Arshad Ali

I have been working with Microsoft for almost five years now and have 10+ years of extensive experience in the software industry. As a DB/BI Consultant, in an end-to-end delivery role, lately I have been working on a several enterprise scale data warehousing project for enabling\developing BI/Analytic solutions. I specialize in Database, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence application design, development and deployment, at enterprise level, with SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, Service Broker, MDS, DQS, SharePoint and PPS. In past, I also performed performance optimization for several projects with significant performance gain.

I am a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) in Microsoft SQL Server - Database Development 2008, Data Administration 2008 and Business Intelligence 2008.

In my earlier experience, I had also been developing applications in VB/ASP/.NET/ASP.NET/C# and am a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) for the .NET platform in Web/Windows/Enterprise.

I have presented in several technical events and have written 150+ technical and performance optimization technique articles on SQL Server and its related technologies which have been published on several sites.

On educational front, I am a Master in Computer Applications (MCA) and Master in Business Administration in IT (MBA-IT).

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft and help people and businesses make better use of technology to realize their full potential. The opinions mentioned herein are solely mine and do not reflect those of my current employer or previous employers.

2014 Awards
MSSQLTips award

2013 Awards
MSSQLTips award

2011 Awards

2010 Awards
MSSQLTips award

Analysis Services Administration

Understanding the SQL Server 2012 BI Semantic Model (BISM) (last update: 11/19/2012)

Analysis Services Development

Comparing Data Warehouse Design Methodologies for Microsoft SQL Server (last update: 6/24/2013)
Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence - What, Why and How - Part 1 (last update: 6/7/2013)
Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence System Architecture - Part 2 (last update: 6/14/2013)

Analysis Services Performance

SQL Server Analysis Services Best Practices for Performance Optimization - Part 2 of 4 (last update: 3/8/2012)
SSAS - Best Practices and Performance Optimization - Part 1 of 4 (last update: 2/17/2012)
SSAS - Best Practices and Performance Optimization - Part 3 of 4 (last update: 3/26/2012)
SSAS - Best Practices and Performance Optimization - Part 4 of 4 (last update: 5/4/2012)

Analysis Services Tutorials

Getting started with Tabular Model in SQL Server 2012 - Part 1 (last update: 11/29/2012)
Getting started with the SQL Server 2012 Tabular Model - Part 2 (last update: 12/17/2012)

Application Development

Using Data Access Application Block DAAB in SQL Server Part 2 of 2 (last update: 7/8/2010)
Using SQL Server Data Access Application Block (DAAB) Part 1 of 2 (last update: 6/30/2010)
Writing a Data Access Layer (DAL) for SQL Server (last update: 6/7/2010)

Azure

Creating backups and copies of your SQL Azure databases (last update: 1/25/2011)
Getting started with SQL Data Sync (last update: 11/12/2013)
Getting Started with the SQL Azure Database Manager (last update: 2/3/2011)
Moving your database to the cloud with SQL Azure (last update: 11/5/2009)
SQL Azure enhancements with SQL Server 2008 R2 (last update: 12/10/2009)
SQL Server Backups and Restores Directly with Windows Azure Blob Storage Service (last update: 12/6/2013)
SQL Server Database Backup and Restore with Windows Azure Blob Storage Cloud Services using T-SQL Commands (last update: 11/25/2013)
Understanding SQL Data Sync for SQL Server (last update: 10/25/2013)
Windows Azure SQL Database Backup and Restore strategy (last update: 10/16/2013)

Backup

Backup and Restore SQL Server databases programmatically with SMO (last update: 10/1/2009)
Backup and Restore SQL Server databases with Azure cloud services and SMO (last update: 9/23/2013)
Backup and Restore with Cloud services (Windows Azure Blob Storage Service) using PowerShell (last update: 10/11/2013)

Change Data Capture

Using Change Tracking in SQL Server 2008 (last update: 8/19/2009)

Comparison Data and Objects

SQL Data Comparison with Visual Studio 2010 (last update: 8/23/2010)
SQL Schema Comparison with Visual Studio 2010 (last update: 8/12/2010)

Data Quality Services

Creating a knowledge base and cleansing data using Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012 - Part 3 (last update: 5/24/2012)
Getting Started with Data Quality Services of SQL Server 2012 - Part 2 (last update: 5/10/2012)
Getting Started with Data Quality Services of SQL Server 2012 Using SSIS - Part 4 (last update: 6/6/2012)
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Data Quality Services - Part 1 (last update: 4/23/2012)

Database Administration

Different strategies for removing duplicate records in SQL Server (last update: 1/8/2010)

Debugging

SQL Server 2008 TSQL Debugger is back in SSMS (last update: 2/25/2009)
SQL Server 2012 TSQL Debugging enhancements (last update: 7/1/2011)

Dynamic Management Views and Functions

Understanding Catalog Views in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 (last update: 2/3/2010)
Understanding Dynamic Management Views and Functions in SQL Server 2008 (last update: 4/1/2010)

Dynamic SQL

Dynamic SQL execution on remote SQL Server using EXEC AT (last update: 5/22/2009)

Error Handling

SQL Server 2012 THROW statement to raise an exception (last update: 7/14/2011)

Extended Events

An Overview of Extended Events in SQL Server 2008 (last update: 10/28/2010)
Getting Started with Extended Events in SQL Server 2008 (last update: 10/29/2010)

Fragmentation and Index Maintenance

Fixing Index Fragmentation in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 (last update: 7/10/2009)
Index Fragmentation Report in SQL Server (last update: 3/16/2009)

Functions - System

SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Ranking Functions DENSE_RANK and NTILE (last update: 3/1/2010)
SQL Server 2008 Functions for Tables, Views, Indexes, Columns, Stored Procedures (last update: 5/12/2010)
SQL Server 2008 System Functions to Monitor the Instance, Database, Files, etc. (last update: 4/29/2010)
SQL Server Ranking Functions Row_Number and Rank (last update: 2/17/2010)

In-Memory OLTP

Getting started with Indexes on SQL Server Memory Optimized Tables (last update: 3/18/2014)
Getting started with SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP (last update: 2/7/2014)
Getting started with the AMR tool for migration to SQL Server In-memory OLTP Tables (last update: 12/31/2013)
Overview of Applications, Indexes and Limitations for SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP Tables (last update: 12/30/2013)
SQL Server 2014 In Memory OLTP Durability, Natively Compiled Stored Procedures and Transaction Isolation Level (last update: 1/20/2014)
SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP Architecture and Data Storage (last update: 12/13/2013)

Indexing

SQL Server 2012 Column Store Index Example (last update: 10/12/2012)
SQL Server Filtered Indexes What They Are, How to Use and Performance Advantages (last update: 7/2/2009)

Integration Services Best Practices

SQL Integration Services SSIS Troubleshooting Best Practices (last update: 11/20/2009)
SQL Server Integration Services SSIS Best Practices (last update: 9/18/2009)
SQL Server Integration Services SSIS Design Best Practices (last update: 12/4/2009)
SQL Server Integration Services SSIS Performance Best Practices (last update: 10/27/2009)

Integration Services Configuration Options

Data tapping during SSIS package execution in SQL Server 2012 (last update: 1/15/2013)
SSIS Project Deployment Model in SQL Server 2012 (Part 1 of 2) (last update: 8/11/2011)
SSIS Project Deployment Model in SQL Server 2012 (Part 2 of 2) (last update: 8/23/2011)

Integration Services Control Flow Transformations

SQL Server Integration Services SSIS FTP Task for Data Exchange (last update: 2/15/2013)
Transfer Database Task and Transfer SQL Server Objects Task in SSIS (last update: 7/19/2010)
Transfer SQL Server Jobs Task and Transfer SQL Server Logins Task in SSIS (last update: 8/4/2010)

Integration Services Data Flow Transformations

SSIS Multicast Transformation vs Conditional Split Transformation (last update: 6/28/2010)

Integration Services Development

Creating SSIS Package Templates for Reusability (last update: 1/2/2013)
SQL Server 2012 SSIS Enhancements Part 1 of 2 (last update: 9/1/2011)
SQL Server 2012 SSIS Enhancements Part 2 of 2 (last update: 9/14/2011)

Integration Services Email

Sending email from SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) (last update: 4/16/2009)
Sending HTML formatted email in SQL Server using the SSIS Script Task (last update: 5/18/2009)

Integration Services Excel

Importing Data From Excel Using SSIS - Part 1 (last update: 9/20/2012)
Importing Data From Excel Using SSIS - Part 2 (last update: 10/2/2012)

JOIN Tables

SQL Server CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY (last update: 8/31/2018)
Understanding SQL Server Physical Joins (last update: 9/16/2010)

Master Data Services

Excel add-in for SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services - Part 1 (last update: 8/23/2012)
Let's Explore Excel add-in of Master Data Services of SQL Server 2012 - Part 2 (last update: 8/27/2012)

Microsoft Excel Integration

Creating Power View Reports in Excel 2013 (last update: 8/27/2013)
Getting started with Power View Reports with SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server (last update: 8/2/2013)
Teach Business Users How To Create Power View Reports With SQL Server Data Sources (last update: 8/5/2013)

Paging

SQL Server 2012 Server Side Paging (last update: 7/7/2011)

Professional Development Interview Questions BI

SSIS Architecture and Internals Interview Questions (last update: 1/2/2012)
SSIS Interview Questions - Part 1 (last update: 11/23/2011)
SSIS Interview Questions for Basic Concepts and Event Logging (last update: 12/6/2011)
SSIS Interview Questions for Data Profiling, Protection Level and Package Configuration (last update: 2/3/2012)
SSIS Interview Questions for Memory Management and Deployment (last update: 1/13/2012)
SSIS Interview Questions on Transactions, Event Handling and Validation (last update: 12/12/2011)

Reporting Services Overview

SQL Server Reporting Services vs. PerformancePoint Services (last update: 8/10/2012)

Resource Governor

Handling workloads on SQL Server 2008 with Resource Governor (last update: 4/1/2009)

Scripts

Iterate through SQL Server database objects without cursors (last update: 12/21/2009)

Service Broker

Event Notifications in SQL Server for Tracking Changes (last update: 9/27/2010)
SQL Server Service Broker Poison Message Handling (last update: 3/16/2011)

Sharepoint

Diagnostic logging in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 5/11/2011)
Backup and Restore in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 10/21/2010)
Creating Web Applications, Site Collections and Sites in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 8/24/2010)
Developer Dashboard in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 11/23/2010)
Document Versioning in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 11/9/2010)
Exporting and Importing SharePoint 2010 Content (last update: 11/11/2010)
Getting Started with the SharePoint Logging and Reporting Database in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 6/1/2011)
Granular Backup and Restore in SharePoint 2010 (Part 2) (last update: 11/3/2010)
Health Analyzer in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 5/5/2011)
How the Recycle Bin Works in SharePoint (last update: 12/16/2010)
Installing and Configuring Windows SharePoint Service (WSS) 3.0 (last update: 7/8/2010)
The Ins and Outs of SharePoint Document Check-In and Check-Out (last update: 10/13/2010)
Unattached Content Database Recovery in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 11/17/2010)
Understanding and creating libraries in SharePoint 2010 (last update: 8/31/2010)
Understanding WSS 3 and MOSS 2007 (last update: 7/7/2010)

SQL Server Agent

Running a SSIS Package from SQL Server Agent Using a Proxy Account (last update: 11/11/2010)

SQL Server Configurations

Understanding SQL Server Net Libraries (last update: 3/8/2011)

SQL Server Management Objects SMO

Generate Scripts for database objects with SMO for SQL Server (last update: 9/9/2009)
Getting started with SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) (last update: 8/28/2009)
Transfer SQL Server database schema objects and data with SMO (last update: 12/29/2009)

SQL Server Management Studio

Getting started with Code Snippets feature of SQL Server 2012 (last update: 6/22/2011)
SQL Server Management Studio keyboard shortcuts (Part 1 of 2) (last update: 6/1/2011)
SSMS keyboard shortcuts (Part 2 of 2) (last update: 6/9/2011)

T-SQL

Using MERGE in SQL Server to insert, update and delete at the same time (last update: 4/9/2019)

Testing

Generating SQL Server Test Data with Visual Studio 2010 (last update: 12/23/2010)
SQL Server Unit Testing with Visual Studio 2010 (last update: 12/16/2010)

XML

Importing and Processing data from XML files into SQL Server tables (last update: 6/26/2019)

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