I’m excited to announce the release of a new open-source project that fully automates HammerDB benchmarking for SQL Server using Docker. If you’ve ever needed to run TPC-C or TPC-H benchmarks multiple times, you know how time-consuming the manual setup can be. This project removes the hassle and gets you up and running a single command: ./loadtest.sh. Why I Built This In my work, I frequently benchmark SQL Server configurations, whether I’m comparing versions, testing new hardware, or v...| Posts on Anthony Nocentino's Blog
In modern IT environments, not all workloads require the same level of storage performance, protection, or cost. Some applications need high performance with aggressive data protection, while others are perfectly fine with lower performance in exchange for cost savings. This tiered approach to storage service delivery is fundamental to efficient infrastructure management.| www.nocentino.com
When managing storage infrastructure at scale, one of the most powerful approaches is treating related storage resources as cohesive Workloads rather than individual components. This becomes especially important when dealing with applications like SQL Server that have specific storage patterns and requirements and are often deployed at scale in a datacenter or cloud.| www.nocentino.com
I am honored to announce that I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP for the ninth consecutive year, recognized in the Azure SQL and SQL Server technical areas under Data Platform. Thanks for this incredible journey that began in 2017.| www.nocentino.com
I’m really excited to share some new functionality in SQL Server 2025 combined with some innovations in FlashArray’s REST API. In this post, I’m going to show you how to build a snapshot backup catalog using FlashArray Protection Group Tags and orchestrating the work using SQL Server 2025’s new native REST integration. With this solution, you will have the ability to query your snapshots by database name, creation time, instance name, or really any other interesting metadata that you ...| Posts on Anthony Nocentino's Blog
I’m excited to share a new open-source project I’ve been working on that combines two of my favorite areas: SQL Server and Pure Storage FlashArray performance monitoring. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I am passionate about creating tools that bridge the gap between database platforms and storage infrastructure.| www.nocentino.com
SQL Server 2025 introduces a new compression algorithm, ZSTD (Zstandard), which can help with database backup performance. The implementation of ZSTD gives you more control over your backup performance in terms of CPU consumption and backup runtime. I recently ran some rough benchmarks comparing ZSTD, and its three compression levels, with the existing MS_XPRESS algorithm, and the results are compelling and give you some additional tools for managing performance for database backups.| www.nocentino.com
In this post, I’ll walk you through a T-SQL script that creates application-consistent snapshots on Pure Storage FlashArray, all from within SQL Server, no external tooling. SQL Server 2025 introduces a powerful new feature: the sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint stored procedure. This enhancement makes calling REST APIs directly from T-SQL easier than ever. Combining this new capability with Pure Storage’s API allows us to orchestrate snapshot operations seamlessly, with no external tools ...| Anthony Nocentino's Blog
Ollama SQL FastStart streamlines the deployment of SQL Server 2025 with integrated AI capabilities through a comprehensive Docker-based solution. This project delivers a production-ready environment combining SQL Server 2025, Ollama’s large language model services, and NGINX with full SSL support—all preconfigured to work together seamlessly. I built this project to eliminate the complex configuration hurdles that typically slow down AI integration projects. Whether you’re a database pr...| Anthony Nocentino's Blog
With the release of SQL Server 2025, Microsoft is firmly positioning its flagship database platform as an enterprise-ready AI solution. Having spent time with the preview builds and working with the feature set, I believe this release represents a significant opportunity for organizations to leverage AI capabilities and their existing investments in SQL Server infrastructure, skills, and processes.| www.nocentino.com