Software Release Skill No matter if software being released is off-the-shelf or custom designed, there are common practices resulting in successful software releases common to both. Following is a short list of practices find useful: Develop Clear requirements The assumption is, If you know what it is, and how it is supposed to work you can verify the correctness of […]

The Skill of Releasing Software I opened this topic yesterday and received valuable responses from many readers. Scott wrote a lot, so that’s all I have room for today. Here is what he says: As someone who has recently co-lead a mission-critical software project through two major releases successfully, including a complete hardware replacement/virtualization plus Windows Server and SQL Server […]

SSWUGtv – Key Management With Stephen Wynkoop In today’s edition Stephen talks with Townsend about the basics of security. This edition is affectionately titled, "Security: Key Management 101, Lesson one — Always protect the key!" Watch the Show The Skill of the Release Recently I have been talking with colleagues about some of the less vaunted skills a software professional […]

SSWUGtv – Safe Data In todays edition of SSWUGtv Stephen discusses the importance of changed rules and roles of security to keep your data safe. Check it out The Microsoft SQL Server Strategy A couple brave folks have responded with their perception regarding the Microsoft Strategy for the SQL Server platform. Most agree that Microsoft appears to be moving away […]

SSWUGtv – Are you Looking at a Career Shift? With Stephen Wynkoop When you have to change your path (whether within your company or completely changing careers)…what are the steps to a smooth transition? Laura Rose is on today’s show with some great tips! Watch the Show Where is SQL Server Going SQL Server has had an unique position in […]

Who Controls Database Resources? With the advent of SQL Server 2008 and later the answer is increasingly, “You.” That is because Microsoft introduced the Resource Governor capability in SQL Server 2008. This capability allows you to define resource groups and allocate work on your server to them. This grouping allows you to manage precious resources on your SQL Server machine […]

Help. My Data Is Sharded! I’ve come across a company that has very large databases that work together as a whole. They were separated in order to maintain disaster recovery requirements. In some databases a great amount of the data is modified or replaced daily. In others, the data is static in comparison. Because they already have their data sharded, […]

SSWUGtv With Stephen Wynkoop How do you know if your systems (and your data) are protected? How can you be sure? Patrick Townsend has the answers! Watch the Show Aspect Programming I have been reading “Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise.” In this book I have been introduced to what is a new concept of programming to me called […]

SSWUGtv: BYOD – Bring Your Own Device With Stephen Wynkoop Lets face it…its easy to bring your own devices into a work environment. They are small, convenient, and useful. But, how do you lock down devices and stay secure when you allow BYOD? Watch the Show Separation of Environments I have written a lot about separation of concerns from a […]

Change Tracking in the Data Warehouse Today we have a feedback from readers about the use of Change Data Capture and Change Tracking features in SQL Server 2008 and later. Thomas I wouldn’t encourage anyone to use Change Tracking without emphasizing that they should be on the latest CU of whatever version of SQL they are running. For instance for […]