I've already had a few good days in Seattle/Redmond this week, meeting with the Microsoft SQL Server program teams and with other Microsoft SQL Server MVPs. I was as excited as a squeeling Justin Beiber fangirl waiting for his new video, wishing I could tell you all of the cool things I learned at Redmond about the future of SQL Server. But as ...

I've had enough time off from traveling after my surgery to finally travel again.  First on the circuit , set for August 27th, is Omaha, Nebraska and SQL Saturday #91.  As a former Crimson Tide alum, I was stoked about going to the University of Nebraska, our once and future rivals on the Grid Iron.  But after a moment's ...

Check out the new white paper “Key Methods for Managing Complex DB Environments” at Quest.com. Heterogeneous database management hassles used to be much less common than today. When I first started at Quest nearly ten years ago, I'd put forward that on 15-20% of my big customers regularly managed more than one major database platform. (That ...

Interested in my various performance tuning and troubleshooting videos about SQL Server?  These videos feature my good buddies (and uber-SQL Server experts) Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and Buck Woody (blog | twitter).  View these insight-packed training videos from our SQL Server training events originally presented on ...

Wow - what a great trip through Europe! SQLBits8 was in beautiful and sunny Brighton, which everyone local to the area assures me that it's not usually either. The crowd was large and enthusiastic. We did two rollickin' fun lunch time vendor sessions, one being the SQL Pub Quiz. (I'll tell you about the other one tomorrow in a separate ...

One of the things that I enjoy about working for Quest Software is that we give back copiously to the community.  From activities and offerings like SQLServerPedia, to our free posters mailed anywhere in North America (and don't forget the free hi-res PDFs for the rest of the world), Don't forget that free DVDs of our virtual conferences ...

Lucy, You Got Some 'Splainin to Do!' Quest Software's latest community initiative, Windows Azure-based Project Lucy, has debuted! Project Lucy is part infrastructure analytics, part social media experiment, and part performance data warehouse. The best things about Project Lucy include: It’s Free - just like our SQLServerPedia ...

Back in late May, my pal Buck Woody (blog | twitter) and I presented SQL Server for the Oracle DBA.  Buck played Jerry Lewis' role, while I played the straight man a la Dean Martin.  You can see the recording and slide deck here.  Since both Buck and I spent a considerable number of years working on Oracle, we felt like we had ...

Dream Team Forms Around Azure If you're wondering whether to hedge your long-term bets on cloud computing, this should help you solidify your thinking. Microsoft has been building a dream team for Azure, including the patriarch of Windows (and father of Windows NT) Dave Cutler.  Tweets from several Microsofties reveal that another revered ...

Toad for SQL Server Wins Best of TechEd 2010 in the Database Development CategoryToad and I go way back.  I first started with Toad as a user on the Oracle DBMS back in the early 1990's.  When I started at Quest Software back on January 2nd of 2002, one of the first products I tackled as a SQL Server product architect was ...