AndyLeonard.blog()

Introduction Jen McCown challenged us to UnSQL Friday. Here goes! “Aren’t I Always Going To Be Me?” So much of my life can be described using quotes from Forrest Gump. I don’t know why but it is undeniable. When Forrest is asked by Jenny “Who do you want to be?” he responds “Aren’t I always going to be me?” …
Continue reading UnSQL: Branding

Introduction I am often asked about database development best practices. The foundation of best practices is simple: Create a copy of the production environment to be used for quality testing. Business Case “It doubles the infrastructure costs!” Really? How much will it cost if you deploy an untested change and it takes you offline for …
Continue reading Database Development Infrastructure

Introduction It’s that time of year again. Of the fifty-two weeks in a year, roughly forty-five are gone and seven remain to accomplish your goals for 2010. It flew by, didn’t it? How You Doin’? So how are you doing with those 2010 goals? Did you finish that pet project? What about work-life balance? Did you read …
Continue reading Professional Development

Christy and I are enjoying our last full day in Seattle today. We miss the kids terribly and look forward to the last party or two this evening, followed by the long redeye home.   Today, SQLServerCentral republished another article in my Test-Driven Database Development series: An Example of Test-Driven Database Development, Part 3. (Thanks SSC!)   :{>

Introduction The SQLRally pre-conference selections should be public knowledge at the time of publication. I’m actually writing this a week earlier – at lunchtime 3 Nov 2010. Not Selected My session, A Day of SSIS, was not selected for the BI track. I wish it had been selected, but it wasn’t. Instead, Full Day Business …
Continue reading SQLRally Pre-Cons Announced

Today, SQLServerCentral republished another article in my Test-Driven Database Development series: An Example of Test-Driven Database Development, Part 2. (Thanks SSC!)   :{>

Introduction I am so excited about delivering five – yes Five! – days of intense SSIS training 6-10 Dec 2010. The class is the five-day version of From Zero To SSIS! I <3 SSIS… … and it shows. I’m passionate about SSIS and about training. It took a solid year to write this course. In fact, …
Continue reading Five Days of Intense SSIS Training in December

Introduction  Wow – the PASS Summit is next week! I haven’t been to all PASS Summits. My first was in 2004 and it was awesome! I’ve been privileged to present since 2007. I Don’t Bite If you read this blog, if something I’ve said helped you or challeneged you or irritated you, if you just …
Continue reading Coming to the PASS Summit?

Introduction Tony Davis (Blog) wrote an interesting post (SA no more! – ha!) about users, developers, and especially third-party applications requiring sysadmin or sa login access. Tony makes an excellent point: “Ultimately, the business needs the application to work. The quickest solution to get the application into production is often to grant sysadmin privileges to …
Continue reading Database Security Testing

… you still have time to vote for your favorite SQLRally pre-conference seminars! Whether you plan to attend or not, you can still vote – it’s open to all. There are some really good sessions out there – plus mine! Voting ends at 8:00 AM PT 2 Nov 2010. :{>