As you will see in this chapter, companies use SQL Server for many types of applications and on most tiers now. Gone are the days when you would second guess yourself choosing to use SQL Server over a ...

As I discussed in an earlier column, SQL Server keeps a plan cached for each query it sees (assuming the query requires planning in the first place, of course). That's great for speeding up processing ...

JSON has stolen some of XML's thunder with features such as human and machine readability, a lightweight, compact text structure and support for many software and hardware platforms. JSON (JavaScript ...

Microsoft has just added support for query hints to Azure SQL Database, giving database administrators a powerful tool to manage the performance of ISV application code. Here's how it works. Database ...

Automatically identifying queries that are now running more slowly (i.e. regressed), and changing these to use a previously faster query plan, could prove to be a very useful feature. The chapter ...

Although there was significant fanfare surrounding SQL Server Query Store's initial release in SQL Server 2016, many companies have been hesitant about adopting the performance monitoring and ...

As a consultant whose job description includes putting out performance fires, I get to see a lot of problematic queries that can dramatically harm overall server performance and throughput. Wondering ...