Andreas Wolter, SQL Server consultant and trainer, provides expert guidance on server security, high availability, and auditing, helping organizations protect and optimize their database environments.
69 articles from this blog
A former Microsoft Azure Data security Program Manager reflects on their role, the impact of improving SQL's permission system, and reasons for leaving.
Explains the security concept of Audit Trails in SQL Server, covering their purpose, implementation, and importance for incident response.
Explains the security principle of Separation of Privilege in IT systems, using examples from SQL Server, OpenSSH, and Azure AD MFA.
Explains delegation of authority in security, focusing on SQL Server and Azure AD, covering identity vs. authorization level delegation and practical examples.
Explains the 'Need-to-know' security principle for SQL Server and Azure SQL, detailing access control methods and implementation scenarios.
Explains the Principle of Least Privilege (POLP) for security in SQL Server, covering user permissions, service accounts, and attack surface reduction.
An introduction to core security principles like Separation of Duties for designing and assessing secure database systems.
Explains how to use DDL Triggers in SQL Server to log database schema changes for troubleshooting, contrasting it with formal SQL Auditing for security.
Explains the security risks of the SQL Server 'Trustworthy' database setting and how it can lead to sysadmin privilege escalation.
Analysis of a SQL Server blocking scenario where a failed update with missing permissions blocks an index rebuild, exploring lock incompatibility.
Announcing a 2018 Asia & Australia tour featuring a full-day SQL Server performance analysis workshop in Melbourne and tech talks on Azure SQL and Availability Groups.
A guide to using Extended Events (XEvents) for advanced tracing and diagnostics in Azure SQL Database, covering setup and specific use cases.
A survey asking readers about their patching status for the Meltdown and Spectre CPU security vulnerabilities, with results shared.
Analysis of the Meltdown/Spectre processor flaws and their critical impact on SQL Server deployments, security, and performance.
Explains implementing Separation of Duties and role-based security in SQL Server for data protection, focusing on Least Privilege principles.
Benchmarking SQL Server cluster sizes on SSDs to determine if 64K allocation units are still optimal under various RAID configurations.
Explores performance challenges when using SQL Server's In-Memory and Natively Compiled Objects, showing they don't always provide expected speed gains.
A deep dive into SQL Server's In-Memory technologies, including Columnstore Indexes and In-Memory OLTP, presented at a tech conference.
A deep dive into troubleshooting performance issues with SQL Server's natively compiled stored procedures, focusing on unexpected preemptive waits and memory contention.
A speaker's reflections on the key factors that define a successful tech conference, based on experience attending and presenting at over 50 events worldwide.
