Over the years, I’ll admit, SQL Server has come a long way in making life easier for database administrators and with each version it keeps getting better and better. The installation process bakes in more best practices than ever, default settings are smarter, and cloud offerings like Azure SQL and managed instances take a lot of the heavy lifting off our plates. Backups, high availability, patching—all of these are more streamlined than they used to be. It’s tempting to think this means DBAs don’t need to know the “nuts and bolts” or “how things work under the hood” anymore.
But here’s the problem: I am seeing a real gap in foundational knowledge way too often.
When performance issues hit, or when workloads behave differently than expected, too many DBAs are at a loss because they don’t truly understand why the SQL Server engine does what it does. They’ve relied so heavily on tools, defaults, and the cloud to do the heavy lifting that they haven’t built the base knowledge to do what I call “Scooby dooing” or troubleshoot performance mysteries effectively.
Why the Basics Still Matter
SQL Server’s query optimizer, transaction log, and buffer pool aren’t just abstract components—they’re the reason your workload runs fast or slow, scales or crashes. Knowing how statistics influence query plans, why the engine chooses a scan over a seek, or how memory grants affect concurrency gives you the power to spot problems immediately. Without this grounding, you’re left guessing—and guessing is not a strategy.
And let’s be honest – the cloud doesn’t change this. In fact, it makes it more important. If you don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, you won’t recognize when resources are being wasted or when a workload is scaling is wrong. In the cloud, these things equal higher cost. Knowing the basics is what allows you to explain why things are happening and make smart decisions that save your organization both money and headaches. Without this knowledge you can’t right-size workloads, tune queries, or explain to your team why their application just doubled in cost overnight.
Stop Outsourcing Your Expertise
Yes, SQL Server is smarter now. Yes, the defaults are better. And yes, the cloud handles a lot for you. But as DBAs, our job has never just been to “keep the lights on”, though sometimes it sure feels like it. It’s to understand the engine well enough to make informed decisions, solve problems quickly, and guide organizations through the complexities of their data platforms.
So, don’t let the ease of modern tools trick you into complacency. If you’re new, invest time in learning the internals. If you’ve been around, don’t stop sharpening your skills. The foundation of SQL Server isn’t optional—it’s what separates a DBA who reacts from one who leads.
Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk 
To learn more and level check your skills join me for an all day Pre-Con this November at Pass Data Community Summit called Solving Real-World SQL Server Performance Problems
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