You should be running on SQL Server 2022
It’s me again with my apparently semi-annual blog post. This time we’re going to talk about which version of SQL Server you should be on, now that we’re at the end of 2023. Which version…
Your next step in the cloud
Over the last nine months I’ve presented (virtually) eleven times on a variety of topics relating to SQL Server and the Microsoft Data Platform. Long-time readers will know I have some experience as a high…
Using AzCopy with Batch Files and Task Scheduler
As regular readers of this blog will know, I’m a big fan of AzCopy, especially now that it has a sync option to keep local data synchronized with blob storage. In a recent release of…
SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 is end of life on 9 July 2019
Next month, Microsoft is ending five years of extended support on SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2. This follows five years of mainstream support before that. You really should be upgrading to SQL…
A short Azure SQL Edge explainer
On Thursday May 2nd, 2019, Microsoft announced a new edition of SQL Server targeting Internet of Things (IoT) edge devices. That means SQL Server can now run almost anywhere. From the Venturebeat article: It supports…
Using a home-grown Azure Blob Storage solution for SQL Server backups
I’m here for the small organizations, the shops that can’t afford expensive solutions to maintain their environments. I’m here for them because that’s me: the one-person consultancy. I’ve built stuff that’s useful to me, and…
It’s a UNIX system. I know this.
Jurassic Park was a great film. Steven Spielberg brought technology into the film era in a major way with computer generated dinosaurs and some now-classic film lines, many of which came from Jeff “Dreamboat” Goldblum.…
AzCopy finally gets a sync option, and all the world rejoices
I consider Blob Storage to be the gateway drug to Azure, because it’s a really easy way to get going with offsite backups. One of the ways I’ve leveraged Blob Storage is with SQL Server…
Giving thanks in 2018
It’s the last post of 2018, and in years past I’ve recapped the year that has just been. This is a little different however. I want to talk a bit about community, and two unexpected…
Infrastructure matters, even in the Cloud
I am still amused by terminology in the Information Technology field. Words like “Kubernetes,” “containers,” and the BASIC keywords PEEK and POKE, all bring a smile to my lips every time I read or say…
Price increase for Azure in Canadian dollars
On 1 December 2018, Microsoft is increasing Azure subscription prices in Canadian dollars by 5%. The following is taken directly from the email I received on 1 November 2018. Starting December 1, 2018, prices for…
Azure means hybrid now
On Monday 24 September 2018, Microsoft announced a slew of stuff at their annual Ignite conference that is going to make life a lot more interesting for many people all over the world. There’s a…
Data lakes and swamps, oh my
I was lamenting to my friend and fellow MVP Shamir Charania (blog | Twitter) that I didn’t have a topic for this week’s blog post, so he and his colleague suggested I write about data…
Secure or fast? Secure, obviously …
By now you have probably seen the news about a major flaw in the design of CPUs from all major vendors (Intel, AMD, and ARM) resulting in a series of vulnerabilities in operating systems and…
The cloud is not just someone else’s computer
A year ago, I wrote in a post that cloud computing is just someone else’s data center. I was wrong. Whether we like it or not, the cloud is more than just a bunch of 1s…