SQL Data Partners Podcast

The expansion of data sets and increased expectations of businesses for analysis and modeling of data has led developers to create a number of database products to meet those needs. As data professionals, it is incumbent upon us to understand how these tools work and put them to their best use--before somebody else puts them to sub-optimal use. I am joined by Kevin Feasel who walks us through some of the technologies available and sorts out under what circumstances we want to consider using each one.

Have you ever looked at some tsql code and thought--How does even run? I know I have and it can be daunting to take a piece of code and review it for performance or to make a change to it. I enlist the help of Jen McCown from the MidnightDBA team to discuss approaches to unraveling code. We tackle the issues of nested views, documentation, formatting, Hungarian Notation, and visualizing how all the code pieces fit together. At the end of the day, we just want our code to be understandable and usable for the next person who has to review it, because that next person just might be you. :) Get the show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/31/unraveling-code/ and I'll see you on the SQL trail!

Compañeros, we are going to get back into the engine this episode and go back to a feature that has been available since 2005--Service Broker. I chat with Wolf about how he uses it, the major components, and scenarios that might work for you. Are you using service broker? Let us know on the website sqldatapartners.com/podcast

Episode 44 takes us into a new service in the Microsoft cloud--Azure SQL Data Warehouse. While still in preview, the Azure SQL Data Warehouse looks to help level the playing field for organizations that want to analyze their data without the expense of creating a data warehouse. Sound a bit counter intuitive? Check out this episode to find what the service is all about and what the future of data processing might look like. Show notes for today's episode are at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/17/azuresqldatawarehouse/. Have fun on the SQL trail, compañeros!

Why is ETL so hard? All we want to do is move data from system A to system B. Perhaps that is the problem, says my guest Rafael Salas, and more time should be given to thinking about the architecture of the system. With our thoughts turned to SSIS, we discuss this idea in today's episode. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/10/etl/ and I'll see you on the SQL trail!

How did that get changed--do you ever get that question? In this episode I talk with Brad McKuhen about how you would answer that and how you might need more than just enabling the auditing feature in SQL Server. If you are willing to be a bit proactive and do some testing, you might be able to give an answer to that question instead of the same old shoulder shrug. Check out the shownotes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/03/auditing/. See you on the SQL trail!

Compañeros, you know good care and feeding of your indexes is VITAL to a healthy database. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, I talk to Sean McCown about the best practices for index maintenance and how those guidelines are now part of his Minionware software. The show notes for today's episode are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/26/indexmaintenance

In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast I chat with Jason Brimhall, about SQL Server compression and his experience with it. He also answers your compression questions: Why is it a bad idea to compress everything in your database and how does compression work? You can check out the show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/20/compression/. Have a good week and I'll see you on the SQL trail.

Today on the SQL Trail I talk with Richie Rump, the podcaster, blogger, and now new hire at Brent Ozar. He and I discuss measuring query performance, using SET STATISTICS, and the story behind his Statistics Parser application. He also talks about navigating the space between developer and DBA. The show notes for today's episode are at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/02/statisticsparser/

Compañeros! You heard rumblings about how awesome SQL Server 2016 is, right? I talk with Rick Heiges about the wins he's seen for his clients using SQL Server 2016, including how one client's move from a large Oracle rack to SQL Server garnered them huge improvements in query performance. Show notes for today's episode are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/02/sqlserver2016/