Episode 252: The Cumulative Update Dilemma

What is the leadership of your company thinking about the future of data and the role you will play?  To help give some insight into that question we have and executive pane on episode 54.  Andrew Rose is the CEO of compare.com and Jim McCullen is the VP of IT for Century Distribution. We ask them about what they're looking for in IT staff, how they go about hiring, what they think of social media, and moving to the cloud.  They give their thoughts on what makes a great member of the team and so I hope you will give today's episode a listen. You can check out more about them and get the show notes for today's episodes at http://sqldatapartners.com/executive.

27 Juli 201638min

In Episode 53 Steve Stedman and I chat with THE Argenis Fernandez, storage guru and PASS Director-at-Large about what else? Storage.  Steve and I learn something new from Argenis every time we talk to him and this time is no exception. We are talking  LUNs, IOPs, and why he thinks we all need to approach storage a lot differently.   Check out the show notes at http://sqldatapartners.com/argenis

20 Juli 201646min

Since Microsoft purchases the R language they have been baking it into their products and SQL Server is on the list.  SQL Server 2016 now has support for R and I know I have had people approach me about this and I thought it might be interesting to get Ginger Grant on the show and talk about the implications and what we poor database administrators need to do to get ready or at least be armed with questions when approached about the subject. Are you using R? What is your experience like?  Let us know on our show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/r

13 Juli 201631min

I am always amazed at how people can use technology to solve different problems and in today's episode, my friend Jana shares with us a problem he solved with PowerShell.  The setup of this is different from previous episodes and I am interested to know if you like this format.  While we do talk about some uses of PowerShell, the interesting part is how Jana learned PowerShell, got comfortable with it, and then used it to solve a difficult problem.  Steve and I also share some thoughts about when, if ever, you should shrink a database and the impact it can have on your system.  Show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/jana

6 Juli 201626min

As database administrators, we want to get as much performance as we can out of our SQL Servers.  Microsoft has provided a few knobs for us to tweak in the Operating System, the local security policy, and in the engine itself and in episode 50 of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we review some of these SQL Server settings and how you might take advantage of some and avoid others. Join me as I chat with Justin Randall about some of these settings and get introduced to my new co-host Steve Stedman! Show notes for today are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/justin

29 Juni 201637min

When you code and you need to use a temporary object what do you use in SQL Server--temp tables or a table variable?  There is plenty of conventional wisdom out there and my guest Wayne Sheffield and I talk about the differences between these two objects.  Whether it around performance or coding standards, it seems everyone has an opinion about these objects.  Check out the show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/06/21/sql-server-temp-tables/ and I will see you on the SQL Trail compañeros!

22 Juni 201635min

Over the last few years we have seen an explosion of new technologies and processes to manage data.  Episode 48 asks the question--Is the Data Warehouse dead?  I chat with MVP Tim Mitchell about the subject and how things are changing . . . and how they are staying the same.

15 Juni 201633min

The expansion of data sets and increased expectations of businesses for analysis and modeling of data has led developers to create a number of database products to meet those needs. As data professionals, it is incumbent upon us to understand how these tools work and put them to their best use--before somebody else puts them to sub-optimal use.  I am joined by Kevin Feasel who walks us through some of the technologies available and sorts out under what circumstances we want to consider using each one.

8 Juni 201646min