Resources

Solutions:

Ola Hallengren‘s free scripts & solution for SQL native backups, index & statistics care-and-feeding, and a generally awesome replacement for native maintenance plans.  If you’re stuck on native, at least upgrade to this.

Or, if you have a little dough, check out Minionware!  Database maintenance by DBAs, for DBAs.  Their staff is super responsive and helpful.

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Podcasts:

{CodingBlocks}.net
Three down-to-earth, funny & sharp guys who make the world of software development a little better by taking deep dives into coding topics with an honest & realistic perspective. Leave ’em some 5-star love!
Find it on iTunes
Subscribe directly from iDevice

SQL Data Partners
Want to learn more about the various features and technologies in & around SQL Server?  Check out these interviews and discussions.
Find it on iTunes

SQL Server Radio
A little more “internationally flavored”, these guys really know their stuff – not only with SQL Server itself but other relevant happenings and tech in the data storage/science space.
Find it on iTunes

Data Driven
Andy Leonard and Frank LaVigne explore Machine Learning, AI, and Data Science. And Data Engineering, which is just a fancy word for what DBAs have been doing for decades. 😉 Excellent blend of really short ‘DataPoint’s ~5 minutes, with the normal hour-long interview-style episodes.
Find it on iTunes

The Cynical Developer
Offshoot of CodingBlocks community, James interviews actual developers making real-world use of various technologies to explain “why you should bother with them”, but also does terrific soft-skills talks to help you be more productive and effective.
Find it on iTunes

MS Dev Show
Another great software dev podcast, helping you keep up with the tech & trends in modern web & app development.
Find it on iTunes

Brent Ozar Unlimited [EXPIRED]
If you’ve ever had problems with your SQL servers, this is the first place you go!
Find it on iTunes

Kendra Little’s Dear SQL DBA [EXPIRED]
Co-founder & alumni of Brent Ozar U, she has her own excellent podcast to help you learn more about SQL Server and the DBA’s daily grind.
Find it on iTunes

Datanauts [EXPIRED]
Infrastructure engineering podcast with entertaining personalities and solid interviews.

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Blogs (which aren’t already covered by Podcasts links):

• Jon Skeet, who needs no introduction
• Adam Machanic, of sp_WhoIsActive fame
• Aaron Bertrand, of SQL Bad Habits fame and dba.stackexchange answerer-extraordinaire
• Steve Stedman, who makes a terrific free DB health check/reporting tool
• Glenn Berry, whose diagnostic scripts I trust
• Kevin Feasel, not only for CuratedSQL, but also a fabulous set of presentations with some stellar content
• Erin Stellato @SQLSkills (check out all the SQL Skills blogs)
• Kendra Little‘s SQL Workbooks training
• Shane O’Neill @SOZDBA
• SQLEspresso (@SQLespresso)
• Deb the DBA
• The Database Avenger
• Data-Miners (Gordon Linoff)
• Anybody else I follow on Twitter!

Developer blogs from the Coding Blocks community:

• codeshare.co.uk (@prjseal)
• dotnetcore (@gaprogman)
• rion.io (@rionmonster)
• lukewarren (@lukejkwarren)
• dotnetevolved (@binarynexus)
• nick.sarbicki (with an excellent post on Kubernetes)
• lemonylimes (@LemoneyLimeLime)

And general community:

• T-SQL Tuesday community blog event (rules), in which I have finally participated!

Final bits:

• A fascinating little blog post praising the merits of SQL
• A nice bullet-point article on finding out a bunch of meta-info about your SQL servers & databases, sometimes called an “environment survey” or “inventory”.
• A nice yet abandoned post on legacy LiteSpeed for SQL Server (a Dell/Quest product) extended stored-procedure (xp’s) documentation.  Handy when you’re running a significantly old version that is no longer found in official docs.
• And, last but not least, my own 10 Commandments.

Read, learn, enjoy!