Visual Studio Tools that can be a DBA’s best friend

There are so many database tools that can be leveraged with Visual Studio. Microsoft Visual Studio for Database Professionals, which at one time was referred to as DataDude, lets you create data, compare database schemas, and version control the database artifacts such as stored procedures. This tool is also excellent for performance testing because it has the ability to generate data. Bottom line you are treating your SQL application as a development application.

In addition to the Visual Studio for Database Professional, Visual Studio 2010 also introduces a new project template that lets you create a Data Tier Application. This tool lets the developer make chenges to the database schema by adding database artifacts such as tables and stored procedures. As a database developer, you can define deployment policies as well as designate where you are deploying the SQL application. The Data Tier Application can be deployed to an on-premise solution such as a traditional SQL database or to the off-premise solution based on SQL Azure.