Editorials

Editorials Ethics SQL Server

Building Data Estates… and Your Legacy as Data Folk

I’ve been listening (and re-listening) to a number of MS Ignite presentations – I love getting insight into the direction, the goals and the overall vision that they present when they’re talking about big over-arching issues.  Things like “tweak this statement” fade away and we’re left with directional, vision-oriented things.  That’s the good stuff.  It’s in the one of the […]

Editorials

SQL Readability

One of the things I have found helpful is to be consistent on how your layout your SQL queries. Consistency is probably more important than any particular little option. If your queries are consistent throughout, then others looking at your code will be able to understand more quickly what is going on. In this area, I really do like having […]

Editorials Encryption/Data Security Security SQL Server

Security Ignorance is Bliss – But Not in a Good Way

I’ve been poking around more and more about security, about best practices and about data protection.  I have spent a good deal of time watching the tried and true “Securing Your SQL Server” type sessions and trying to understand what is critical and what you can do about it. Security expert Duncan McAlynn (LinkedIn) sent me over a great video […]

Editorials

It Isn’t ANSI Standard

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and online content about many different SQL topics, reaching back into how we used to do things in the old days. One phrase I see consistently is that a certain syntax, “does not follow the ANSI standard.” Sometimes they writer is incorrect. One thing that is true about the SQL syntax is […]

Editorials

AquaData Studio Becomes Part of the Idera Offerings

Idera purchased AquaFold with it’s flagship product AquaData Studio earlier this year. What is the growth strategy for Idera? This is already a competing product with their ER Studio acquisition from Embarcadero. Let me set the stage for what’s going on here. ER Studio is one of the premium windows based database management systems. It allows you to diagram your […]

Editorials

Taking a Sabbatical

Recently I have been forced (for medical reasons) to take some time away from work. My situation is such that cannot work remotely. So, what to do? I can’t move around. I’ll quickly bore with movies Hey, how about taking an intentional training sabbatical, and catch up on all these new technologies I want to catch up on? Well, that’s […]

Editorials

Join Syntax

Did you know that you don’t have to use JOIN syntax when writing a SQL Query? You can simply list your tables, and put the join criteria in the where clause. In today’s world we typically create a join clause for each table joined after the original first table specified in the from clause. Here’s an example query pulling from […]

Editorials

Resolving Developer Disagreement

In my experience, if you put two good developers in a room, you are going to have disagreement. That’s why you hired them in the first place so things are challenged. If it doesn’t lead to some resolution, then you have a problem. I know this is an old topic. But, today I was watching some training videos and came […]