Full disclosure: I am a co-author of an upcoming book on SQL Server 2012, and I do a lot of work with Microsoft. Why would a new version of SQL Server be a big deal for this blog? As a mainstream ...

Microsoft recently updated SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) with support for Visual Studio 2012, improved LocalDB functionality and new SSDT Power Tools. SSDT, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a ...

Today Microsoft announced the general availability of SQL Server 2012, the world’s most widely deployed data platform for managing, accessing and delivering information. SQL Server 2012 helps address ...

Using SSDT means we don't just shout orders at the database; instead, we plan what we're going to say. For almost 13 years, Microsoft has tried to make Visual Studio a place where developers can do ...

Microsoft has introduced SQL Server 2012 to the world and it's time for IT professionals to start to come to speed on what's new. Microsoft has introduced SQL Server 2012 to the world and it's time ...

Microsoft released SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 this week. The SP2 release goes by the "RTM" (release to manufacturing) nomenclature, according to Microsoft's announcement. That's an old-fashioned ...

In my last article, I told you a bit about Microsoft’s overall big data strategy in SQL Server 2014 (which has just become available to customers) with a deep dive ...

First introduced in SQL Server 2012, columnstore indexes can give you major performance gains -- provided you have the right workloads. Here's how columnstore indexes work and what types of data work ...