I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want to speed up your application, don't look at your code, look at your data access. The two slowest things you can do in application development are ...

A SQL Server expert gives his take on the absolute, No. 1, very worst thing IT pros can do when it comes to indexing. Consultant, author and Microsoft MVP Denny Cherry travels the world helping ...

PolyBase, a data virtualization feature for SQL Server, allows users to seamlessly query data from various external sources directly using T-SQL (Transact-SQL) without the need for separate client ...

SQL Server 2008 introduces the ability to pass a table data type into stored procedures and functions. The table parameter feature can greatly ease the development process because you no longer need ...

The indexes on a the tables of a large database make a huge difference in its performance and utility. Without an index, locating a single record in a large table can take several seconds; with the ...

Note – This book abbreviates SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services as SSRS and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services as SSRS2K5. New features available in SSRS and not in SSRS2K5 are labeled with “New in ...

A new SQL Server 2025 feature lets organizations run vector-based semantic searches on their own data, connecting to local or cloud-hosted AI models without relying on massive general-purpose LLMs. I ...

SQL is neither the fastest nor the most elegant way to talk to databases, but it is the best way we have. Here’s why Today, Structured Query Language is the standard means of manipulating and querying ...

From AI-driven attacks to cutting-edge vector search capabilities, 2026 is redefining how we secure, optimize, and manage SQL databases. New SQL Server features, evolving threat landscapes, and modern ...

Last year, Microsoft officials said the next version of its SQL Server database would include built-in in-memory online transaction processing (OLTP) technology. That was all they'd say at that point ...