Learn about backup immutability for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance in this fun, Q&A based session. ✅ Chapters: 0:00 Intro and FAQ style session 0:55 Why immutability matters 1:30 What does backup immutability mean 2:00 How do you turn it on 3:00 How many days of immutable backups 4:00 Support across Azure SQL and the roadmap 5:08 How to know if your backups are immutable 6:15 Understanding WORM 6:55 What if a database is deleted 9:00 Takeaways ✅ Resources: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azuresqlblog/announcing-automatic-backup-immutability-for-azure-sql-database-and-azure-sql-ma/4543975 📌 Let's connect: Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQL #LearnSQL

Learn about how we've improved vectoring indexing since we first released it, with Bob Ward and Anna Hoffman. ✅ Chapters 0:00 Context on vector indexing for Microsoft SQL 1:10 What's new 1:40 Iterative filtering 2:00 Demo starts 2:15 Named replicas in Azure SQL Database Hyperscale 2:30 Steps to create vector index 4:00 TOP WITH APPROXIMATE 5:00 What else you should know 5:32 How much faster it is 6:20 New certification DP 800 6:45 SQL AI in a day https://aka.ms/sqlaiad ✔️Resources: https://learn.microsoft.com/sql/sql-server/ai/vectors?view=sql-server-ver17 https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-sql-db-vector-search https://aka.ms/mssqldecks 📌 Let's connect: Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQL #LearnSQL

Want to run a fully managed SQL Server in Azure without paying a cent? The Azure SQL Managed Instance free offer gives you just that. With 720 vCore hours of compute, 64 GB of storage you can have up to 500 databases for free for 12 months. Strahinja will show how to create a free SQL Managed Instance from the Azure portal, walk through what the free offer actually covers, and connect to it so you can start testing real workloads today. ✅ Chapters: 0:40 What is the free offer for Azure SQL Managed Instance 1:19 Details of what exactly you get for free 2:00 How long you can run it and how start/stop works 3:38 Limitations in the offer 4:05 Free and generous but not recommended for production 5:15 What's not supported 5:35 Expiration and upgrade process 6:02 Demo - how to get started 7:30 Demo - once it is created 8:10 Demo - how to connect with public endpoint 9:00 Demo - how to do a native restore into Azure SQL Managed Instance 10:15 Demo - how the restore works 10:40 What prerequisites do you have to have to get a free Azure SQL Managed Instance 11:48 Demo - how to monitor your free credits 12:35 Demo - how to switch to the paid tier 13:40 Demo - tips and tricks for getting started ✅ Resources: Create Free Azure SQL Managed Instance: aka.ms/create-free-sqlmi-de Learn more: aka.ms/freesqlmi 📌 Let's connect: Strahinja Rodic - https://www.linkedin.com/in/strahinjarodic/, @Strale15 on X Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQL #LearnSQL

Agentic solutions working with production data can breathe a little easier with SQL MCP Server. The latest release introduces OBO authentication, tailored MCP tools, and continued investment in security guardrails to help ensure agents do not wander into dangerous areas. With this release, SQL MCP Server gives developers and architects real tools to optimize their AI applications, while administrators gain the control they need to allow agents to interoperate securely with production data. ✅ Chapters: 0:35 Data API Builder (DAB) reference to episode here: https://youtu.be/8b_4ftQP1IY?si=dwdtyxOxYedXaB2G 1:22 What is SQL MCP Server 1:50 Why did we create it 3:08 Benefits of being integrated with DAB 5:15 Demo 7:44 Controlling Graph, REST, MCP - Demo 8:45 Configure MCP - Demo 9:01 Try SQL MCP Server and review tools - Demo 11:20 Wrap up ✔️Resources: https://aka.ms/sql/mcp 📌 Let's connect: Twitter - Jerry Nixon, https://twitter.com/jerrynixon Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQL #LearnSQL

 The 2024 FinWise data breach underscores the rising risk of insider threats within financial institutions. Unlike cyberattacks initiated by external hackers, this breach resulted from unauthorized access by a former employee who retained system credentials after leaving the company. On May 31, 2024, the ex-employee accessed FinWise Bank’s internal systems and leaked personal information of approximately 689,000 customers of American First Finance (AFF). The breach went unnoticed for more than a year, until FinWise discovered it on June 18, 2025. This prolonged exposure period raises serious concerns about the bank’s internal monitoring and incident detection capabilities.  Legal complaints against FinWise allege that the compromised data was inadequately encrypted, intensifying public scrutiny and regulatory pressure. Security experts emphasize that effective information protection involves more than encrypting financial data; it requires continuous monitoring, abnormal access detection, and secure key management. FinWise’s alleged failure to deploy these essential safeguards has led to lawsuits and reputational damage. While the bank has yet to disclose details about its encryption protocols, experts agree that encryption alone cannot protect data without proper implementation and access controls.  The incident highlights how encryption serves as a final layer of defense, but its effectiveness depends on complementary systems like key management and access control. Proper encryption management could have minimized the risk of data exposure, even after unauthorized access. In this context, Penta Security’s D.AMO encryption platform has gained renewed attention as an all-in-one defense solution against such vulnerabilities.  D.AMO, South Korea’s first packaged encryption solution launched in 2004, integrates encryption, granular access control, and an independent key management system (KMS). Trusted by over 10,000 clients across the finance, public, and enterprise sectors, D.AMO ensures data confidentiality while maintaining operational efficiency. It supports multiple encryption methods and selective column-level encryption, reducing system slowdown without compromising data protection.  The platform’s key management system, D.AMO KMS, operates as a dedicated hardware appliance that keeps encryption keys separate from the data they protect. By dividing the roles of database and security administrators, D.AMO prevents unauthorized individuals—including insiders—from accessing both encrypted data and the keys simultaneously. Even if an attacker breaches the database, the absence of decryption keys renders the stolen data unusable.  Additionally, D.AMO Control Center provides centralized management across an organization’s encryption systems. It allows administrators to monitor logs, enforce role-based access controls, and manage permissions to reduce insider misuse. This centralized visibility helps institutions detect unusual behavior early and maintain compliance with international data security regulations such as PCI-DSS, GDPR, and CCPA.  The FinWise breach serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of weak encryption governance and insufficient access monitoring. It demonstrates that robust data protection requires a proactive, multi-layered approach integrating encryption, key management, and centralized oversight. Penta Security’s D.AMO platform embodies this strategy, offering institutions a unified solution to mitigate both external and insider threats. For organizations managing sensitive customer information, implementing comprehensive encryption frameworks is no longer optional—it is essential for preserving trust, compliance, and long-term security resilience.

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YouTube video by Microsoft Developer

YouTube video by Microsoft Developer

The Microsoft SQL Drivers team has been busy with 7 releases across 6 drivers in less than a month. David Levy stops by to tell us about all of the great stuff they've delivered. Stick around to the end for a demo of new Bulk Copy and Arrow functionality in the mssql-python driver. ✅ Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:08 mssql-python: Bulk Copy & Apache Arrow 3:44 SqlClient 7.0 & JDBC 13.4 5:25 Django, PHP, ODBC - Caught Up & Shipping 7:50 Demo ✅Resources: Quickstarts for the python driver: https://aka.ms/mssql-python-qs 📌 Let's connect: Twitter - Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter - AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 Watch even more Data Exposed episodes: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQL #LearnSQL

It has finally arrived - native Regex directly in SQL Server! Now text can be searched using any Regex patterns using a variety of powerful, new functions. Enjoy demonstrations of some of the new features and why they will be a huge help for anyone that writes T-SQL! 0:00 Introduction 2:40 Demo 9:00 Demo 9:55 Getting started ✅ Resources: Regular Expressions Overview (Microsoft Learn): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/regular-expressions/overview Regex re2 syntax (Github): https://github.com/google/re2/wiki/Syntax Re2 Regex library (GitHub): https://github.com/google/re2/ About MVPs: Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the "bleeding edge" and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries/regions and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others - that's what sets them apart. Learn more: https://aka.ms/mvpprogram 📌 Let's connect: Twitter: Anna Hoffman, https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna Twitter: AzureSQL, https://aka.ms/azuresqltw 🔴 To watch other MVP Edition episodes, see our playlist: https://aka.ms/dataexposedmvps To check out even more Data Exposed episodes, see our playlist: https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt 🔔 Subscribe to our channels for even more SQL tips: Microsoft Azure SQL: https://aka.ms/msazuresqlyt Microsoft SQL Server: https://aka.ms/mssqlserveryt Microsoft Developer: https://aka.ms/microsoftdeveloperyt #AzureSQL #SQLServer