As you will see in this chapter, companies use SQL Server for many types of applications and on most tiers now. Gone are the days when you would second guess yourself choosing to use SQL Server over a ...

Automatically identifying queries that are now running more slowly (i.e. regressed), and changing these to use a previously faster query plan, could prove to be a very useful feature. The chapter ...

As I discussed in an earlier column, SQL Server keeps a plan cached for each query it sees (assuming the query requires planning in the first place, of course). That's great for speeding up processing ...

Often, designing databases and speeding up SQL Server queries are treated as a kind of abstract problem: A just "Find this problem, apply this solution" approach to problem solving. In practice, ...

Let's break down when it's ideal to use the NOLOCK hint and when you should never use it. As a consultant, I work on wide swaths of database systems, which means I get to see many, many SQL statements ...

Microsoft continues to make positive strides in the world of open source. The company once considered open source software to be an anathema, but now it’s common for Microsoft to pull software ...