Sql-Server

As most websites do, we collect analytics on the people visiting our site https://sqldownunder.com

I thought it might be interesting to share the breakdown of visitors to our site. Keep in mind that we have a primarily Microsoft-oriented audience. Enjoy!

No surprise on the native languages:

Country breakdown reflects the amount of local traffic we have for instructor-led courses. Most others are podcast listeners:

We first noticed Chrome slightly outstripping IE a while back but recently, it’s changed a lot. I suspect that IE11 will have been as issue here:

2014-10-30

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

It’s great to see that the Connect site leading to fixes in the product.

I was really pleased when SQL Server Data Tools for BI appeared for Visual Studio 2013. What I wasn’t pleased about where a number of UI issues that came with that version.

In particular, there was a problem with previewing Reporting Services reports. If I create a new report project, add a blank report, and drag on a text box:

2014-10-29

I’m finally catching up on some book reviews.

One that I’ve been meaning to write for quite a while is this review.

It’s hard to describe how awesome I think this book is. I was at a session in the USA some time back, where they were giving out the previous version of this book. I grabbed a copy but didn’t get around to reading it for a while. What a mistake.

2014-09-27

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

I’ve been taking a look at some of the 3rd party tools for SQL Server. Today, I looked at DBForge Studio for SQL Server from the team at DevArt.

Installation was smooth. I did find it odd that it defaults to SQL authentication, not to Windows but either works fine.

I like the way they have followed the SQL Server Management Studio visual layout. That will make the product familiar to existing SQL Server Management Studio users.

2014-08-25

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

It was great to catch up with Jimmy May recently. Jimmy is a principal database architect at Microsoft and was part of the SQL CAT team (customer advisory team) for quite a while. We recorded a new SQL Down Under podcast. In this podcast, Jimmy discusses his experiences with columnstore indexes and the new updatable clustered columnstore indexes. You’ll find it here: https://sqldownunder.com/podcast Enjoy!

2014-06-22

I had the distinct honour (honor) this week of recording a new SQL Down Under podcast with Paul Larson.

Paul is a principal researcher at Microsoft and is one of the keen minds involved in the technologies behind the in-memory tables (Hekaton) and clustered columnstore indexes in SQL Server 2014.

In this podcast, Paul explains his role, and discusses how these core enhancements in SQL Server 2014 have been implemented.

2014-04-04

I’ve always thought that the support for spatial data types that was added in SQL Server 2008 was one of the best parts of that release.

In SQL Server 2012, a great set of enhancements were made to the spatial support.

We’ve had lots of interest lately in SQL Server spatial so we’ve been working on a new course that targets it specifically. We’re pleased that we’ve now added a brand new one day SQL Server Spatial Core Skills course to our list of regularly scheduled courses. It covers a wide variety of topics from understanding the data types, to loading data, geolocation, indexing, etc. It also covers the enhancements that were made in 2012.

2014-02-28