SQLSaturday #700 - Colorado Springs 2018
Event Date: 03/24/2018 00:00:00
Event Location:
- Colorado Technical University
- 4435 North Chestnut Street
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
This event has completed. All data shown below is from the historical XML public data available.
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Sessions
This is a list of sessions from the event, based on the schedule in the XML files.
Title: Reducing The Surface Area Of Risk in Data Security
Abstract: Data obfuscation, also known as data masking, is soon a new legal requirement. Masking is the solution for non-production systems (i.e. DEV, TEST, etc) to greatly reduce the surface area of risk for data breach in your organization. Masking should not be confused with encryption, which is an appropriate solution for production applications. Those who believe that encryption solves all security problems are misled.
When done properly, masked data is not noticeable unless you look closely. Masking data well might still be usable for analytic reporting and aggregation, yet utterly useless for revealing confidential data. Masking is important enough that sophisticated software packages have become available.
Come learn about the right way to mask non-production data in order to allow the organization to limit possible exposure only to production. Learn what techniques can be used, why, and what factors should be considered when deciding to secure confidential data.
Speaker(s):
- Tim Gorman
Track and Room: Information Delivery - Room 4
Title: Tame Your Unruly Data With Constraints
Abstract: Bad data comes in many forms: duplicate rows, wrong data type, invalid values, and orphaned or missing foreign keys. Time is wasted cleansing, reviewing and correcting data, not to mention the potential hazards bad data can cause. This introductory presentation will explain the data types and constraints available in SQL Server, and how they can replace or augment business rules that would otherwise be written in application or procedure code. Performance benefits provided by constraints will be demonstrated. We will examine the various system views and procedures that describe constraints and how to use them to document your databases. You will be able to apply this knowledge to your database environments and see significant improvements in data quality, performance, and reliability.
Speaker(s):
- Rob Volk
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 1
Title: Make Power BI Your Own with the Power BI APIs
Abstract: Power BI makes accessing data from various sources and building advanced visualizations for analytics easy to do. Behind the scenes Power BI is built on standard technologies and APIs that allow it to be customized in multiple ways to fit in with your environment the way you need it to. In this session we will walk though samples and demos that show how you can extend Power BI with custom visualizations, access custom data sources, embed various Power BI elements in your applications, and be able to push your data into a Power BI report/dashboard. Each of these items take advantage of the Power BI APIs in different ways and we will discuss each and provide the code samples for you to take back and get a head start. This session will be showing code to access the Power BI REST API using C# and NodeJS along with some M for accessing and manipulating custom data sources.
Speaker(s):
- Steve Wake
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 3
Title: Why do I need Analysis Services?
Abstract: Do you have or are you developing a BI roadmap without Analysis Services? Do you write a lot of SSRS reports with SQL queries, views or stored procedures? Have you heard about Analysis Services but don’t know if it’s a good fit for you? Are you trying to decide whether you should go with Tabular or OLAP? Are you thinking about using Power BI? Are your business users hungry for data? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you probably need Analysis Services.
In this session we will go over use cases for Analysis Services and highlight the differences and strengths of each flavor of SSAS. We will review typical BI architectures and show how adding Analysis Services can turn your report users into happy and self sufficient data analysts. If you have a data warehouse(or even if you don’t) and aren’t using SSAS, come learn how SSAS will make your users love you.
Speaker(s):
- Phillip Labry
Track and Room: BI Information Delivery - Room 4
Title: The Life Cycle of a Query in Virtual Reality
Abstract: How would you like to learn about using Virtual Reality (VR) to present information? The ability to become immersed and walk around inside of a VR environment is a new and unique way to present and look at information. As data professionals we need to be open to novel displays of data and explore what VR can do that for us that we have not been able to do in the past. VR can provide a way for people to see relationships and interact among data sets which can be difficult for computers to display visually on a flat screen.
The Life Cycle of a Query in Virtual Reality is built using Epic Games video game engine called Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). With native support for VR, UE4 has been used for applications beyond just video games. With the commercial availability of affordable VR headsets, data professionals can now create visually compelling environments that were almost impossible or extremely expensive just a few years ago on both PC and mobile devices.
Speaker(s):
- Todd Kleinhans
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Room 5
Title: Essential Linux for the SQL Server DBA
Abstract: Linux has come to Microsoft! Do you want to gain the knowledge that Oracle DBAs have been using for years to manage their databases on this valuable OS? This session is taught by a multi-platform DBA who specializes in Oracle and SQL Server with almost two decades on Unix/Linux experience. The goal is to give you the most valuable fundamentals and commands that are important to the DBA when managing a database in a Non-Windows environment. We’ll learn:
- Linux history and concepts.
- Important differences between systems
- Crucial commands to get around a. Navigating, searching and managing b. Monitoring, tracing and updating c. Editing and scripting
You’ll leave feeling more at ease with Linux and have plenty of content and links to continue the learning after the session!
Speaker(s):
- Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 1
Title: Very Large Databases in your future
Abstract: Your databases may not be terabyte-sized yet, but they’re probably growing every day. We’ll look at lessons learned from working with multi-terabyte, very large databases (VLDBs) in the real world. Topics include storage layout decisions, unique tuning challenges, HA/DR implications, and database restores, along with shoehorning backups, re- indexing and DBCC checks into itty-bitty maintenance windows. As a bonus, many of the techniques also apply to smaller databases and consolidated servers that run hundreds of databases.
Speaker(s):
- Eric Peterson
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 1
Title: Challenges and Opportunities in Creating Accessible Power BI Reports
Abstract: Accessibility is catering for your whole audience, including those with disabilities. According to the US Census Bureau, 19 percent of the of the population had a disability in 2010. Do you know if your reports are designed in an inclusive way such that everyone can use them? This can be especially important if you are making reports for government entities, educational institutions, or the general public. In this session, we’ll discuss accessibility standards and regulations of which you may want to be aware, how users with disabilities can consume Power BI reports, and guidance and pitfalls when designing inclusive reports.
Speaker(s):
- Meagan Longoria
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Room 7
Title: The Power of Data: The Complete Beginners Data Warehouse Kit
Abstract: For many of us data is scattered in many different systems. We almost all have data that someone wants to compare or track but can’t without a lot of manual manipulation. So, how do you tie disparate systems together? With a Data Warehouse! In this presentation you will get the skills you need to start building your own. We will discuss the basics of what a Data Warehouse is, the tools needed to create, deploy and manage the Data Warehouse process, and the benefits of using the data you collect to manage operational processes and create data visualizations. After attending this session you will be able to return to your job and amaze people with your ability to show them the power of the data!
Speaker(s):
- Leslie Andrews
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 4
Title: Secrets of the Query Optimizer Revealed Using Trace Flag 86xx
Abstract: You already know a thing or two about tuning a SQL query on Microsoft SQL Server. You can read an execution plan and know the most significant red flags to look for. And you have also learned how to track the most important metrics revealed by features like the SET STATISTICS. But you want to take it up another level!
First, we will examine using undocumented trace flags to look at the steps of parsing, binding, and query optimization. Second, we will show how SQL Server builds internal memo structures and it interrogates the heuristics of the optimizer search space. Finally, we will discuss a secret trace flag that gives the optimizer more time to produce alternative execution plans for queries that push the boundaries of extreme database processing.
Speaker(s):
- Kevin Kline
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 3
Title: Get Your Optimizer to Give up All Its Secrets
Abstract: You know that execution plans can provide you with vital information to tune a query, but just how does that plan get generated? In this session, we will examine details the query optimization process that are not very well known. We will discuss how SQL Server parses a T-SQL statement then and begins applying rules to make it more efficient. Did you know that SQL Server can be coaxed into outputting hidden structures such as parse trees and memos? We’ll do just that, and then take it a step further with a unique visualization tool that I have created. With a better understanding of how SQL Server optimizes T-SQL (and sometimes doesn’t do it as well as might be hoped), you can write more efficient SQL statements.
Speaker(s):
- Brian Hansen
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 5
Title: Data Science for the SQL Server Professional
Abstract: Data science is the new buzz word in the IT community. How many times have you heard the term in recent meetings with your management or development teams? Businesses are looking to data science and advanced analytics to increase their competitive advantage. What does this mean to a SQL Server professional? Data professionals play a key role in the success of a data science project. With your overall knowledge of the data architecture within your enterprise, you are in an excellent position to help with the next advanced analytics project at your company. What are the additional skills needed to improve your role in the next data science project? Learn about the different parts of a data science project and how they relate to the skillset you already have.
Speaker(s):
- Reeves Smith
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 7
Title: Whoa! Backup, what happened? The Basics of Backups
Abstract: This session will start with performing a basic backup and restore of a database and then discuss the difference between FULL, Differential and Transaction backups. From there I will discuss many of the available options for backups, including backups of specific database files, to multiple files and different restore options.
Many DBAs still setup their backups via a GUI and “fire and forget” and don’t think about backups and restores until too late. This session will show you while that works in many cases, for larger or more complex databases, or databases with specialized HA requirements, the out of the box solution may be far from optimal.
Speaker(s):
- Greg Moore
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Room 6
Title: Beginning Powershell for DBAs 1.0
Abstract: The time has come where DBAs can no longer afford to ignore powershell. Not only has it become an integral part of SQL Server, but we’re being asked to do things on a much grander scale than ever before; things that can only be done with powershell. This session will take you from nothing and explain what powershell is all about. I’m going to show you how the more things change the more they stay the same and if you master the basics of powershell in this session, you’ll be able to work with powershell not only in SQL Server, but also at the file system level, in Exchange, IIS, Windows, and anything else. So in this session I’m going to show you the basics you need to get your powershell career started.
Speaker(s):
- Sean McCown
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 3
Title: Know Your Options: Databases on Amazon Web Services
Abstract: Are you considering to move your databases to Amazon Web Services but unsure of your options? Understand the possibilities to leverage Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service and what is the best for cloud solution your situation. Gain insights from years of lessons learned to minimize your maintenance and costs. Discover scaling possibilities for relational and NoSQL databases to petabyte size demands. I will demonstrate how to get started with the basics of managed services and platforms for running databases on AWS. DBAs, hear how to use managed relational databases such as MS SQL Server with minimal administration. Architects, Developers, DBAs, Managers or IT Professionals, discover other cloud options such as managed NoSQL or scaling your own instances with resizable elastic compute cloud. Take home an introduction from in-memory cache to petabyte-scale data warehouse databases in the Amazon cloud.
Speaker(s):
- Gabriel Villa
Track and Room: Cloud Architecture, Development Deployment - Room 2
Title: Amazon Web Services RDS with SQL Server
Abstract: Are you wanting to make more SQL Servers but don’t want to invest in more hardware? Then Relational Database Service (RDS) in Amazon Web Services (AWS) maybe the right choice for you. We will begin with creating a server using the Amazon Web Console, explore how to automate installation through Cloud Formation, show how to administrate the service, and walk through advanced features. Whether you are familiar with AWS or are brand new to it, this presentation should at least give you a good overview to decide if RDS is the right service for you.
Speaker(s):
- Christopher Wolff
Track and Room: Cloud Architecture, Development Deployment - Room 2
Title: Killing Cursors
Abstract: You’ve been around long enough to pick up on the disdain that the T-SQL community has for cursors, but how do you get away from them? We will take a common business problem and work our way through a few alternative approaches, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and evaluating the performance of each. CTEs, recursive CTEs, and the OVER AND PARTITION BY clause will be covered.
Speaker(s):
- Cyndi Johnson
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 6
Title: #GetModern With Dell EMC
Abstract: Consistent and predictable performance is critical for any successful deployment of Microsoft SQL Server. All-Flash arrays have been available for years and sub-millisecond response times should be the expectation. Maximize the performance and agility of your environment and learn how to automate and leverage self-service for snapshots of your databases for protection and re-purposing. Test/dev infrastructures can be refreshed from production DBs in minutes rather than hours or days. Stop working harder and slower than you need to be, learn how you can leverage Dell EMC. Whether storage, servers, networking, data protection, converged or hyper-converged… we have you covered.
Speaker(s):
- Matthew Smith
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Room 3
Title: PowerBI, from a DBA
Abstract: Microsoft’s PowerBI is the new hotness. In this session, you will get your hands dirty and dive into PowerBI and create an actual report, with actual data. You will get to learn from examples from what a DBA has done to implement PowerBI in his shop and make his data accessible.
As a DBA, we often need to collect and display data in a friendly and interactive fashion. We will play with some PowerShell to collect data from several systems, store this data in an Azure DB in the Cloud, then point PowerBI at this data to display and interact with said data. You will learn a little about PowerShell, Azure SQL DB, PowerBI, and how to make these work for you.
Speaker(s):
- TJay Belt
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 3
Title: Biml 101: Automation and Patterns
Abstract: Biml (Business Intelligence Markup Language) is a programming language for creating business intelligence objects. It is a simple XML that can be extended with small nuggets of C# or VB code to automatically generate SQL scripts, SSIS packages and SSAS cubes. It will allow you to turn tedious repetitive tasks into reusable scripts - no more drag-and-dropping! Using Biml will significantly cut down development time, reduce errors and improve quality of your code. In this session, you’ll find out everything you need to know to start with Biml development. Our focus will be on SSIS solutions.
Speaker(s):
- Yuliya Quintela
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 4
Title: Microsoft and Big Data - An Overview of the Power Tools and more!
Abstract: Come see Microsoft’s Power tools demonstrated for advanced analytics and hear about Microsoft’s embrace of Open Source and the Hadoop platform. We’ll also present on Microsoft’s tools for handling Big Data, such as the Parallel Data Warehouse and HDInsights.
Speaker(s):
- David Patrick
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Room 6
Title: T-SQL’s Hidden Support Feature
Abstract: The most effective T-SQL support feature comes installed with every edition of SQL Server, is enabled by default, and costs no overhead. Yet, the vast majority of database administrator underutilize or completely neglect it. That feature’s name is “comments”.
In this session, Microsoft Certified Master Jennifer McCown will demonstrate the various commenting methods that make code supportable. Attendees will#160;learn what’s important in a header comment, use code blocking to edit code, build a comprehensive help system, and explore alternative comment methods in stored procedures, SSIS packages, SSRS reports, and beyond. These methods help prevent errors and reduce troubleshooting.
Speaker(s):
- Jennifer McCown
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 7
Title: High Availability/Disaster Recovery 101
Abstract: How do you design a SQL Server 2017 infrastructure in order to meet specific Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) service levels? There are many aspects to consider, from technology choices and licensing, to policies and procedures. This session outlines and compares the various HA/DR technologies available in SQL Server 2017, showing how you can combine them to design and build a solution to help meet your HA/DR goals. This session also teaches you how to formulate policies that enable effective use of technology in your organization.
Speaker(s):
- Glenn Berry
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Room 6
Title: Harnessing D3.js to visualize geographical data
Abstract: Visualizing data on maps; simple, right? Depending on your requirements visualizing data on a map may not be as straightforward as you’d imagine. There are a lot of great mapping libraries available that can accommodate most scenarios out of the box. But what happens when you want something that isn’t so out of the box? You customize it. In this presentation, we will create a vector map of the United States using a very popular JavaScript library D3.js and bring data to the map.
Speaker(s):
- Adam Durazo
Track and Room: Information Delivery - Room 4
Title: How To Talk To Your Storage Admin
Abstract: A general discussion about storage and how it affects DBA’s. We will discuss how to monitor for performance as well. We will also discuss what DBA’s need to consider when talking to their storage administrators.
Speaker(s):
- Marsha Pierce
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 7
Title: Ch-ch-ch-changes! How to keep track of what’s happening to your data
Abstract: Join Tim Weigel for a discussion of four ways you can keep track of how your data is changing: Change Data Capture, Change Tracking, Temporal Tables, and good ol’ fashioned triggers. Tim will present a quick overview of each method, including use cases and positives and negatives.
Speaker(s):
- Tim Weigel
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 2
Title: ETL Best Practices and Techniques
Abstract: ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) is the backbone of any data project and can be upwards of 70% or more of the effort. The tools you have access to allow you to make progress in a hurry. However, are you implementing best practices and techniques that will scale to the demands you need? Or will you be refactoring far too quickly than you should to meet performance requirements?
Gain helpful insights from decades of lessons learned and walk away with best practices you can implement in your own ETL solution.
Speaker(s):
- Marc Beacom
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 7
Title: Branding Yourself for a Dream Job
Abstract: Everyone wants a dream job that they enjoy going to each week. However finding that job, and getting yourself hired can be hard for most people. Steve Jones will give you practical tips and suggestions in this session that show you how to better market yourself, how to get the attention of employers, and help improve the chances that the job you want will get offered to you. Learn about networking, blogging, and more.
Speaker(s):
- Steve Jones
Track and Room: Professional Development - Room 3
Title: Implementing a Cloud Analytics Solution: Options, costs and more
Abstract: If you’ve looked at the cloud, you’ve realized the large number of options you have to implement a complete cloud analytics solution. You have the ability to deploy dashboards, data ingestion and integration and advanced analytics to the cloud that will empower data-driven decisions for your organizations. This talk will discuss and review options you have to run Cloud Analytic Solutions from the three major cloud providers – AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Speaker(s):
- Marc Beacom
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 4
Title: Introduction to R
Abstract: You will learn R data structures such as vectors, matrices, lists and data frames; how to work with variables; common data transformations; and lastly how to leverage R’s graphical capabilities.
Speaker(s):
- Jeff Renz
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Room 5
Title: Source Control and Database Projects - Just Do It
Abstract: If you aren’t using database projects you should be and if you aren’t using any source control well….. NOW IS THE TIME. We’ll review basic functionality and purpose of both and walk through how they work together. Let’s talk about the type of foundation pieces you need to pay attention to and how to organize this into team and agile work. Lots of tips and tricks to remove the often experienced headaches that developers have experienced with implementing both of these items.
Speaker(s):
- Leslie Weed
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 6
Title: SQL Server Big Data Solution: SQL Server 2016, PolyBase and Dell EMC Isilon storage
Abstract: SQL Server 2016 and PolyBase can connect directly to HDFS on Isilon, eliminating the need for additional traditional big data infrastructure. This presentation will cover an overview of PolyBase, Isilon, a SQL Server/Isilon big data architecture and query performance test results comparing SQL Server PolyBase to Hortonworks.
Speaker(s):
- Matthew Smith
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Room 5
Title: Power BI embedded into your application
Abstract: Embedding analytics into your application can provide several benefits including improved customer engagement, additional data revenue, and product differentiation.
We’ll take a look at how to embed analytics using Power BI and cover a step wise approach to embedding, expected costs, gotchas, alternatives and a demo.
Speaker(s):
- Rajesh Chawla
Track and Room: BI Information Delivery - Room 6
Title: Data Positioning: Self-Defense or a Brilliant New Architecture
Abstract: The Cloud, streaming data, big data, self-service, machine learning, AI and the internet of things. Clearly we’re not in Data Management Kansas anymore. Data Modelers and Architects have been reacting to wave after wave of demands from these communities with new technologies and methodologies but too often remain grounded in outdated concepts of data management principles. Data Positioning is an evolution of this thinking, allowing Data Managers to deliver value today and in the future.
Speaker(s):
- Scot Reagin
Track and Room: Cloud Architecture, Development Deployment - Room 2
Title: Azure SQL and Azure Data Warehouse 101
Abstract: Need more SQL but you have run out of hardware on premises? How about SQL in the cloud? In this session we will discover what Azure is with a high level overview of Azure and we will dive into two of Azure’s Data offerings, Azure SQL Database (SQL Server) and Azure SQL Datawarehouse (PDW). We will walk through setting up an Azure environment for the first time and how to deploy and use Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Datawarehouse. We will also discuss things like what is IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
Speaker(s):
- Mark Moore
Track and Room: Cloud Architecture, Development Deployment - Room 2
Title: LIVE SQL Server 2017 LINUX Availability Group build-out!
Abstract: Full LIVE build-out of a 3-node SQL Server 2017 Availability Group, on Linux, using native clustering tools! We’ll have some things already prepped due to time constraints, but we’ll cover general configuration of the operating system, installing SQL Server, and finish with an controlled failover of SQL Server using native Linux utilities. We’ll talk about each step along the way.
Speaker(s):
- Dave Walden
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 1
Title: Operationalizing Data Science
Abstract: The challenge of developing a predictive model is the secret sauce that data science practitioners strive to achieve. While sophisticated predictive models can be game changers that give you a competitive edge, they must be nurtured and closely watched to ensure they perform as expected. This session shows attendees how to build a framework and develop a data model that handles prediction logging, prediction performance management, and analysis. A case study will show predictions can degrade and ultimately fail, further emphasizing the importance of tracking their performance.
Speaker(s):
- Carlos Bossy
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Room 5
Title: Climbing the SQL Server Index B-Tree (from a user perspective)
Abstract: This session dives down and looks at the important items on data pages of clustered, non-clustered, and unique non-clustered indexes using the DBCC Page command. It will also look at the effect of row data compression on clustered and non-clustered indexes. In all demos we will try to ascertain how the SQL Server® optimizer might use them and also strive to gain some insight from a performance advantage. Its purpose is mainly to try and understand how SQL Server implements indexes, their underlying structure, and where performance benefits might lie from a layman’s viewpoint. Session is 80% demos.
Speaker(s):
- Mike Byrd
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 6
Title: Where Do I Start? A guide for the new SQL Techie.
Abstract: How do you get what you need to be a DBA… or anything for that matter? Well, this session is built around giving you not only great resources to help bridge those knowledge gaps… but is a great place to have an open discussion regarding ideas around education, certification, and how to build your own testing environments. Expect me to try and pry a conversation out of this room.
Speaker(s):
- William Barnes
Track and Room: Professional Development - Room 5
Title: Dynamic SQL: Tables, Pivots, Parameters
Abstract: Dynamic SQL is a scripting language that helps you design flexibility into your code. It allows you to design solutions, pass parameters and allows you build a single query on values passed. Dynamic SQL has both pros and cons to it’s design, but can also be a helpful tool. This presentation will walk through the steps of building dynamic tables, aggregating data in a pivot format and give you the first steps of writing a Dynamic Query. There are hundreds of task that will benefit from the use of Dynamic SQL. From parameter based searches to building dynamic SELECT statements at run time.
Speaker(s):
- Steven Tidwell
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Room 1
Speakers
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
Kevin Kline
Twitter: - kekline
LinkedIn: Kevin Kline
Contact: http://blogs.sentryone.com/author/kevinkline
Kevin Kline is a database and industry expert serving as Principal Program Manager at SentryOne, the industry leading SQL Server database tools vendor. A Microsoft SQL Server MVP since 2003, he is a founder and former president of PASS. Kevin is an author of many books, blogger, columnist, and popular international speaker. Kevin’s best known book is the best-selling SQL in a Nutshell and contributes monthly to Database Trends Applications magazine. He tweets at @kekline and blogs at http://Blogs.SQLSentry.com/Author/KevinKline.
TJay Belt
Twitter: - @tjaybelt
LinkedIn: TJay Belt
Contact: http://tjaybelt.blogspot.com
TJay Belt is an outdoorsman at heart who enjoys riding dirtbikes, waterskiing, boating, playing racquetball and spending time with his family. When he can’t be out playing, TJay loves to tinker with databases. TJay has been an IT professional for over a decade and a half. Currently serving as a Senior Database Administrator with Imagine Learning. TJay has progressed through several roles in his database career including developer, data guy, database developer, database analyst and DBA.
Sean McCown
Twitter: - @KenpoDBA
Contact: http://www.midnightdba.com/dbarant
Sean McCown is a Certified Master with 23 years of experience in databases. He is also founder and co-owner of the MidnightDBA.com website, where he records free SQL Server training videos. He also writes the popular Minion Maintenance suite, the most configurable maintenance solution on the planet.
Todd Kleinhans
Twitter: - @toddkleinhans
LinkedIn: Todd Kleinhans
Contact: https://toddkleinhans.wordpress.com/
Todd Kleinhans has been using SQL Server since the last millennium. He has served in different roles across many industries but he’s mainly been a DBA. When not in virtual reality, he likes to speak at PASS sponsored events and volunteers in various groups like PASS, DSSUG, Colorado Virtual Reality and is the President of Denver/Boulder Unreal Engine group. He is on Twitter: @toddkleinhans and blogs at https://toddkleinhans.wordpress.com/
Glenn Berry
Twitter: - GlennAlanBerry
LinkedIn: Glenn Berry
Contact: https://glennsqlperformance.com/
Glenn works as a Principal Consultant for Dr. DMV, LLC in Elizabeth, CO. He was a Data Platform MVP from 2007-2017, and he has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS, which proves that he likes to take tests. His expertise includes DMVs, high availability, hardware selection, performance tuning, and Azure SQL Database. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College - University of Denver, where has been teaching since 2000. He has completed the Master Teacher Program at Denver University - University College. He is heavily involved in the SQL Server community, and is a frequent speaker at user groups, SQLSaturdays, and the PASS Community Summit.
Kevin Kline
Twitter: - kekline
LinkedIn: Kevin Kline
Contact: http://blogs.sentryone.com/author/kevinkline
Kevin Kline is a database and industry expert serving as Principal Program Manager at SentryOne, the industry leading SQL Server database tools vendor. A Microsoft SQL Server MVP since 2003, he is a founder and former president of PASS. Kevin is an author of many books, blogger, columnist, and popular international speaker. Kevin’s best known book is the best-selling SQL in a Nutshell and contributes monthly to Database Trends Applications magazine. He tweets at @kekline and blogs at http://Blogs.SQLSentry.com/Author/KevinKline.
Yuliya Quintela
LinkedIn: Yuliya Quintela
Yuliya is a consultant and developer for Business Intelligence Solutions. She has experience in various areas including Education, Finance, Telecommunications, and Software Technology into model data, visualize and deliver critical information to solve complex business decisions using Microsoft data platform and business analytics. She is an active member of the Business Intelligence and SQL Server community in Denver and a member of the Colorado SQL PASS chapter user group. She specializes in SQL Server 2016 Reporting and Integration Services and holds professional certifications including MCSE for the Data Platform.
Tim Weigel
Twitter: - @timweigel
LinkedIn: Tim Weigel
Contact: http://timweigel.blogspot.com/
I’m an accidental DBA turned full-time DBA, and I’ve been working with SQL Server since 2010. I’ve worked with SQL Server installations ranging from single Express instances all the way up to global enterprise deployments. I’m never going to run out of things to learn!
Christopher Wolff
Twitter: - @tickytong
LinkedIn: Christopher Wolff
Contact: http://sqlred.blogspot.com/
Chris Wolff has been a developer, report writer, and an admin in Microsoft and SQL Server Space since SQL Server 2000 in industries such as telecommunications, green energy, money transfers, and online accounting. He has been an active member of the Denver SQL User Group since 2011 and enjoys learning new things about computers. His interests includes video games, movies, and enjoying time with his wife and 2 kids.
Reeves Smith
Twitter: - SQLReeves
LinkedIn: Reeves Smith
Contact: http://reevessmith.wordpress.com
Reeves Smith, owner and principal architect of Macer Consulting, is passionate about applying data technologies that empower organizations. Reeves wields his knowledge and experience to lead, design, architect, and teach, working with both data center and business project teams. He approaches every project by first understanding the organization’s business challenges, and then developing a unique approach that targets those business needs accurately and effectively.
Reeves Smith has more than 20 years of experience working on the SQL Server stack. He is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Certified Master, and regularly delivers technical presentations at international, regional, and local conferences and user groups.
Steve Jones
Twitter: - way0utwest
LinkedIn: Steve Jones
Contact: http://www.voiceofthedba.com/
Steve Jones is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and has been working with SQL Server since version 4.2 on OS/2. After working as a DBA and developer for a variety of companies, Steve co-founded the community website SQLServerCentral.com in 2001. Since 2004, Steve has been the full-time editor of the site, ensuring it continues to be a great resource for SQL Server professionals. Over the last decade, Steve has written hundreds of articles about SQL Server for SQLServerCentral.com, SQL Server Standard magazine, SQL Server Magazine, and Database Journal.
Cyndi Johnson
LinkedIn: Cyndi Johnson
Contact: https://cyndijohnson.net
Cyndi’s been in tech for over 13 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education-Mathematics from University of Nevada Reno, but has never “taught”. She worked as an application developer for a small tech company in Boise for 6 years, before focusing purely on SQL Server database development. She currently works full time for a tech company in Utah while doing some freelance work on the side. She enjoys sharing her technical knowledge, learning new things, reading, yoga, and weight lifting.
Marc Beacom
Twitter: - MarcBeacom
LinkedIn: Marc Beacom
Contact: https://datalere.com/author/marc-beacom/
Marc Beacom, Managing Partner at Datalere, leverages over two decades of experience to better the data landscape for clients, along with nearly a decade of building and managing productive teams. Marc has led architecture and developed data integration strategies for dozens of Colorado based companies and organizations. Marc maintains an active presence in the Colorado community by volunteering and serving on nonprofit boards, speaking and running user groups.
Leslie Weed
Twitter: - @weederbug
Leslie Weed is currently a Data and BI Architect with RevGen Partners in Denver, CO. She has been a SQL Professional specializing in Business Intelligence, data analytics, systems implementation, integration, and solutions delivery for the last 20ish years, including a variety of Enterprise Data Warehouses in various industries.
Scot Reagin
Twitter: - @SDIScot
LinkedIn: Scot Reagin
Contact: http://sensibledataintegrations.com/blog/
TDWI Certified Business Intelligence Professional Certified Data Vault Data Modeler
More than thirty years of technology experience serving in a wide variety of roles including: Software Designer, Solution Architect, and Operations and General Manager. Experience designing and implementing complete analytic solutions for organizations of many sizes and in diverse industries.
Business intelligence specific experience encompasses all aspects of Enterprise Information solutions including: Information Quality, Enterprise Data Warehousing, Business Analysis Data Marts, and comprehensive visualization applications.
William Barnes
Temp
Mike Byrd
Twitter: - ByrdNest_TX
LinkedIn: Mike Byrd
Contact: http://logicalread.solarwinds.com/?s=byrd, www.TSQLMentoring.com and SQLServerCentral.com
Former rocket scientist and USAF Fighter Pilot – now a SQL Server geek (24 years)! Past opportunities include free-lance technical writer for PC Magazine, Senior Software Manager for government sponsored munitions effectiveness committee, and insurance company CTO. Currently senior database engineer consultant for several Austin companies.
Presenter at many SQLSaturdays over last 6 years in United States, Europe, and Australia.
Specialize in SQL Server performance tuning; database (OLTP OLAP) architecture; trouble-shooting; teaching TSQL (Basic through Advanced).
Video presentations (for local SQL Server user groups or SQLSaturdays) can be found at http://usergroup.tv/videos/category/speaker/mike-byrd
Rob Volk
Twitter: - sql_r
LinkedIn: Rob Volk
Contact: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/robv/
Rob Volk is a SQL Server DBA in the Metro Atlanta area since 2001. He also moderates and answers the forums on SQLTeam.com. While an old-time cranky DBA, he no longer considers quot;business intelligencequot; an oxymoron or quot;the cloudquot; as merely atmospheric moisture, and is delightedly dipping his toes into both of these new oceans, and loves to do things in new and and unusual ways.
Adam Durazo
LinkedIn: Adam Durazo
Adam Durazo, Senior Consultant / Developer at Datalere, leverages over a decade of development experience in the medium to small business space, developing on and in any environment to get the business task done. Adam has successfully architected and developed many SAAS applications and is familiar with taking a product from conception to release, including the growing pains of success.
Marc Beacom
Twitter: - MarcBeacom
LinkedIn: Marc Beacom
Contact: https://datalere.com/author/marc-beacom/
Marc Beacom, Managing Partner at Datalere, leverages over two decades of experience to better the data landscape for clients, along with nearly a decade of building and managing productive teams. Marc has led architecture and developed data integration strategies for dozens of Colorado based companies and organizations. Marc maintains an active presence in the Colorado community by volunteering and serving on nonprofit boards, speaking and running user groups.
Leslie Andrews
Twitter: - landrews5807
LinkedIn: Leslie Andrews
Contact: https://www.lace.technology/blog
Leslie Andrews is an IT professional with almost 20 years of experience working with databases, designing databases, as well as designing and developing applications against those databases. 2018-2019 Idera ACE.
Mark Moore
LinkedIn: Mark Moore
Contact: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/markm
Mark Moore is a Cloud Solutions Architect working for Microsoft in North Texas. Mark has been with Microsoft for 25 years serving in various roles in Services and Sales. Prior to Microsoft Mark worked at Digital Equipment Corporation serving Federal and Government customers in San Antonio, Texas. Mark currently resides with his Wife (Deanne) in the DFW area.
Jennifer McCown
Twitter: - http://www.Twitter.com/MidnightDBA
LinkedIn: Jennifer McCown
Contact: http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen
Jen McCown is CEO of MinionWare, LLC; a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server; and an independent consultant. She is Senior Editor at MidnightDBA.com, where she creates training videos, the DBAs at Midnight webshow, blogs, reviews, and podcasts. Jen is a member, volunteer, and speaker in PASS, and the PASS Women in Technology Virtual Group.
Dave Walden
With over 20 years of experience in large, high performance, mission critical environments, Dave brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. While his primary focus is the data platform, Dave has deep expertise in other fields, including Cloud (Private/Public/Hybrid), Storage, Virtualization, Compute and Networking. Dave also has deep experience in the Big Data space, having worked in technologies such as Hadoop, Data Lake, Cosmos DB and MongoDB. Dave is a international speaker on SQL Server related topics, most recently on SQL Server on Linux.
Matthew Smith
LinkedIn: Matthew Smith
Delivery consultant w/ Dell EMC.
Jennifer McCown
Twitter: - http://www.Twitter.com/MidnightDBA
LinkedIn: Jennifer McCown
Contact: http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen
Jen McCown is CEO of MinionWare, LLC; a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server; and an independent consultant. She is Senior Editor at MidnightDBA.com, where she creates training videos, the DBAs at Midnight webshow, blogs, reviews, and podcasts. Jen is a member, volunteer, and speaker in PASS, and the PASS Women in Technology Virtual Group.
Steve Wake
Twitter: - stevewake
LinkedIn: Steve Wake
Contact: http://blog.wakebi.com
Steve Wake is currently the Principal BI Developer at Brown and Caldwell and has experience in consulting, advertising, media, manufacturing, retail, charities, telecommunications and financial services organizations using the full on-premises Microsoft BI stack. Recent experience with the Azure services: Analysis Services, Logic Apps, Data Factory, Databricks, Snowflake and Power BI. Steve is also very involved in the SQL community, speaking at events around the world.
Carlos Bossy
Twitter: - @carlosbossy
LinkedIn: Carlos Bossy
Contact: http://www.carlosbossy.com
Carlos Bossy (MCTS, MCP BI, CBIP) is a data and cloud analytics architect with 25 years of experience in software and database development. As a principal of Datalere, Carlos focuses on developing BI, Data Science, and Advanced Analytics solutions, including modeling data warehouses and delivering predictive models, integration, and visualization. He has developed warehouses and BI solutions for a variety of industries and state agencies, including health insurance, solar energy, foster care, telecom, and manufacturing.
Brian Hansen
Twitter: - tf3604
Contact: http://www.tf3604.com
Brian is a database administrator at Children International in Kansas City. He has been working with SQL Server technologies since 1998, including roles in report development, application development and database administration.
Steven Tidwell
Twitter: - @SQLCodeMonkey
LinkedIn: Steven Tidwell
Contact: https://www.sqlcodemonkey.com
I am currently the Technical Lead for Client custom projects. I have been writing SQL Code starting in SQL 7. Over the years I have put on many hats, DBA, Developer, Web Developer, C#, VB.NET, Cold Fusion and Java. But at the end of the day, I prefer to write SQL. Local Chapter Leader for the South Montgomery County SQL Server User Group in Montgomery County, Texas.
Greg Moore
Twitter: - @stridergdm
LinkedIn: Greg Moore
Contact: https://blog.greenms.com
Greg Moore is a graduate of RPI. There, he majored in CompSci, but probably spent as much time hiking, canoeing, caving and rock-climbing as he did studying. He started working with SQL Server 4.21a in 1995 and has survived numerous upgrades. He’s been a Director and later VP of IT at several startups including PowerOne Media, TownNews and Traffiq and now consults. These days, when he’s not busy with playing with SQL Server or spending time with his family, he can often be found underground caving or teaching cave rescue with the NCRC. While his focus is on the operations side of DBA, his interests include DR, performance and general IT problem solving. He is the author of: IT Disaster Response: Lessons Learned in the Field.
Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Twitter: - DBAKevlar
LinkedIn: Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Contact: http://dbakevlar.com
Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman is a member of the Oak Table Network and an Idera ACE and Oracle ACE Director alumnus. She is a Data Platform Architect in Power BI with AI in the EdTech group at Microsoft. Kellyn is known for her extensive work with multi-database platforms, DevOps, cloud migrations, virtualization, visualizations, scripting, environment optimization tuning, automation, and architecture design.
Kellyn has spoken at numerous technical conferences for Oracle, Big Data, DevOps, testing, and SQL Server. Her blog (http://dbakevlar.com) and social media activity under her handle, DBAKevlar, is well respected for her insight and content.
Phillip Labry
Twitter: - @philliplabry
Contact: http://phillip.labry.com
Phillip Labry is a Senior BI Consultant and Trainer with over 20 years experience in SQL Server and over 30 in IT. He has been lucky enough to work on data projects spanning telecom, banking, retail, law enforcement, health care, insurance, financial services and energy sectors. As a national consultant he provides training and builds solutions utilizing the full MS BI stack. He is an active member of the Madison, WI PASS chapter and speaks at events in the USA and Canada.
Rajesh Chawla
Twitter: - @craftingdata
Contact: http://www.craftingdata.com
I have been working with computers since my father bought me a Commodore 64 to play with many years ago. Since then, I have worked with data in a variety of ways including modeling, replication, federation, integration and governance.
I like using data to solve problems that make a difference, whether it’s a business decision or a technical challenge. My focus and joy is using Power BI the myriad of Azure services to deliver data where it’s needed.
David Patrick
Twitter: - DavidEPatrick
LinkedIn: David Patrick
Contact: http://www.madsharepoint.com
Dave has been developing database applications for over 25 years. An MCT since 2001, he has taught many classes from Intro to Visual Interdev to Advanced SharePoint Development. Dave runs two user groups, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Microsoft Developers User Group, www.mapamdug.com, and MAD SharePoint, www.madsharepoint.com. Dave does SharePoint training and development for DSA, Inc., a DoD contractor that does great work for the Army over at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Dave is also an MVP.
Marsha Pierce
Twitter: - MarshaPierceDBA
LinkedIn: Marsha Pierce
Marsha Pierce lives in Nashville, TN. She studied Computer Science, Mathematics, and French at Belmont University. She has 23 years of experience as a DBA, which means she has broken and fixed a lot of stuff. Before joining Pure Storage, she was an architect at HCA and Asurion. She is passionate about DevOps, Storage, Performance Tuning, and Standardization.
Gabriel Villa
Twitter: - @extofer
LinkedIn: Gabriel Villa
Contact: https://extofer.wordpress.com/
Gabriel is a skilled leader, architect, and technical expert focusing primarily on Microsoft technologies and is passionate about open-source technologies for integration, automation, and development. Gabriel’s versatility extends from systems, data and development and leverages hybrid/SaaS/Cloud integration, proven software engineering platforms, and best-of-breed data management and business intelligence solutions.
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Gabriel lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and kids, where he is an Architect for RevGen Partners, volunteers in the tech community and enjoys the Colorado outdoors.
Matthew Smith
LinkedIn: Matthew Smith
Delivery consultant w/ Dell EMC.
Tim Gorman
Twitter: - @TimGormanTech
LinkedIn: Tim Gorman
Contact: http://evdbt.com
Tim Gorman is a senior technical consultant for Delphix who securely enables masked data virtualization to increase the agility of IT development and testing while ending decades of security risk in SDLC.
Tim has co-authored six books on data warehousing and database administration, has performed technical review on eight more books, and has an author#39;s page on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Tim-Gorman/e/B00BKCTO5E).
Jeff Renz
Twitter: - jeff_renz
LinkedIn: Jeff Renz
Contact: http://www.revgen.com
Jeff Renz is a Senior Architect at RevGen Partners, currently working as the design architect and implementation lead on several projects for a Fortune Top 50 company. Jeff has worked with SQL Server and BI for 15+ years and has 10 years’ experience with data warehouse design and implementation. In addition to consulting, he is joining the University of Denver adjunct faculty and is expected to begin teaching in the ICT program starting in June. He received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, his master’s degree in Operations Research from Colorado School of Mines, and will be graduating from the Harvard Business Analytics Program in December.
Eric Peterson
Eric Peterson is a consultant specializing in database architecture with experience in demanding Fortune 100 company environments. He has a Computer Science degree complemented with an MBA, which meshes well with his jobs integrating business information with the systems that process it. He has worked with SQL Server since its inception and was an instructor of SQL courses at a national technical training company. He also speaks are regional SQLSaturday events.
Meagan Longoria
Twitter: - mmarie
LinkedIn: Meagan Longoria
Contact: http://datasavvy.me
Meagan Longoria is a business intelligence consultant with Denny Cherry Associates, and lives in Denver, Colorado. She is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP. Meagan spends a lot of time thinking about how to use data integration, DAX, and data visualization techniques to make data useful for people. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experiences at conferences and user group meetings, as well as through her blog (DataSavvy.me).
Sponsors
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event: