20Oct 2014 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Database Lifecycle Management

Redgate Software
There are lots of people who talk about Application Lifecycle Management. But, the database is a major part of every application and if you do a similar search, there aren't very many people talking about Database Lifecycle Management at all. Why not? I'm positive you're deploying a database with your applications. I'm also positive, because of the unique problems that databases present, primarily around data persistence, that you need to think about how to get your database(s) deployed. Unfortunately, even for strong, capable data professionals, deployment is something thought about later. Or, you're still doing the old school method of waiting until there's a deployment script that you're going to review, line-by-line, before you run it against production. There's a better way. What you need to do is start thinking…
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20Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

The Red Gate Way…

DevOps, PASS, Professional Development, Redgate Software, SQL Server, T-SQL
As companies go, Red Gate is a little different. That is readily apparent in our tools and the philosophy behind them, ingeniously simple. But, we do a lot of other things too. There's the Simple-Talk web site where we publish serious articles on all aspects of development and database administration across platforms and programming languages. There's SQL Server Central, the single largest SQL Server community on the planet. There's Ask SQL Server where you can get direct answers to your direct questions about SQL Server. If all that's not enough, there are all the books, which we give away for free, on, again, all aspects of programming and database administration. But, we like to do more, so we also bring you training, the Red Gate way, at the SQL in…
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22Oct 2013 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

SQL in the City, US Tour 2013, Recap

Professional Development, Redgate Software
Red Gate visited three cities this year with our SQL in the City event; Pasadena, Atlanta and Charlotte. I just wanted to give you a quick assessment of how the events went from my point of view. Overall, each and every one of these events was awesome. I can safely say that because each and every one of these events provided something special, the opportunity to network with our peers and with the developers and project managers at Red Gate (who are also our peers, but not usually available to us). I both took part in the networking and stood back and watched it happen. I love seeing a bunch of data pro's sitting (or standing) in a circle exchanging war stories, ideas, questions, thoughts or suggestions. It means you…
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19Sep 2013 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Lighthouse

Azure, Redgate Software
Red Gate is constantly experimenting with technology. Because of a long history working within the Microsoft space, a lot of the new experimentation is in and around Azure. One new venture that could be online soon is SQL Lighthouse. It's a mechanism for dealing with changing structures in an unrestricted Windows Azure SQL Database where you have multiple developers making changes. Potentially, this is pretty interesting. Please follow the link, check it out, and sign up to be alerted when the program becomes available. Many people are just getting started with Azure, especially wrapping their heads around the concepts of using a Platform as a Service rather than having infrastructure, local, virtual, or on the cloud. If this is you, and you have an MSDN license, you can get that…
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