There’s an interesting scenario that’s come up in creating some new samples for SQL Server 2016.
I know that for many, many years people have asked for a way to limit developer edition to only use standard edition features, or at least to have a way to flag them. I’ve often thought that I’d like a way to set a “target environment” and have the colorization change anything that I can’t use in standard to an obviously different color.
2016-06-03
One of the options that’s coming as part of SQL Server 2016 is StretchDB. I’ve been spending some time working with it and learning about it, and I’ve ended up with lots of questions. I’m really struggling with seeing how it would really work.
So it was great to get an opportunity to speak to Joe Yong to get all my questions sorted. I’m not sure he’s convinced me yet but I’d love to hear your opinions.
2016-05-01
In recent months, I’ve been brushing up my R skills. I’ve had a few areas of interest in this:
As a client tool, I’ve been using RStudio. It’s been good and very simple but it’s a completely separate environment. So I was excited when I saw there was to be a preview of new R tooling for Visual Studio.
2016-03-10
I spend a lot of time working with software houses, helping them to make their applications work well with SQL Server. One thing that I’ve heard loud and clear over the years is that most software houses won’t write a single line of code that will only run on the enterprise edition of SQL Server, because they are not prepared to limit their potential pool of customers to those running enterprise edition.
2014-12-12
I had the pleasure of recording another SQL Down Under show today.
Show 64 features Microsoft Azure DocumentDB product group member discussing Azure DocumentDB and what SQL Server DBAs and developers need to know about it.
JSON-based storage has been one of the highest rated requests for enhancements to SQL Server. While we haven’t got those enhancements yet, DocumentDB nicely fills a gap between NoSQL databases and relational databases.
You’ll find the show here: SQL Down Under Podcast
2014-10-30
There were a number of great announcements from Scott Guthrie today: https://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/azure-sql-databases-api-management-media-services-websites-role-based-access-control-and-more
One that particularly caught my eye was a subtle change to the billing for Azure SQL Database. Databases used to be billed at a daily charge.
While this might not have seemed a big deal, the only way to create a transactionally-consistent backup of the database was to first copy it using CREATE DATABASE AS COPY OF original database, then to use the database export functions on the copy. The export needed to be done on the copy (not on the original) as it just copied the data in each table, one table at a time.
2014-09-14
One of the things I’ve been keeping an eye on for quite a while now is the development of the Azure Search system.
While it’s not a full replacement for the full-text indexing service in SQL Server on-premises as yet, it’s a really, really good start.
Liam Cavanagh, Pablo Castro and the team have done a great job bringing this to the preview stage and I suspect it could be quite popular. I was very impressed by how they incorporated quite a bit of feedback I gave them early on, and I’m sure that others involved would have felt the same.
2014-08-25
In the sessions that I was attending in Redmond yesterday, I was interested to see the presenter discussing the idea of having individual database files in the cloud as some sort of bizarre option that’s now available in SQL Server 2014. I don’t see it as bizarre at all. However, I see two distinct use cases that make complete sense to me:
One of the current limitations of running SQL Server in Azure virtual machines is that you can only attach two additional data drives per CPU core, and each of those drives is up to 1 TB in size. For example, if you spin up a two core VM, you can attach 4 data drives.
2013-11-20
I had the distinct honour (honor) this week of recording a new SQL Down Under podcast with Dr David DeWitt from the Jim Gray Systems Lab at Microsoft. Anyone that has been to a PASS summit over the last few years would know that David seems to have single-handedly converted morning keynotes into must-attend events.
In this podcast, David explains his role, gives a philosophical view on where we’re at in the database industry and discusses core enhancements in SQL Server 2014.
2013-11-14
If you have followed any of the Azure website forums, you’d realize that having SSL available was one of the highest rated requests. That’s hardly surprising given the number of clients that want to use these sites for eCommerce work.
So it’s really good to see that Scott Guthrie and the team have been listening and that SSL is now available. To see the details, click on the “SSL” button in the “Learn More” area of the Azure pricing page. An FAQ is also provided.
2013-06-03
