Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Is SQL Server really "too legacy to love"? | The Simple Talk Podcast

In a recent article, The Register suggested that SQL Server is “too lucrative to ditch, but too legacy to love” - but is that actually true? With many years’ SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle experience between them, Steve Jones, Kellyn Gorman, Grant Fritchey, and Pat Wright offer their thoughts on the article, and the current state of SQL Server as a whole - including how it fares against other databases in 2026.

To learn and improve, we cannot be afraid to fail

“Deployment stress doesn’t just come from high-profile public outages. It often starts much earlier, when a fear of failure seeps into team culture.” Rob Richardson, Software Craftsman Rob certainly knows the stress and embarrassment of public deployment failures. "But overall" he reflects, "I’ve had more stress in my career from internal failures.

"SQL Server isn't slow - it's doing exactly what you told it to do" - a chat with David Klee

In this episode of the Redgate Simple Talk podcast, Kellyn Gorman is joined by veteran Data Platform Architect, David Klee, to talk all things SQL Server performance tuning. Learn why "it's slow" is the least useful thing anyone can tell a DBA, why you need a real baseline before diagnosing anything, and why a database is never 'just' a database - plus much more. Thanks to David for his time.

Wrapping up recent 2026 PostgreSQL community events | The Simple Talk Podcast

Two major PostgreSQL community events took place recently: PostgreSQL Development Conference 2026 (Vancouver, BC, Canada), and PG DATA 2026 (Chicago, IL). Pat Wright and Kellyn Gorman attended both and, in this quick-fire episode, offer their thoughts and key takeaways from the events. Recorded on-site at PASS Summit Europe in Frankfurt, Germany (June 11th, 2026).

Why Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) Compliance Requires Auditable Database Change Management

This article examines DORA's requirements for database change management and explains how Redgate Flyway Enterprise addresses them. The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) came into full effect in January 2025. It is designed to strengthen the ability of financial institutions to withstand operational disruption, whether caused by technology failures, data corruption, human error, or a cyberattack.

Without Governance, AI Is Just Faster Failure

Kellyn Gorman is a Database and AI Advocate and Engineer at Redgate She's the previous director of Data and AI at Silk, and the Oracle SME in Azure at Microsoft. With a robust background in cloud technology and a passion for promoting its merits and potential, I am thrilled to spearhead conversations and actions that help shape the future of this industry. Kellyn has authored numerous technical books, white papers and solution repositories in GitHub on database, AI and engineering topics.

The alerts worth your time. Resolved faster

It's 7am. An alert fired overnight. You open your monitoring solution, navigate to the alert, cross-reference the waits, check the query plans. Twenty minutes later: it should not have fired. You knew that before you started, but you had to check anyways. The feeling of being overwhelmed by alerts is real. And so is the cost. Thresholds set once and forgotten, firing on patterns that have been normal for months. The inbox fills. DBAs learn to ignore most alerts. The workaround becomes the workflow.

Why database governance in financial services is falling behind where it matters most

If anyone knows how to operate under scrutiny, it’s database teams within finance organizations. It’s a given considering the more rigorous compliance requirements and processes they must follow. But the 2026 State of the Database Landscape: Finance Edition reveals something more specific, and more uncomfortable, than the familiar story of regulatory pressure.

Turning down grad school, self-learning Power BI, and Lego! (Kristyna Ferris) | Simple Talk Podcast

Kristyna Ferris turned down grad school, learned Power BI, moved into the data world - and never looked back. In this chat with Steve Jones, Kristyna explains why she did it, what she’s learned, and even why her first DBA changed her password! Plus: being a Microsoft MVP, the importance of self-learning, being inspired to get involved with the community, and Kristyna’s passion for Lego, movies, and more!