Loadtesting SQL: The Sequel: Premium Edition

My previous post on load testing Azure SQL covered the Standard Edition; today I'm moving to the Premium Edition, which is Business Critical in DTU shape. Again, the calculation mixes CPU, Memory, and disk I/O. The main difference between Standard and Premium is cost. Premium is more expensive and aimed at mission-critical workloads. It has … Continue reading Loadtesting SQL: The Sequel: Premium Edition →

Load testing SQL, the sequel. Standard Edition

This series of posts is much overdue, but with good reason. When I started hammering Azure SQL again, I had a set of scripts to run and tried to figure out what was happening. For most databases, I could explain the results, but some didn't make sense. I'll get back to that later in this … Continue reading Load testing SQL, the sequel. Standard Edition →

Fabric on-demand capacity: the first experiences

If you've been following the releases announced at FabCon, you must have seen one of the bigger Fabric ones: the on-demand capacities. Now, this blogpost is based on my personal, private preview, experiences. The documentation is not yet available. I've been told it won't take long before that will be available; just as the option … Continue reading Fabric on-demand capacity: the first experiences →

Fabric Copy Job: Find the staging!

This week, I worked for a client using the following setup. Setup They're using SQL Server databases to store their OLTP data. They use a variety of options to authenticate. Fabric isn't using private links or anything; it connects to the data through the on-premises data gateway. Inside Fabric, we chose the Copy Job activity … Continue reading Fabric Copy Job: Find the staging! →

250 blog posts

Last week, I noticed that I published my 250th blog post. I'm not sure if it's something to celebrate (I'm not really someone who celebrates things), but it is an extra reason to write a new post. Endurance I started writing in 2018 after Brent Ozar suggested I do this. He also told me that … Continue reading 250 blog posts →

SQL Server 2025: Testing the JSON Index

In today's cloud era, Azure SQL is usually first with new functionality, while on-premises SQL Server follows. One of the new things is the JSON data type and accompanying JSON index. Because I had to learn how JSON works in SQL Server for my DP-800 exam, I decided to see how the JSON index works … Continue reading SQL Server 2025: Testing the JSON Index →

T-SQL Tuesday 200: When I Look at a Query …

First up, congrats to Adam Machanic and Steve Jones on reaching 200 episodes of T-SQL Tuesday; you can be proud of yourselves! I've always loved the variety of topics, the different views of the bloggers, and the learning that can be gained from all the posts. I've even had the honour of hosting. Anyway, Brent … Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday 200: When I Look at a Query … →

Attending a Level 400 training at Microsoft.

This week, I was invited to the Microsoft office in London. The reason was a Level 400 training for Microsoft partners on Real-Time Intelligence. As I've been working with RTI on a large project for the last year, it felt natural to join this training. My objectives were not listed, but I wanted to see … Continue reading Attending a Level 400 training at Microsoft. →

DP-700 training: Choose between query acceleration for OneLake shortcuts and standard OneLake shortcuts in Real-Time Intelligence

A three-line title that promises a lot! So let's try to simplify this a bit. In essence, this blog will cover how to make OneLake data quicker in an Eventhouse using shortcuts. The process, at a high level, is quite simple. In your eventhouse, create a shortcut to a Lakehouse, for instance. Enable query acceleration, … Continue reading DP-700 training: Choose between query acceleration for OneLake shortcuts and standard OneLake shortcuts in Real-Time Intelligence →

Remember your Redundancy

Let me start this blog post by asking you a question. Q. When was the last time you looked at your redundancy? Yes, this is a very vague question because there's a lot of interpretation you can put into it. Even though it's very valid to think about your personal redundancy (who can fill in … Continue reading Remember your Redundancy →