(Kevin Kline) Is there any built-in facility to encrypt a column data in SQL Server? Find out more in this article. (R)

(Steven Warren) I recently had the opportunity to work with a new piece of software for my SQL Server backups. The product is called SQL Backup and it is made by Red Gate Software. With SQL Backup, you can perform the following: –Compressed backups –Perform faster online backups –Encrypt S

(Elizabeth Montalbano) Microsoft Corp. is readying changes to its certification programs that are expected to take effect with the release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 in November.

(Brian Walker) This tip continues the system stored procedure series with two simple routines. (R)

(T.K. Anand) Discover the new Analysis Services 2005 drillthrough architecture. See how to set up drillthrough in Analysis Services 2005 and get guidance on migrating drillthrough settings from Analysis Services 2000 databases.

(Douglas Reilly) A number of years ago, I went to work for SportSoft Golf (later Golf Society of the U.S.), one of the dot-com companies of old. Like many dot-com companies, SportSoft Golf failed not long after September 11th. While working there, the change from doing both fat client and intranet d

(Rand Morimoto) The term Microsoft security was long considered, whether fairly or unfairly, to be an oxymoron. High-profile vulnerabilities and viruses that were exploited in Windows NT and Windows 2000 often made organizations wary of the security, or lack of security, that was built into Microsof

(Brian Walker) Coding standards are often overlooked when it comes to T-SQL programming, but they’re a crucial component of a smoothly operating development team. The coding standards I espouse here are ones that I’ve developed over the years. No, they’re not universally accepted, and, admittedly, s

(Thiru Thangarathinam) When .NET Framework was first introduced, it provided excellent features that made the construction of ASP.NET applications a breezy experience. Now the next version of .NET Framework (version 2.0) along with SQL Server 2005 builds on the foundation of the previous versions an

(Bruce Johnson) While the use of AutoNumber and Identity fields in tables is greatly applauded by database designers the world over, they can be annoying for developers to use. The problem being that, when we add records to the database, there are many cases where we need to know the key of the reco