Last week we talked with this year’s SQLSaturday Pensacola special guest trainer, Angela Henry, learning more about her and the deep dive session she is doing Friday, June 28th on Zero to Dashboard. This week we had the opportunity to talk with our Thursday, June 27th guest expert John Morehouse, and about his training session “Managing and Architecting Azure Data Platform”. Let’s learn more about John and what you can expect if attend his deep dive training…
How long have you been working with the Azure Data Platform, and how did you get started with it? So, really, I’ve only been really working with it for a couple of years now. Prior to joining Denny Cherry & Associates I toyed around with some of the technology but didn’t get really immersed until joining Denny outfit. The cloud is the wave of the future and in looking at the cloud providers, I don’t see any slow down in advancements any time soon. DBAs need to get onboard with this concept and start to understand how the cloud can benefit their current organizations.
What do you feel are the top 5 most exciting features to come out with the Azure Data Platform over the past couple of years? This is a great question and Azure is a very large and wide platform so it’s difficult to pinpoint just 5 of them! Microsoft continuously improving the landscape as well so that’s another complexity. However, here are my top 5 (in no particular order)
- New generations of virtual machines that allow organizations to pick VM sizes more specific to a given workload
- VNet peering – which got us around having to standup gateways to having virtual networks to talk to each other
- Azure SQL DB geo-replication. This allows organizations to quickly and easily geo-replicate their data to another region.
- Azure Automation – this helps to facilitate an organization to move to the cloud to allow for automation processes against their data
- Scalability – I absolutely love the fact that I can scale my compute levels for both Azure SQL DB and Azure virtual machines with only a few clicks
The training you are doing for us on June 27th, Managing and Architecting Azure Data Platform, what do you hope attendees gain from it? One of the struggles I had coming into cloud technology is having a basic understanding of the infrastructure under the hood. Yes, you can easily stand up services or virtual machines but understanding how that plays with your current ecosystem and architecting it for the future can be daunting. I’m hoping the attendees walk away with a better understanding of how Azure really functions at a core level. Attendees will be able to take this information back to their shops and be confident they are walking into the cloud fully informed.
Are there any pre-requisites the attendees should know of? Very little. We’ll spend a good chunk of the day talking about the Azure infrastructure and what makes it tick. Probably an understanding of basic hardware and/or networking would be helpful. The training is flexible so we can go off down tangents as desired to ensure the attendees get the most out of the training.
What are some things you like to do for fun when you aren’t on the road presenting and volunteering for user groups and SQLSaturday events? I have two young sons, ages 8 & 6, so I spend quite a bit of time with them. I enjoy reading fiction novels and trying to keep up with the latest technology advancements.
Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know. I was a volunteer fire fighter/EMT for about 9 years when I lived in Nebraska. I was also a bouncer at some point in time.
When you meet John, you’ll have no problem imagining him as a fire fighter or bouncer!
Learn more about Managing and Architecting Azure Data Platform and to register for John’s full day of training visit here.
Don’t forget to also register for our main event, SQLSaturday Pensacola, a free day of Microsoft Data Platform training.
As this year’s local SQLSaturday event approaches, we thought it a good time to learn a bit more about our full day pre-con trainers. We’ll start with our Friday, June 28th guest expert and Microsoft MVP, Angela Henry, training on the Power BI suite of tools. This is Angela’s first time visiting us here in Pensacola, and we are very excited to have her! Let’s learn more about Ms. Angela…
How long have you been working with the Power BI suite, and how did you get started with it? I have been working with Power BI since 2016. I got started because my boss at the time asked if we could use Power BI in our company.
What do you feel are the top 5 most exciting features to come out in Power BI over the past couple of years? I think the biggest thing they did was change the licensing model to allow the free license users to use ALL the data sources. Prior to that if you had a free license you were severely limited on the types of data sources you could connect to. After that I would say wordwrap on visual titles (might sound small, but it had a huge impact), bookmarks, performance analyzer pane & global setting for disabling auto-date tables for new models.
The training you are doing for us on June 28th, Zero to Dashboard, what do you hope attendees gain from it? I hope attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the Power BI eco system (including licensing) and the importance of data modeling. If you don’t have a good model, it doesn’t matter how cool your visuals are if they take 10 minutes to load or refresh.
Are there any pre-requisites the attendees should know of? This is an introductory course, so bring your laptop (sorry no macs) & your curious minds. There are a few more technical requirements, but I’ll send those out to attendees the week before class.
What are some things you like to do for fun when you aren’t on the road presenting and volunteering for user groups and SQLSaturday events? I love to sew & swim, but not at the same time 😉
Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know. I am a certified fork lift driver.
Now, want to know why Angela needed to get certified in fork lifting? Well you’ll just have to find out from her in person at the event!
Learn more about Zero to Dashboard and to register for Angela’s full day of training on Power BI visit here.
Don’t forget to also register for our free day of Microsoft Data Platform training.
Stay tuned for our next guest expert interview with Microsoft MVP John Morehouse, who will be training on Thursday, June 27th on Managing and Architecting Azure Data Platform.
Last week via LinkedIn I talked about entering the web development arena with Ashtex Solutions. At the same time I was in discussions with them, my longtime friend and “boss” @Healthware Jim Voytek were talking again, as he was looking for someone to help out with some business development. (Note – when I use the word “boss”, it’s a term of endearment. I don’t use this word lightly and is only granted to those who I respect and admire. Those people know who they are).
Much of the #sqlfamily probably don’t know just how I really came to work for PASS, but honestly, as much as the Board at the time and Judy Christianson were involved (it was during SQLRally Orlando week in 2011), it really came down to Jim. When I had a sense that PASS might be offering me a role, I pinged Jim on chat around mid-week of the event and said something to the effect of “I think PASS might be offering me a paying job”. Understanding at the time, I’d been a volunteer for PASS for about three years, and I naively at the time knew so little about the inner-workings of PASS, didn’t realize anyone was actually getting paid to do the goodness of PASS. Well, Jim was silent on chat for about two hours, which never happens. He always responds right away. I was like “hey, it’s OK, I won’t go if you feel you really still need me”. At the time, a second “Karla” had been trained and on the team for about a year. Anyway, after a long two hours of waiting to see his reaction, Jim came back with one brief sentence “You have to do it, it’s your calling”. I immediately started crying, and I think he did too. Understand, we had been working together for 12 years, so this was going to be a huge change for both of us. But I can tell you, if he had come back and said “I really need you to stay on Karla”, I absolutely would have stayed and declined working for PASS.
As most do know, I left PASS at the end of 2016. It was five very rewarding years and a great journey to be on. I announced that I’d be “retiring” from PASS but knew deep down that I wouldn’t be actually retiring, I just needed a nice long break. I’ve also cut way back on my volunteering for PASS. Speakers and attendees of the most recent SQLSaturday Pensacola were informed that this would be my last time organizing a SQLSat. Good friends Ed Watson and Mike Lawell have adopted it and will hopefully continue the event in the years to come.
Fast forward to now, and here I am taking on two companies, because yes, after a seven-year hiatus I’m back to working for Jim part-time and already loving being submerged back into the home health and hospice worlds. Healthcare has always been a passion for me and really is my comfort zone. I’m excited to be back with Jim, HealthWare, and BONUS, some of my old teammates are still there!
Know someone looking for #homehealth OASIS/PPS or #hospice software? Send them my way!
As I make my way through the all too familiar Hartsfield-Atlanta airport, I can’t help but feel like a kid headed back to school tomorrow. I am going back to work in the world of data. Of course, I have all of the typical emotions: excitement, giddiness and anxiety. For the first time in nine months, I get to sport my handy, dandy backpack, not the everlasting PASS 2012 one, that would have likely made me even more emotional. I went with my neon green Microsoft Ignite one, guaranteed to stand out like the beaming smile on my face.
Before I get to what company I’m working for now, I need to thank a few people in the #sqlfamily. First off, Kendra Little [b|t] and her post “My Six Month Plan, Post Brent Ozar Unlimited”. I have worked since I was fifteen years old, and outside of time off for maternity leave with my two beautiful daughters, I have never taken more than two weeks off between jobs. Kendra’s post really resonated with me and gave me the courage to take some time for myself. Leaving my role at PASS wasn’t easy, and I knew it was going to mean putting a bit of distance between myself and most things PASS in order to really be able to make this time off count. Thank you Kendra for sharing your story, these past several months have been so therapeutic for me, my family, and my soul.
I also need to thank Steve Jones [b|t]. He was the primary reason that Rodney and I attended SQLSaturday Baton Rouge. While I knew I was ready to go back to the working world, I was struggling on just which direction to go in. When you have such a diverse background as I have, the options began to be overhelming. I did “test run” going back to the healthcare field (business operations side), but quickly I was finding it wasn’t challenging enough. I think in time it might have become something more, but I am too ambitious to just idle and play the “wait and see” game. I knew that going and listening to Steve present, and a heart to heart chat after his session, was going to help clear the muddled mess going on in my head. Steve, you have no idea how much our friendship means to me. You and Andy [b|t] will always have a special place in my heart.
Lastly I must thank the most important person in my life, commonly known as “my @SQLBeat”, my wonderful husband Rodney [b]. Without his support, I likely wouldn’t have ever made the leap to one, leave PASS, and two, take some time off for a “reset”. Thank you for affording me this luxury and being there for me always.
After planting a few seeds while at Baton Rouge, it was less than 48 hours that I was contacted by Jim Murphy [t]. That’s right, I am excited to announce that I’ve joined SQLWatchmen as Director of Marketing and Business Development.
I’m looking forward to working with Jim, Wes [b|t], Philip and the rest of the team, and taking the reins on the marketing side, so they can continue to focus on the quality, technical consulting they provide. Many of my friends are consultants, and often I’ve heard them say that marketing is typically their biggest challenge, because of course, they gravitate to the technical side.
The timing of all of this was just all too perfect. Turns out SQLWatchmen is ready for that full time marketing person and I am excited they chose me, the giddy, geek girl with the neon green backpack ready for my first day.
Yesterday we discussed with Tim Mitchell his training “Building Better SSIS Packages happening Thursday, June 1st for our upcoming SQLSaturday Pensacola. Now let’s learn more about our Friday seminar, “The Enterprise Maintenance Lifecycle: Problems & Solutions”, with trainers Sean McCown and Jen McCown.
The McCown’s, owners of MinionWare, LLC, have an extensive background as DBAs, using their combined years of experience to create Minion, a suite of products to help you manage your servers and databases. They also host a show on Friday evenings, DBAs@Midnight. Now to the interview…
How long have you been working with SQL Server, and what brought you into working with it?
Sean: 22yrs. Actually, I was a French chef before so falling into SQL was quite an accident. Getting into the full story now would take too long.
Jen: I’ve been working with SQL Server since sometime in the early 2000s, so that makes over 15 years. Like almost everyone else, I was doing something else when I was asked to do a little database work. Then, Sean told me that databases were way better (and more lucrative) than the work I’d mostly been doing before, so I took his word for it! (He was right, by the way.)
The training you are doing for us on Friday, June 2nd, “The Enterprise Maintenance Lifecycle: Problems & Solutions”, what do you hope attendees gain from it?
Sean: So many DBAs don’t have a solid understanding of what it takes to have a maintenance plan in an enterprise. I see it all the time where they’ve got completely different solutions on all their servers. There are a number of issues that are caused by one-offing solutions, and simply not having a coherent plan. I want you to come away with an understanding of the different aspects of maintenance that you need to take into account, as well as a cohesive strategy for your shop. We’ll talk through all this with you and send you away with a working solution that you can deploy everywhere. The class is very demo heavy and we discuss every aspect of your server maintenance routines.
Jen: I hope they learn to fly. Barring that, I hope they really get a good, distilled shot of our combined experience: the backup and maintenance issues that get overlooked or glossed over, the really really important things that get overlooked or glossed over…you get the picture.
What made you decide to start doing full day trainings for SQLSaturday events?
Sean: This topic especially isn’t covered in any depth by anyone out there. You can find a blog post here and there on backups, etc., but nothing in the depth you need to truly manage an enterprise. I wanted to have the freedom to explore this very deep topic as fully as I can. My only regret is that I’ve only got one day.
Jen: Why did I start doing full day training? Sean bet me I couldn’t talk for 8 hours straight. Guess I showed him. Also, we seriously have a lot to say about backups and maintenance, that we think is absolutely vital for every SQL Server DBA.
What do you feel are the top 5 most exciting features to come out in SQL Server over the past 3 years?
Sean: Certainly none of the Azure stuff. I like the features that do production DBAs some good. And I tend to like the lesser-known features. I really like delayed durability for heavy OLTP shops. I also love that they’re making some of the legacy data types able to reindex online… has that been within three years? Oh well… And I like that they’re merging a lot of the functionality between enterprise and standard.
Jen: Don’t look at me…I’m still excited about the DMVs and windowing functions!
What are some things you like to do for fun when you aren’t on the road presenting and volunteering for user groups and SQLSaturday events?
Sean: Well, I still cook a lot. I’ve been baking more in the past year than I have before. I’ve also been doing Kenpo since I was 15, and I garden. Fruits and veggies mostly. I’ve got a number of fruit trees, fruit bushes, herbs and the like.
Jen: I run, I read, I pick up various hobbies and put them back down again. Three years ago I built the kids a tree house. This year I’m registering people to vote, and thinking really hard about picking up the piano again (not literally).
Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.
Jen: I wear a size 10.5 running shoe. And I’ll answer for Sean, since he wanted to say something about bonnets…he’s got the best defined calves I’ve ever seen on an IT guy.
The McCown’s have also provided a video on what you’ll learn at this precon.
Rates for both our precons go up May 5th, so be sure and register this week to save yourself $20. The link again to the McCown’s training is here.
Be sure to also reserve your spot for SQLSaturday Pensacola!
As mentioned in last week’s post, SQLSaturday Pensacola #617 is rapidly approaching, and there is still a lot of work to get done, but things are coming along smoothly. Often attendees want more than just the 60 minute “shot-in-the brain” they get from sessions at training events, hince why many SQLSaturday organizers now add full day deep dive training seminars the days prior to their event. Pensacola is no different. We’ve been doing precons since 2011, our first was with Andy Leonard “A Day of SSIS”. That first precon was a huge success, and since we haven’t had any deep dives on SSIS since, we thought it a good time to bring the topic back around.
This year we have Tim Mitchell training on “Building Better SSIS Packages”. Tim is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, and is a consultant for and owns Tyleris Data. I first met Tim at SQLSaturday Tampa #32 in 2010. He was taking photos at the event, and I invited him to do the same for our next SQLSaturday. He graciously accepted, and that’s where our friendship began. Now, let’s learn more about Tim and what he has in store for us here in Pensacola this year.
How long have you been working with SQL Server, and what brought you into working with it?
I got my start with SQL Server in 2003. My employer at the time used an outdated system for keeping track of technical service requests, and I lobbied for a year to get a new app for tracking this information. My request was approved, with one stipulation: I would have to learn how to manage the new system’s SQL Server back end. Soon after taking on that new responsibility, I discovered that working with data was my calling.
The training you are doing for us on Thursday June 1st, “Building Better SSIS Packages”, what do you hope attendees gain from it?
My hope is that the attendees learn the easy way a few things in ETL design that I’ve learned the hard way. For every design pattern I demonstrate in this class, there are numerous mistakes, missteps, and bad designs I’ve worked through to discover a better way to solve that problem.
What made you decide to start doing full day trainings for SQLSaturday events?
I’ve always enjoyed the targeted, conventional presentations that are typically an hour or so in length. However, this format doesn’t allow a lot of time to have conversations or learn about the attendees’ data pain points. I put together my first full-day presentation about five years ago, purposefully building in some extra content that I could either use or skip based on what I learned about the attendees and what they expect to learn. I found that the full-day format makes it easier to have conversations rather than just monologue, and I can tailor the content I deliver based on questions and input from the audience.
What do you feel are the top 5 most exciting features to come out in SQL Server over the past 3 years?
It would be hard to nail down just five, but here are a handful of things that are exciting to me, in no particular order:
- The revamp of SSRS in 2016
- Inclusion of enterprise features (such as partitioning) in Standard Edition starting in SQL Server 2016 SP1
- SSIS improvements in SQL Server 2016, including custom logging levels and package-level deployment
- Azure SQL Data Warehouse
- SQL Server on Linux
What are some things you like to do for fun when you aren’t on the road presenting and volunteering for user groups and SQLSaturday events?
When I’m not traveling, I enjoy hanging out with my wife and kids. I enjoy baseball (go Rangers!), golf, and snow skiing. I’m also a craft beer adventurer, and enjoy trying new beers wherever I go.
Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.
In my past, I have been both a police officer and a firefighter.
Well I certainly learned some things about Tim that I didn’t know already, and looking forward to taking him out to some of our great local breweries here in Pensacola!
Tomorrow stay tuned for our interview with Sean McCown and Jen McCown training on Friday, June 2nd on “The Enterprise Maintenance Lifecycle: Problems and Solutions”.
Rates for both our precons go up May 5th, so be sure and register this week to save yourself $20. The link again to Tim’s training is here.
It seems like just yesterday when we held our inaugural SQLSaturday #14 in Pensacola, way back in 2009. Honestly though, it seems like a long time ago. Much has changed since 2009. Looking at some of our event sessions from that first event speaks to the passage of time: “A First Look at Visual Studio 2010” and “Introduction to Microsoft Silverlight.” 
Now, at an unbelievable #617, we are excited to be a part of the ongoing success of SQLSaturday as we prepare for our June 3rd, 2017 event. We have speakers coming from 12 states, as well as a few locally grown SQL talents, sharing their knowledge on the latest and greatest in the Microsoft Data Platform. Not only have the SQLSaturday events come a long way, but the enhancements in SQL Server 2016 has made great strides from what it was back when I was using 2008 R2. Microsoft is always improving, and doing an even better job of listening to those in the data community on their desires for SQL Server 2017. It truly is an exciting data world we are all experiencing, and it’s great that we have so many in the community willing to share what they know at SQLSaturdays all over the world.
Now back to SQLSaturday Pensacola, you can check out our full schedule here. We are also very fortunate to be able to provide two full day pre con sessions on the Thursday and Friday prior to the main event. This year Sean and Jen McCown of MinionWare will be training on Enterprise Maintenance Lifecycle: Problems & Solutions, and Tim Mitchell will be covering Building Better SSIS Packages. I’ll be covering more on these trainings in my next posts.
While topics may change, the community that is drawn to SQLSaturdays to come together to learn and network and perhaps further their career and skillsets, is one that we serve proudly here in beautiful Pensacola.
Be sure to reserve your spot today!
Interested in sponsoring? There’s still time!
Let your friends and colleagues know about our event. Download the SQLSaturdayPensacola2017_EventFlyer.
As a user group leader, I have always found that starting the new year with a “powerhouse” speaker or hot SQL Server topic really helps to set the momentum for the rest of the year. It reinvigorates the group after in many cases being somewhat dormant during the holidays. It’s just the shot in the arm everyone needs to getting back to learning and setting some new year personal goals.
Pensacola SQL is excited to announce the SQL Sons of Beaches Tour. The expert line-up touring the state is Denny Cherry (b|t), Grant Fritchey (b|t), and Buck Woody (b|t).
Shout out to Michael J Swart (b|t), thanks for the artwork!
The #SQLSoBs tour will begin immediately post the Nashville SQLSaturday event on January 14th, heading down to my hometown of Pensacola. Here is the planned schedule:
Monday, January 16 – Pensacola SQL
Tuesday, January 17 – Jacksonville SSUG
Wednesday, January 18 – Orlando PASS, MagicPASS, Space Coast SQL
Thursday, January 19 – Tampa (Hillsborough and Pinellas)
Friday, January 20 – South Florida SQL
We are excited to have our first sponsor lined up already. Thank you RedGate! If you don’t already know about RedGate tools, what rock have you been living under? I kid, well not really, but so you know, Redgate makes ingeniously simple tools for Microsoft technology professionals working with SQL Server, .NET, Visual Studio, Azure, TFS. Trusted by 91% of the Fortune 100. They are sponsoring in a big way, to include some SQL Toolbelt license giveaways. Stay tuned for details on how to win one of those, and in the meantime, download to trial some of their great products.
If you are interested in sponsoring this great cause of fantastic training to 8 user groups, please contact me directly at karlakay22@msn.com.
To register for one of these locations of the tour, visit that user groups website around end of October. They should all have their websites and registration pages ready by then. Be sure to follow us on twitter at #SQLSoBs.
Denny, Grant, Scott, and Buck – can you even imagine just how much knowledge the members of the Florida PASS Chapters are going to be absorbing with this line-up? It will either be just ridiculous overload on the brain or just an overload of fun…I am counting on both!
SQLSaturday Pensacola is coming up quickly, set for June 4th. We have some amazing speakers coming from all over the US and here locally. Check out our schedule to see what you can learn this year (for FREE) from our SQL Server and Data experts. And don’t forget to register so you can secure your spot!
In addition to SQLSaturday, each year we like to provide some deep dive training sessions (commonly known as precons) the couple of days prior to the event. There trainings are not free, but we keep them reasonably priced (appx. $130 per) for training that would typically cost a lot more. It’s top notch quality training that these presenters have offered to do at a low cost because of their love for sharing what they know and have learned themselves through their own experiences. The funds raised for these trainings helps to cover the speaker’s expenses, but also some of the expenses we incur for the SQLSaturday event.
This year we have a precon set for Thursday, June 2nd and one for Friday, June 3rd (more on the Friday precon below). I wanted to share with you an interview I did with Ed Watson [t|b] and Mike Lawell [t|b], our Thursday precon presenters coming down from Atlanta training on “Getting the New DBA Up to Speed with Performance Tuning”. I personally like to know more about speakers before investing my hard earned dollar. Personality goes a long way for me, and typically a bio isn’t enough to really get to know the type of presenter they are. Yes, I want to be entertained while I’m learning, does that make me a freak? No need to answer that, on with the interview.
How long have you been working with SQL Server, and what brought you into working with it?
[Ed] I’ve been working with SQL Server exclusively for eight years. Before that I worked for seven years with Progress 4GL RDBMS as a consultant. Some of those years involved a random SQL Server 6.5 or 7.0 instance. Progress was used heavily in manufacturing sector and there is not a lot of that in Florida so the market forces pushed me to jump to SQL Server and I never looked back.
[Mike] I started working on SQL Server 6.5 in 1996, at BellSouth Mobility, when I designed a data model for tracking Cellular Phone fraud (with an Access front end). Yep, I said it. Stop laughing! Then I moved to the Marketing Information Systems team at BellSouth Cellular Corporate, where I was doing all sorts of database analysis work. Then I started building an application for BellSouth the required a database backend, they gave me SQL Server licenses that weren’t being used. And the addiction started. Ever since, I’ve been in SQL Developer, Data Architect, Team Lead, Production DBA, Manager of Data Services, Database Consultant.
The training you are doing for us on June 2nd, Getting the New DBA Up to Speed with Performance Tuning”, what do you hope attendees gain from it?
[Ed] When I was a new DBA I was alone and had to discover many things through trial and error. Consequently, I made more mistakes than I would like to admit. In this course we want to help that new DBA get started and not have to make as many mistakes as I did. Luckily, I worked for the government, otherwise I might have been fired for a few of them. I want to make sure that new DBAs do not experience the same frustration nor the deer in the headlights look I had when there were performance issues.
[Mike] Ed, you were alone, but you got me now! Ed’s right, we all start somewhere, and I started when there wasn’t a SQLSaturday and the only “community” was in UseNet groups (like Google Groups for the younger crowd). The mistakes I made were pretty ugly. I spent 60 hour weeks for a long time improving my skills. I read many books by Ken Henderson, Kalen Delaney, and many more.
I expect the attendees to walk away with enough information that they can go home pull out our material and go through it until they understand it. No attendee will walk away with the information in their head. I’ve never seen anyone survive the drink from the fire hose.
What made you decide to start doing full day trainings jointly?
[Ed] Mike is smarter than I am but I am much better looking and funnier, of course, so the thought was that I would keep people entertained while he made sure that they learned something. Yes, I totally made that whole thing up, well except for the better looking part…have you seen my luxurious hair?
[Mike] Yeah, I keep telling you that just to make you feel good. J Who needs hair anyway? You smell kind of funny too.
Actually, I was doing a performance troubleshooting session and Ed was doing a similar session. Mine was better, but I liked Ed (because he had hair), and I didn’t want to steal all of his attendees; so I said, lets join forces. We can’t give more than a taste of what is needed in an hour. If we do a part I and II we can give attendees 2 hours of sequential information.
Then we did a half day precon… couldn’t get Ed to stop talking… and realized we had more than enough material to do a full day (if Ed didn’t talk so much). J
There you have it.
What do you feel are the top 5 most exciting features to come out in SQL Server over the past 3 years?
[Ed] The query store, live query statistics, integration with R, updateable column store indexes, and in-memory OLTP. As a consultant all of our questions revolve around those features and Power BI.
[Mike] Yeah, what he said. And, how about InMemory OLTP that might actual be useful. And god love Microsoft for the Clustered Columnstore Indexes (yeah, what Ed said)! What about fixing improving Availability Groups to be compatible with Distributed Transaction Coordinator. Woohoo. And improving the replication performance of the AGs! And my favorite AG improvement is… adding another auto-failover target. So if my data center goes down it will automatically failover to the DR site. Pure genius!
Always Encrypted looks like it is going to be very beneficial to many of my clients. Can’t wait to put it into action. And then there is Stretch Database. Is that something like Stretch Armstrong? Hmmm.
What about Data Tools!
What are some things you like to do for fun when you aren’t on the road presenting and volunteering for user groups and SQLSaturday events?
[Ed] Mike and I are certified SCUBA divers, which we will be doing while we are in Pensacola. I collect vinyl and attend between 20 and 30 concerts and music festivals a year. I am an avid college football fan and Atlanta Braves baseball fan.
[Mike] Yep, love to scuba dive. I’ve been to Bonaire, Cozumel, Okinawa, North Carolina, bunches of springs in Florida.
I like to travel with my wife, we spend a lot of time visiting our condo on 30A.
Tell us something about yourselves that most people don’t know.
[Ed] I’ve lived all over Florida, am a self-proclaimed beach bum, love roller coasters and Disney world, and my superpowers including being able to do math in my head and never getting hangovers (I’m of Irish and Scottish descent so yeah it’s in my DNA).
[Mike] I’ve lived all over the United States, Indiana, Ohio, California, Georgia, ok, not all over… but close. I worked at amusement parks (Cedar Point, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, CA (ok, only one day), Great America in Santa Clara, CA and even Sea World. We used to do fun stuff on rides to freak out the visitors. Ask me when I’ve had a beer or two at the after party.
I’m a scuba diving instructor, who taught Ed so I’d have someone to dive with. Kidding, we have a great group of SQL Scuba friends who dive together. My Twitter Handle is @sqldiver …imagine that.
I’m a real estate investor with my wife who does it full time.
Well, I feel like I’ve known you both a long time now, and I learned something new about each of you. Very cool! We look forward to having you here guys!
Get full details and register for Ed and Mike’s precon, visit their site here. Not a “new” DBA, but know someone who is, please share these details with them. They will always remember that it was YOU who got them pointed in the right direction!
Next week you’ll get to hear all about our Friday precon presenter, David Pless [t|b], a Microsoft Technical Solutions Professional. David’s day will be packed with “SQL Server 2014 and 2016 Performance Improvements and New Features”, which will include info on SSRS and PowerBI. Stay tuned!
It’s that time again to bring for its 9th consecutive year SQLSaturday Orlando. This year’s event will be held on October 10th. We often receive every year a good handful of options from those speakers wanting to do a full day training seminar for our event. We’re hoping this year will be no different, even if it makes choosing really tough for us!
Our structure is that we do one training each on Thursday and one on Friday. One being DBA focused, the other being BI centric. Something we’ve decided to do this year is formalize better for ourselves a method for analyzing the choices that come in. With that in mind we have created a survey, so that those interested can submit their pre-con for consideration versus the potential of it getting lost in one of our team member’s inboxes.
If interested in coming and presenting for our event this year, please submit your details at:
www.surveymonkey/r/SQLSatOrlandoPrecon
We hope to make our final selections by July 1st, so don’t delay!
We look forward to seeing what great options we’ll be able to share with our community this year!!!
Cheers!
Community Pollination 