example with T-SQL when Adding New Data
Learn about working with time series data using T-SQL code and how to add additional data to the data set for more in-depth data mining.
You Are An Inspiration
Hero, Champion, Inspiration. These are words that are bantered around about people regularly. Joe was a hero when he saved that puppy. Betty was the champion runner and won the race. Pat was an inspiration; they work so hard. Hero and champion are universally understood as positive things. Inspiration is typically used as a positive, […]
Comparing Two Execution Plans
This is a short look at a technique that I discovered recently in Management Studio (SSMS). The technique is to compare two graphical execution plans in the tool to understand what they are doing and how two different queries might affect a particular system, both with the image and with the properties' data behind the […]
Black Friday returns to SQLServerFast
November approaches again. For Europeans, that is a month like any other, for Americans, November means: Black Friday, with huge discounts!
Unpivoting Multiple Sets of Columns in SQL Server using CROSS APPLY
Learn how to unpivot data or sets of data with SQL Server queries using CROSS APPLY.
Advanced SQL Server installation using Powershell DSC
Introduction In the previous article, we learned how to install a SQL Server instance with basic parameters like InstanceName, Features, SourcePath, SQLSysAdminAccounts, etc using Powershell DSC. In this article, we'll discover how to enhance our SQL Server installation with additional configurations. We'll cover things like setting up service account credentials, custom installation directories, configuring TempDB […]
Blogs
A New Word: los vidados
By Steve Jones
los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...
In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB 2026
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
Forums
query to track time spent on individual tasks in SSIS
Hi everyone I am looking at building a query to determine how much time...
SQL Server Transactional Replication from Always On Availability Groups to Azure SQL Database
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Transactional Replication from...
Hidden Heroes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hidden Heroes
Question of the Day
Identities and Sequences I
When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which are explicitly linked to increment a number in a table when a new row is added?
See possible answers