This month’s T-SQL Tuesday, is hosting by Chris Yates (b|t). Coincidentally, it is also his birthday today! As such, he’s chosen this month’s topic to be present or gift oriented.
Reading Chris’s announcement post, I thought back to a recent conversation regarding purchasing of tools, to make our lives as data professionals easier. Many of us work for fantastic companies, but may not have the budget or ability to invest in tools for us.
My challenge to everyone is to consider giving yourself a gift and and purchasing a tool for yourself. Think about what you do on a regular basis:
- Do you often find yourself comparing “identical” databases for drift or other reasons? Like making sure pesky developers didn’t sneak in yet another index without informing you first? Wouldn’t RedGate’s SQL Compare make your life more awesome?
- Do you dig through Execution Plans regularly? How about investing in SQL Sentry’s Plan Explorer Pro version? Because you’re already using the FREE version & know it’s awesome, right? RIGHT?!?
- Sling a lot of T-SQL code daily? How about Mladen Prajdić’s SSMS Tools Pack, which is chock full of awesome features that make a T-SQL dev’s life more awesome.
I will fully admit that the cost of any of these tools is non-trivial. But on the other hand, this is about giving yourself a gift. And this gift is hopefully something you’ll use on a regular, if not daily basis, in the course of your career. Consider the value that such a tool would bring to your life. So go ahead… treat yourself to a gift!
Every Byte Counts 
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