A monthly overview of things you need to know as an architect or aspiring architect.

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 ...

IDERA has released SQL Query Store Optimizer, a new tool in its portfolio of database monitoring tools to help database administrators (DBAs) manage and troubleshoot SQL Query Stores. The free tool ...

SQL Server performance is slow. Users are complaining. Your boss wants to know what's going on and what you can do to improve SQL Server performance. Where do you start? Which SQL Server query should ...

Often, designing databases and speeding up SQL Server queries are treated as a kind of abstract problem: A just "Find this problem, apply this solution" approach to problem solving. In practice, ...

When you use index views in the right situations, they can dramatically improve the performance of SQL Server queries. Tim Chapman explains why performance testing is the best way to tell if indexed ...