Understand how the cardinality estimator predicts rows, why estimates go wrong, and which statistics and plan checks help you investigate.
Building a SQL Server Home Lab That Costs Nothing
Build a SQL Server home lab with free Developer software, sample data, and a repeatable backup and restore routine on your Windows computer.
Data Governance: Catalog, Lineage and Data Quality
Data Governance is how you know what data you have, where it came from, who can see it and whether it is right. This post covers the catalog, lineage, access and data quality, with T-SQL checks you can run.
Renaming Something Without Breaking Everything
Plan a rename database object change with dependency checks, updated callers, permission tests, and a temporary compatibility name when suitable.
Free Tools Worth Having on a SQL Server
Choose free SQL Server tools by the problem they solve, from SSMS and sqlcmd to Extended Events, and understand the limits before relying on them.
Big Data Upgraded: The 2013 Series Rewritten for Today
Big Data Upgraded is the reading path for 23 articles, most of them first written in 2013, now rewritten for today’s tools. Most new platforms now build on Spark, Parquet, open table formats and change data capture. Here is the whole set in reading order, with one line on each.
Open Table Formats: Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg Explained
Open Table Formats turn a folder of Parquet files into a real table with transactions, history and safe schema changes. This post shows how Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg do it with a metadata layer, how a commit stays atomic, and what time travel means.