“Free” is a term rarely associated with Microsoft offerings, especially at the server end of the spectrum. Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, Hyper-V — IT admins know functionality comes at a ...

There are some nifty, better-than-SSMS tools that cost nothing to use. One of them is already in your toolbox and you might not know it. I'm down on SQL Server Management Studio right now. I basically ...

Microsoft's SQL Server toolbox is a morass of acronyms, from SMO to SSMS to SOS, and differentiating one from the other can be a challenge. I recently caught up with Vicky Harp, lead program manager ...

In this second delve into data cleanliness (read the first, How clean is your data?, here), we’ll test-drive the data profiling tool provided with Microsoft SQL Server. Other profiling tools have ...

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 ...

I'm down on SQL Server Management Studio right now. I basically just spent a day trying to swap out the evaluation version of SQL Server 2008 R2 with the Express version, and SSMS just wouldn't ...