I've recently posted a blog on how cloud computing would change the Systems Architect’s role in an organization , another on how the cloud changes a Database Administrator's job , and the last post dealt with the Systems Administrator . In this...

In a previous post , I started the process of my study for the 70-432 exam. I'm working on that (as I have time) and I promised to post my notes here. My notes aren't totally inclusive, they are just things I found interesting as I was doing my reading...

This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases...

I read a great book last night called "The Psychology of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. It's actually an older book that explores what works and what doesn't from a usability perspective. That's interesting to my group since we are in charge of the...

I love these things - and my friends over at SimpleTalk have a free one: http://www.simple-talk.com/prettifier/

Isn't it a shame that we see this play out every day in politics: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln

This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases...

For reasons I don't completely understand, I'm not allowed to call the following advice "Best Practices" - apparently there is some liability or something there. So let's say these are "really good ideas" for developing applications...

In many organizations, there’s a push to save cost. “Cost” is an integral part of a profit-and-loss statement in the organization. Even if you work in a non-profit organization, cost control is central. Of course, you can take cost-control...

Sure, you can get the number of processors fairly easily ffrom SQL Server. But did you know you can also get the number of actual cores as well? This little gem works with SQL Server 2005: SELECT cpu_count/hyperthread_ratio AS sockets FROM sys.dm_os_sys_info;...

We had a discussion yesterday about Management Studio, and we focused on the “ Delete ” command. In SQL Server 2005, you can right-click a database and select “ Delete ”. You get a panel where you can set some options, or you can just click OK and the...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today we’re in the management reports. You can find these reports by starting SQL Server Management Studio and right-clicking the SQL Server Agent node. From the menu...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today we’re in the database reports. You can find these reports by starting SQL Server Management Studio and right-clicking a database name. From the menu that appears...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today we’re in the database reports. You can find these reports by starting SQL Server Management Studio and right-clicking a database name. From the menu that appears...

When I was very young, I asked my uncle for career advice. He went silent, thinking for a bit, and then said: “People who work sitting down make more than people who work standing up.” I’m not certain how true that really is, but my career as a technology...

I know - I said I didn't like the "cloud" term, but my better-phrased "Distributed Systems" moniker just never took off like I had hoped. So I'll stick with the "c" word for now, at least until the search engines catch up with my more accurate term. ...

I'm continuing my serie s on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today I'm covering two of them: Activity - All Sessions and Activity - Top Sessions. These are part of the a activity series of reports that provide more detail than...

I'm writing this on the train to Seattle to visit with a customer this morning - I'm thankful for Wireless! Although setting up a wireless network for a train is a really big thing, sometimes it's the smaller things that make us happy. In SQL Server Management...

I normally post technical topics here on this blog, but I’m extending this post a bit to include a little professional development. Don’t worry; there’s some tech (and Distributed Computing tech, no less) in this post as well. I recently...

They say that DBA's are people who put other people into two categories: People who put people into two categories, and people who don't.   I think lots of us put people into categories, not just DBA's.   I've run into a couple of "types"...

I'm writing this post on a bus headed towards the Seattle Convention Center, where the technical folks in the field meet once a year to hear from the product teams about all the new features coming in the future. I used to present at this conference ...

I will be getting back to the "Day in the Life of the DBA" series of posts, but I got this from the security folks today and thought I would share it: Today the MSRC in collaboration with SQL Server, IIS, and Hewlett Packard published Microsoft Security...

I read this interesting article on using PowerShell and the registry , and thought I would modify his information a bit to list the SQL Server Instances on a box. The interesting thing about listing instances this was is that you can touch remote machines...

This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases...

One of the readers recently asked about the blog post I made regarding the performance of replication being so improved in SQL Server 2008. We don’t have a formal study posted on that particular result yet, but we do have others that talk about speed...