DBInsight today has announced the release of their new SQL Server Relational Database Services (SQLRDS) for cloud based and on-premise SQL Server environments.
Recently I was requested to investigate the Cluster failures underlying a SQL Server 2012 Always On Availability Group. The topology was a two node Windows 2012 cluster with a file share tie breaker as part of the Majority Node and File share Quorum model. The cluster servers were VMware 5.1 Guests and SQL Server 2012 Enterprise was the
As a follow up to the May 2014 article SQL Server 2014 Licensing Fine Print Shockers (here), Microsoft have indicated that MSDN subscriptions licensing would be allowed on “Dedicated” AWS EC2 instances, so in this case you don’t have to use production licensing for a dev/test SQL Server on a EC2 instance. Note when you
Looking at the May 2014 Gartner Magic Quadrant vs the August 2013, it quite evident that Microsoft Azure IaaS is catching AWS in terms of functionality, automation and innovation. They are not quite there yet but at the very least they are putting pressure on AWS and AWS is responding in parts by reducing their prices and
The use of AWS S3 storage to store SQL Server backups makes sense, firstly it is significantly cheaper than EBS, secondly you can encrypt what’s stored and thirdly you can manage backup file retention and lifecycle using inbuilt functionality.
The fine print related to SQL Server 2014 in the April 2014 edition of the Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Product User Rights (Doc link) has some significant ramifications for punters who want to deploy their dev/test SQL Server environments to the cloud or want to have a passive SQL Server running in the Cloud.
Have you ever wondered why BI projects are so different to the traditional IT development projects?
I found this article 8 Ways that Business Intelligence Projects are Different (here) by Analytics8 that succinctly outlines the differences and what to watch out for when taking on a BI project.
I had a request from the client on how to enable SSL connections to their production SQL Server 2008 R2 instance to ensure that all network traffic between client application and related database is encrypted. The requirement came out of a PCI audit that dictated that Credit Card numbers should not be transported over the
In two recent BI projects customers were won over with some nice looking (snazzy) Power View dashboards and charts. Though really the hard work was in the data warehouse and cube design. If you haven’t used Power View yet then here’s a great SQL Server Pro article from Tyler Chessman on 6 tips and recent enhancements to Power
In this SQL Server Pro article Save Thousands in Licensing Costs for SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups Michael Campbell makes a case on why Windows 2012 Standard edition provides the best bang for buck in supporting your AlwaysOn Availability Group implementation.