The most challenging part of designing an effective automated testing strategy is accurately simulating databases. Microsoft’s SQL Server (MSSQL) is particularly irksome because of its large footprint, lengthy startup time, plethora of configuration options and ability to store custom logic (stored procedures, user-defined functions, …). These characteristics make it onerous to materialize production equivalent instances within automated pipelines efficiently. This post is the first in a two-part series demonstrating a technique to assuage said difficulties.

Serverless is one of the latest buzzwords flying around in technology circles. It's hard to keep up with what it means and, more importantly, how it can be used. I spent the last few days at Serverless Conf 19 in NYC and here are some important takeaways.