Category: SQL Server

SQL Server Infrastructure

The Hidden Costs of Neglecting Your SQL Server Infrastructure

When it comes to running your business, a well-maintained SQL Server infrastructure is often the unsung hero. SQL Server is often behind the scenes, powering critical systems, supporting decision-making, and safeguarding vital data. However, when it’s neglected, the costs—both visible and hidden—can quickly spiral out of control. The cost of neglecting SQL Server Let’s look…
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SQL Server Management Outsourcing

Maximizing ROI Through SQL Server Management Outsourcing

Managing SQL Server infrastructure in-house can present more challenges than many companies anticipate. Between constant security threats, performance monitoring, and ensuring high availability, the demands on a database administrator (DBA) are extensive. For many companies, especially those without a large IT staff, these needs can strain resources and impact profitability. Outsourcing SQL Server management offers…
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SQL Server Management Outsourcing

SQL Server Disaster Recovery: Four Essential Security Measures

Since Microsoft SQL Server databases are critical for many organizations, protecting SQL Server from disasters such as security breaches and data loss isn’t optional—it’s essential. This is especially true for sectors like healthcare, banking, and FinTech. I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened. -Mark Twain Mark Twain’s quip…
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How to Encrypt Sensitive Text in SQL Server with ENCRYPTBYPASSPHRASE

How to Encrypt Sensitive Text in SQL Server with ENCRYPTBYPASSPHRASE

Storing sensitive information in a database, like passwords or social security numbers, is common practice. However, storing them securely is less common. Unfortunately, one of the most typical approaches is to store sensitive information in a table as clear text. That means that anyone with access to that table can see all of that sensitive…
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Reduce the Cost of a SQL Server Estate

8 Ways to Reduce the Cost of a SQL Server Estate

Whether in the cloud or a data center, the cost of maintaining a SQL Server estate can escalate quickly. Beyond the direct expenses, indirect costs can quietly unbalance and outpace your IT budget. Let’s look at 8 ways to reduce the costs of your SQL Server estate. Direct and Indirect Costs of a SQL Server…
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Prevent SQL Server Outages by Monitoring Transaction Log Growth

Prevent SQL Server Outages by Monitoring Transaction Log Growth

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been called after hours due to a drive filling up. The usual culprit? Transaction file log growth. Monitoring the growth of your SQL Server transaction log files is crucial for maintaining database performance and ensuring system reliability. Unchecked transaction log growth can lead to disk space issues and…
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Why SQL Server 2022?

Should You Upgrade to SQL Server 2022 Now, or Wait?

If you’re running an older version of SQL Server, you might be wondering if it’s time to upgrade. SQL Server 2022 brings powerful new features for both on-premises and cloud environments. It promises better performance, stronger security, and real-time analytics. But with the potential announcement of SQL Server vNext looming, is now the right time…
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Basic Availability Groups: Affordable High Availability with Key Limitations

Basic Availability Groups: Affordable High Availability with Key Limitations

In SQL Server 2022, Basic Availability Groups provide a limited, cost-effective solution for high availability and disaster recovery in the Standard Edition. However, they have several limitations when compared to a standard Availability Group in the Enterprise Edition. Although Basic AGs were introduced before SQL Server 2022, we’ll focus strictly on the latest version. Let’s…
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Explore IT Strategies

Essential IT Strategies and Tips: Discover Our Most Referenced Blog Posts

Ready to dive into our most popular blog posts? We’ve compiled a list of the top five blog posts that have resonated the most with our readers. Whether you’re new to our blog or a long-time reader, read on for valuable insights into data management, IT strategies, and more. Want to stay up to date…
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Deprecated Feature SQL

Tracking Deprecated Features in SQL Server

With each new release of SQL Server, we gain exciting new features—but also face the reality of deprecated features that should be phased out. Although these deprecated features aren’t immediately disabled, they won’t be supported in future SQL Server versions. Ideally, you should start removing them from your code now to avoid potential issues during…
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