Is SQL Server Feature Complete?

Posted on April 28, 2025 by way0utwest

I heard Brent Ozar recently talked a bit about the SQL Server platform and its future. He also mentioned that Fabric has distracted the data platform team and it isn’t a great product. I tend to agree, and I see too many bugs, holes, and problems. However at the end of this short snippet, he talks about SQL Server with an interesting comment.

Is SQL Server feature complete?

That was Brent’s opinion, which is one that I tend to share. I think that the platform is very feature-complete. There aren’t a lot of things I think I really need in order to choose SQL Server as my database. I wish some functions (FORMAT, MERGE) ran faster, and there are a few items (AGs, replication) that could be easier to work with or were more robust under load. However, overall, SQL Server runs well.

It’s a good choice, there is mature tooling available to help, it’s well understood, easy to administer for the most part, and there are lots of people that have experience on the platform. There are ample reasons to choose SQL Server as a solid relational database platform.

At the same time, if the product is feature complete, then that gives PostgreSQL, MySQL, and assorted other platforms a target to aim for and potentially displace workloads at a lower cost. Even if the features aren’t quite the same, a much lower cost can be enticing.

That ignores the cost, often a very high cost, of switching platforms. However, I do see plenty of people investigating other platforms, not to migrate or move, but for new work. That makes sense, and I suspect that is part of the reason that Microsoft keeps trying to raise the bar with new features. I’d prefer they focus more on stability and performance than new stuff, but I get that doesn’t always sell well.

Are you happy with SQL Server? Looking elsewhere? Ready to learn a few platform? Let us know today.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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The Book of Redgate: Customer Quotes

Posted on April 25, 2025 by way0utwest

Many organizations list customer testimonials and quotes on their websites or literature. It makes sense to show off those places where you’ve done well in hopes of influencing others to do business with you. We seek this out, and while we get a lot at Redgate, they take effort to put together.

I was surprised to find some of these in the Book of Redgate. After all, this was an internal publication for the employees. We don’t need customer referrals.

And yet, seeing these quotes brings me some pride. I’d hope most employees felt that way, but here are a few samples:

“I raised an issue with Redgate regarding functionality in their SQL Compare product … and a couple of months later the items identified had been rewritten”

“Whenever I show people any Redgate software, it’s like they just escaped from communist Russia and have a new life to live.”

“SQL Data Generator has overnight become the principal tool we use for loading test data to run our performance and load tests”

That last one is from Grant, before he joined us as an employee.

There are many more, and I recently saw a large spreadsheet of quotes from customers that we can use externally. It’s amazing how many people love our tools and have benefitted from them.

It’s nice to work in a successful and profitable business, but it’s really motivating when so many of our customers appreciate what we do.

I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.

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50 Years of Microsoft

Posted on April 25, 2025 by way0utwest

I get the Gates Notes email periodically and I always find it interesting to read. Like Bill Gates or not, he is a very smart individual and has thoughtful things to say. Even when I don’t always agree with him, I enjoy hearing his view and have enjoyed seeing him deliver presentations. In fact, one of my career highlights was at SQL Saturday #175 – Fargo, held at the MS campus. Bill Gates was speaking to employees that day and we were allowed to watch the Q&A from the balcony. Later, I saw him start to leave and stop by a sign. He asked someone about SQL Saturday. When they explained the idea for free conferences, he said “that’s cool.”

One of the recent emails talked about the 50th anniversary of Microsoft, with the original source code available for a BASIC interpreter. It’s an interesting read to me, since I learned BASIC first (and a little assembler) on an Apple II and a TRS-80. I didn’t start a company, but I certainly appreciate the excitement of tackling a programming challenge back then when memory and disk were in short supply. Most of my early programming tasks had me worried about how much memory and disk I was using, trying desperately to minimize both.

My first real exposure to Microsoft technology came after college, while working at a power utility. We had DOS desktops and were just starting to look at Windows 3.1. Until that point, I’d mostly lived in the Apple II space and then the mainframe/Unix space. I coveted a SparcStation with SunOS and had to settle for a PC architecture because my newly graduated budget wouldn’t support anything from SUN.

I adapted to DOS and grew to enjoy the challenges of early Windows. I adopted Win95, learned SQL Server (OS/2 and Windows NT) and the rest is history for me. I’ve been using Microsoft technologies for 33 years now, and I’ve enjoyed the time using those tools. I also appreciate the great career that Microsoft gave me.

Looking back at the times I had to work with autoexec.bat and config.sys files, when I used the probe account in early SQL Servers to check configurations, learning to track and read disk configurations for SQL Server 6.5 restores, moving from Windows NT 3.1 to 4.0 to the more modern architectures of Windows 2000 and beyond. Watching the “Visual” series of development tools and the Win32 API evolve into the .NET namespaces and the introduction of PowerShell to give us an easier way of working with non-compiled scripts. These are fun memories for me to look back on.

Most of you reading this likely use some sort of Microsoft technology. What good (or bad) memories do you have?

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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Can I Change a Primary Key Value? #SQLNewBlogger

Posted on April 23, 2025 by way0utwest

I heard someone say recently that you can’t change a primary key value in a row. That’s not the case, so I decided to show a quick proof of that.

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

The Scenario

Let’s set up a simple table with some data.

CREATE TABLE PKChangeTest (

ImportantNumber VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL CONSTRAINT PKChangeTestPK PRIMARY KEY

, CustomerName VARCHAR(50)

, StatusValue INT)

GO

INSERT dbo.PKChangeTest
   (ImportantNumber, CustomerName, StatusValue)

VALUES
   ('1234567', 'Steve', 1)

,  ('2345678', 'Andy', 1)

,  ('3456789', 'Brian', 1)

,  ('1235667', 'Leon', 1)

,  ('1265567', 'Dave', 1)

,  ('9914567', 'Bill', 1)

GO

If I look at this table, I have some unique numbers making up the PKs. If I select from the table, I can see the data.

2025-04_0117

Now, let’s change some data. I’ll change the PK values with a few statements. Then I’ll select from the table, and we will see things changed.

2025-04_0118

The ImportantNumber for both Bill and Steve have changed. These are PK modifications.

We can change a PK value. These are not set in stone once inserted.

SQL New Blogger

This is a short look at something that’s a myth among some people. When I heard someone say this, I knew I needed to prove this. The scenario took just about 5 minutes to set up (even without AI), and then it was another 10 minutes to structure and write this post.  I actually have 2 more ideas from this on things I can show to prove how PKs work and are malleable.

You can do the same thing. When you wonder about something, or hear something that isn’t true from others, prove it. And blog about it.

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