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If writing SQL code is part of your daily work, you won’t be surprised by things like context-aware code completion, as-you-type syntax validation, and debugging. All of them are designed to enhance and speed up your SQL coding. But what if we said that you could completely reshape your experience with an AI-powered assistant? What if you could have your error-free queries generated, analyzed, and optimized in just a couple of moments?

Grafana Tempo 2.8 is officially here, delivering new TraceQL features, performance improvements, and bug fixes, as well as some breaking changes. Watch the video below to learn more about the TraceQL features, or continue reading to get a quick overview of these and other updates. If you’re looking for something more in-depth for all of the changes that happened in this release, head over to the Grafana Tempo 2.8 release notes or the changelog.

I’ve been building apps with SQL Server for years. Everything worked well until I started dealing with sensor data, stock trade volume, and IoT telemetry. As the volume of time-stamped records grew into the millions, I saw relational databases struggling with workloads they weren’t designed for. That’s when I explored time series databases. The performance improvements were significant, but what surprised me was the mental shift required.

VictoriaMetrics Cloud continues to evolve as the most efficient, scalable and open platform in the observability landscape. In our last Q1 update blogpost, we shared new features such as seamless OpenTelemetry integrations, new Organizations support, and improvements in the Explore UI and APIs. This time we wanted to take a minute to showcase how we’re taking the interoperability journey very seriously. Integrations in VictoriaMetrics Cloud Haven’t tried VictoriaMetrics Cloud yet?

We’re excited to announce the release of SQL Prompt Version 11.0. SQL Prompt Version 11.0 adds support for SQL Server Management Studio 21 (SSMS 21) and includes compatibility with Azure Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools—building on our existing support for Azure Synapse Serverless SQL Pools. Read on to find out more about this new support along with other recent improvements to SQL Prompt.

This discussion is a part of the Basic Series serving as the starting point to quickly get you started with VictoriaMetrics. vmagent is a lightweight metrics collection agent that acts as a bridge between your applications and monitoring storage systems like VictoriaMetrics.

Traditional databases store data in structured tables, whereas NoSQL (non-SQL) databases use more flexible, non-tabular storage methods. NoSQL databases can store a wider range of data types, including document stores, wide columns, key-value stores, and graphs. These databases first emerged in the late 2000s to support massive horizontal scaling and high-throughput workloads for web applications.

Most databases were built for a slower world, one where data waited, systems pulled, and answers came later. But today, data flows. It triggers real-time decisions, powers models in motion, and spans every cloud layer. This shift demands a different kind of database—one built to execute, not just store. Microsoft has answered that call with SQL Server 2025.