mI know I’m going to upset a lot of folks who have been programming database systems for a long time. So, just be prepared. I’m linking together a lot of thoughts from previous editorials, and reader contributions, to suggest reasoning for a current trend. Let me start with the assertion, and then we’ll see if we can validate it reasonably. […]

Recently, l have been reviewing a database design that made me feel like I have a flash back to 1990. Every table used a polish notation like prefix for every table of “tbl”. I remember when we used to use the prefix in order to differentiate a view from a table for the consumer. However, as we look at reasons […]

I had a lot of input from many of you regarding naming conventions for the primary key of a table. One thing that was common in all of the replies, either written explicitly, or implicitly, was that consistency matters. If you have a convention, regardless of what it is, and always use it in all of your databases, it is […]

I had a conversation, recently, with a number of colleagues, all seasoned professionals, with differing opinions on naming conventions for primary keys in tables. Many held the position that a primary key should only be named Id. Others felt the primary key should be named using the table name followed by Id. The persons holding to the Id position felt […]

Back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when data warehousing was a new and growing concept, things were wild and crazy. Even then, using traditional tools such as Cognos, it was important to have a good understanding and structuring of your data in order to have reliable, performant, data mining. Many data warehousing projects failed, because they could not […]

A lot of us database professionals enjoy the capabilities built into SQL data engines, to the point that we miss the real beauty of SQL. SQL provides us with complete independence on how the data is stored and manipulated physically. The underlying storage structure and data structures implementing the SQL Language are, for most of us, uninteresting. What is of […]

The value of the RowVersion data type continues to increase in stateless applications such as those found on tablets and web sites. RowVersion is maintained by the SQL Server engine. Each time a row is modified, the value of the RowVersion is modified. If your application retrieves the RowVersion column, it can use the value for comparison, determining if the […]

When will big business move to the Cloud for key business applications? It feels like businesses continue to dip their toes in the water of Cloud based applications. They want to know more about the Cloud, but are not yet willing to commit a core application to being hosted on the Cloud. If this perception is true, and to be […]

Recently I have been working on a project using a local instance of Microsoft SQL Server. The project is collaborative. Each developer has their own instance. The database connection string(s) for Entity Framework, and other Apps, have been named based on an instance name of SQL Server. The problem is that each developer installed SQL Server at different times, with […]

Many folks believe that Micro Services are only needed when you have a massively, web scale, user requirement for your applications. It turns out that there are other factors contributing to adopting a Micros Service design. Speed of development is one driving factor served well by Micro Services. Because each service stands alone, it is possible for different teams to […]