As Joey explains, Activity Monitor consumes a lot of resources and yields little usable data. Here are some third-party alternatives. I get to work with a lot of customers, so I get to see a lot of ...

As I discussed in an earlier column, SQL Server keeps a plan cached for each query it sees (assuming the query requires planning in the first place, of course). That's great for speeding up processing ...

As any database admin knows, mastering the subtler nuances of SQL can be likened to the black arts. For me, tuning the efficiency of SQL queries on large, heavily used databases is a perfect example.

Everyone wants faster database queries, and both SQL developers and DBAs can turn to many time-tested methods to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, no single method is foolproof or ironclad. But even ...