I have previously written about using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Azure Key Vaule as a great way to store and manage encryption keys for SQL Server. With Azure SQL Database there has long been an option to enable TDE with just the click of a button. A lot of users I talk to say that is great, but they need to be able to manage the keys themselves. That could be for a variety of...
May 22, 2018
Bring Your Own Key to Azure SQL Database TDE
22May
May 16, 2018
Webinar Followup: Overview of Azure Data Factory V2
16May
About 3 weeks ago I presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I talked about Azure Data Factory V2. You can watch the recording here if you missed it. In this follow-up I answer all the important questions that were posted to the Q&A pannel, like those related to the return of fun facts. If you have been tuning in for Pragmatic Works webinars for a long time you will remember fun...
April 25, 2018
State of the Cloud Database: April 2018
25April
It’s an exciting time to be a database professional. The technology is advancing quickly, large datasets are easier to handle than ever before, and the cloud is opening up new functionality and use cases that we couldn’t tackle before. My fellow database professionals, I tell you today that the state of the cloud database is strong! Today we explore three of the platform as a service...
April 12, 2018
New Azure SQL Database Pricing Model
12April
Azure SQL Database has some great built-in features that are included in the price like automatic backups, high availability, auditing and threat detection, transparent data encryption. No matter how excited people are when I talk to them about Azure SQL DB there is one topic that causes confusion. Every. Single. Time. That topic is sizing. “What the heck is that DTU thing and how many of...
April 12, 2018
New Azure SQL Database Pricing Model
Azure SQL Database has some great built-in features that are included in the price like automatic backups, high availability, auditing and threat detection, transparent data encryption. No matter how excited people are when I talk to them about Azure SQL DB there is one topic that causes confusion. Every. Single. Time. That topic is sizing. “What the heck is that DTU thing and how many of...
August 18, 2017
Fixing You’ll need a new app to open this ms-word
18August
It should come as no surprise that we rely heavily on SharePoint for sharing documents at Microsoft. For the most part it is a great solution with few issues. We can subscribe to documents and libraries and get updates when items are modified or added then go view those documents in a web browser while on the go without needing to constantly be pulling down the latest version and wondering if it...
August 15, 2017
Always Encrypted with Azure Key Vault
15August
I recently wrote a post about using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Azure Key Vault as an alternative to managing certificates. Today’s post will explore using SQL Server’s Always Encrypted functionality with Azure Key Vault. Always Encrypted, as with TDE, can use Windows certificates or what an external storage location such as a Hardware Security Module (HSM) or Azure Key...
August 8, 2017
Transparent Data Encryption with Azure Key Vault
08August
Microsoft introduced Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) to SQL Server with the 2008 release providing a simple, easy way to add an extra layer of protection to our data. TDE is not unique to SQL Server and hasn’t changed much since being introduced into the product. With Azure becoming more and more popular I get requests from customers fairly frequently asking to talk about storing the...
May 9, 2017
Webinar Followup: End to End Security with SQL Server 2016
09May
I recently presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I discussed new security features in SQL Server 2016. You can click here to watch the recording of the webinar if you missed it. In this follow up I wanted to post the scripts I used and link to a few resources. Here is a link to the scripts/deck from my presentation: End to End Security with SQL Server 2016 Here is a link to the...
April 11, 2017
Upcoming Presentation: End to End Security with SQL Server 2016
11April
Each week Pragmatic Works hosts a free training session. The topics include SQL Server internals, Business Intelligence, cloud services and even big data. On Tuesday May 2nd, 2017 I will be presenting the free training session on SQL Server 2016 security. Check out the details below. Hope to see you there. Topic: End-to-End Security with SQL Server 2016 Abstract: It only takes one data breach to...
