SQLSaturday #741 - Albany 2018

Event Date: 07/28/2018 00:00:00

Event Location:

SUNY Albany
1400 Washington Ave
Albany, New York

This event has completed. All data shown below is from the historical XML public data available.

Sessions
Speakers
Sponsors

If there are any data quality issues or corrections needed, please contact the webmaster for this site or submit a pull request for the appropriate file(s).

Sessions

This is a list of sessions from the event, based on the schedule in the XML files.

Title: Learning to present and becoming good at it

Abstract: Have you been thinking about presenting at a user group? Are you being asked to present at your work? Is learning to present one of the keys to advancing your career? Or do you just think it would be fun to present but you are too nervous to try it? Well take the first step to becoming a presenter by attending this session and I will guide you through the process of learning to present and becoming good at it. It’s easier than you think! I am an introvert and was deathly afraid to speak in public. Now I love to present and it’s actually my main function in my job at Microsoft. I’ll share with you journey that lead me to speak at major conferences and the skills I learned along the way to become a good presenter and to get rid of the fear. You can do it!

Speaker(s):

James Serra

Track and Room: Professional/Personal Development - 4

Title: Full Text Indexing Basics

Abstract: Abstract:

Today’s large data fields (LDF) are full of unstructured information stored in varchar, text, varbinary or xml data types. How do you write an application to search the column for patterns? Traditional SQL techniques using a column INDEX and LIKE operator result in a query plan that contains a full table scan.

I will be introducing the brother’s grimm database that has the full text of each fairy tale. I will create a full text catalog / index, select a change tracking strategy, define optional stop list / thesaurus file, and then populate the index. I will use CONTAINS and FREETEXT operators in SELECT queries to leverage the FTI. This resulting query plan performs index seek.

Coverage:

1 – Creating a database from scratch. 2 – Creating a table with LOB field. 3 – Loading files via BULK INSERT. 4 – Performance via traditional techniques. 5 – Creating a full text index. 6 – Performance with the full text index. 7 - Using FTI in a Azure SQL database.

Speaker(s):

John Miner

Track and Room: Database Development - 19

Title: Effective Data Warehouse Storage Patterns

Abstract: Abstract:

Many companies start off with a simple data mart for reporting. As the company grows, users become dependent on the data mart for monitoring and making decisions on Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

Unexpected information growth in your data mart may lead to a performance impacted reporting system. In short, your users will be lining up at your cube for their daily reports.

How do you reduce the size of your data mart and speed up data retrieval?

This presentation will review the following techniques to fix your woes.

Coverage:

1 – What is horizontal partitioning? 2 – Database sharding for daily information. 3 – Working with files and file groups. 3 – Partitioned views for performance. 4 – Table and Index partitions. 5 – Row Data Compression. 6 – Page Data Compression. 7 – Programming a sliding window. 8 – What is different in Azure SQL database?

Speaker(s):

John Miner

Track and Room: Database Administration - 21

Title: An introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2016

Abstract: With the vast amount of changes that occur in our daily business environments, it becomes more and more difficult to achieve our corporate goals without some ‘lighthouse’ to guide our way. Data mining, (while not a panacea to resolve or ‘control’ the effects of these changes), can provide us with statistical trends by analyzing our data and highlighting probable outcomes.

In this hands on BEGINNERS presentation we shall be looking at Microsoft SQL Server’s Data Mining capabilities and we shall be discussing:

1) Defining what questions we want answered and how to go about this in an effective and efficient manner.

2) Creating the data model.

3) How to gather the necessary data, discussing the training and testing aspect.

4) Processing the model.

5) Extracting information from our finished model, discussing the implications of this information.

Speaker(s):

Steve Simon

Track and Room: Enterprise BI - 19

Title: From (User) Story to Tables: Read Between the Lines to Find Your Data

Abstract: If you work in an agile environment, design requirements often come to us as stories with the phrase: “As a type of user, I want to …”

For example: As a DBA, I want to be able to break down user stories to understand how they translate into our current database design and usage and have an understanding as to how it will affect future needs.

That user story is also the goal for the session. This will present one approach to how we can think about these user stories to find the data that we need to design our databases for. We’ll even work through an example together.

This is for DBAs who are involved in any part of designing databases, who want to practice how to come up with database designs, or who just another way to think about how they approach their database development in general.

Speaker(s):

Deborah Melkin

Track and Room: Database Development - 4

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: Database Administration - 20

Title: Networking: it isn’t just for breakfast anymore

Abstract: Networking. You keep hearing that word throughout your career development, but you don’t know much about it, much less, how to do it. You want to connect with technical and data professionals, so you attend events such as SQLSaturday and your local user group. But what about your book club, your gym, your church group, or your kid’s soccer game? Those are prime – and overlooked – opportunities to network!

In this interactive session, we will discuss networking – what it is, why it’s important, and where opportunities exist. You will even have an opportunity to practice networking within the confines of our room. You might even leave this session with new networking contacts that you didn’t previously have!

Speaker(s):

Ray Kim

Track and Room: Professional/Personal Development - 4

Title: Performance Troubleshooting made easier - new features in Management Studio !

Abstract: SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is now updated each month with the latest version of the SQL Client Tools. Which enabled rapid enhancement to Execution Plan.

Do you know that you can now see how many pages are spilled to disk for a sort, as well as the memory statistics for the operator? Are you aware that you can see the top 10 waits for an execution and what trace flags were active during compilation and which ones influenced compilation? Have you ever analyzed a big plan and wish you could search for table name, index name or column name without opening XML plan? When you see a clustered index was used do you know for sure which statistics were used by the Query Optimizer to estimate the number of rows?

In this demo intensive session, I will show you how to find and use new features introduced into SSMS and Showplan. You will walk out of this session equipped to make Query Performance Troubleshooting easier and ready to tackle those nasty, hard to solve query plans.

Speaker(s):

Taiob Ali

Track and Room: Database Administration - 21

Title: Query Optimization Techniques

Abstract: How often have you been told that an application is running “too slow”? This statement is the cause of a great deal of investigation, frustration, and dead-ends for database professionals.

The problem won’t always be a bad query, but when it is, knowing how to dive in, diagnose its performance, and resolve the situation efficiently will turn a potentially frustrating situation into a fun one! Using that knowledge in development to prevent future performance issues will improve script quality and application design, while making your future self less burdened by performance emergencies.

This is an opportunity to identify common query mistakes and learn a variety of ways in which we can solve them. This discussion will include query rewrites, indexing, statistics, database design, monitoring, execution plans, and more!

Demos of poor-performing queries will be provided to illustrate key optimization techniques, design considerations, and the tools you need to fix them. Fast.

Speaker(s):

Edward Pollack

Track and Room: Database Development - 19

Title: Power up SSRS 2017 with Power BI and other new enhancements

Abstract: Power BI Report Server is a superset of 2 exciting products: Power BI and SSRS 2017. PBIRS provides us a modern, on-premises solution for enterprise reporting and mobile business intelligence.

In this session I will demonstrate how to develop and publish Power BI reports (.PBIX) in Power BI Report Server, including custom visuals.

Then show you how to work with Mobile Reports, KPIs and Paginated reports. The new Mobile Report publisher produces stunning dashboards that can be viewed on any device (iOS, Android and Windows). Other enhancements include, show/hide download menu, report comments, custom placement of parameters, custom branding your SSRS portal’s with your choice of colors and logo.

Speaker(s):

Sunil Kadimdiwan

Track and Room: Enterprise BI - 7

Title: BI Infrastructure in Azure: Points to Consider

Abstract: Success of a good BI infrastructure is measured by two most important factors: a) Better access to data and b) Increased operational efficiency How can you set up your own BI infrastructure in the cloud to address these? What components do we consider? We can do that by proper selection of technology and vendors from Azure Market Place. How do we keep an eye on possible use of Big Data for your BI. We will also look at the best practices for doing so. We will take a fleeting look at some of the storage options for us in Azure and some Big Data concepts as well. We will learn about Copy Data Virtualization in Azure Market Place that can help you provision terabytes worth of information in matter of minutes. We will also learn about setting up teams and ways to train them(and yourself) in this fast evolving world of Azure.

Speaker(s):

Paresh Motiwala

Track and Room: Enterprise BI - 20

Title: WIT Luncheon: Women Participation at Conferences/Workshops/Technical Market

Abstract: Technical conferences generally have a paucity of women speakers. Many have none at all, some have a token woman, and most have a minority around the 10% mark. Only a very few conferences have a strong minority (>25%) of women speakers. Conferences with “soft” subject matter such as web design, user interfaces, or community management tend to have higher proportions of female speakers than those with “harder” subject matter.

We’ve assembled a panel of presenters and women in tech to delve into the causes, solutions and provide tips for women or diversity of speakers at technical conferences.

This session will be presented by Capital Region Women in Technology: https://www.meetup.com/CD-WiT/

Speaker(s):

Vijaya Kokkili

Track and Room: Professional/Personal Development - 19

Title: Development Test Data Management: Achieving breakthrough saving

Abstract: An estimated 2,000 new applications are released daily yet, the demand for new applications is increasing. Resulting in enterprises that lack sufficient resources to meet demand. Costly storage, compute and licenses required to maintain multiple copies of production databases are scarce. Delays in development cycles result as developers wait for DBAs, who in turn wait for storage administrators to provision the required space. The business suffers as project delays lead to deferred revenue or customer service impact. Actifio virtualizes production system data, delivering instant, non-disruptive access for application development and test without the need for additional storage. Virtually multiplying the output of a production environment, while simultaneously reducing costs. This session will provide an understanding of how to utilize Actifio for application development and test data automation to reduce application development cycle time, reduce costs and eliminate production impact.

Speaker(s):

Andrew Cary

Track and Room: Application Development - 21

Title: Big data architectures and the data lake

Abstract: With so many new technologies it can get confusing on the best approach to building a big data architecture. The data lake is a great new concept, usually built in Hadoop, but what exactly is it and how does it fit in? In this presentation I’ll discuss the four most common patterns in big data production implementations, the top-down vs bottoms-up approach to analytics, and how you can use a data lake and a RDBMS data warehouse together. We will go into detail on the characteristics of a data lake and its benefits, and how you still need to perform the same data governance tasks in a data lake as you do in a data warehouse. Come to this presentation to make sure your data lake does not turn into a data swamp!

Speaker(s):

James Serra

Track and Room: Big Data - 4

Title: Azure Data Factory V2 /ETL in the clouds

Abstract: Azure Data Factory (ADF) has done some mileage since it’s beginning in 2015. It has evolved and is now able to integrate your SSIS loads and do lots of work with your data in Azure. In this session, you will learn the new features of Azure Data Factory V2 and how SSIS packages can be triggered from it. This session will also introduce concepts like the modern data warehouse and what are the new challenges that comes with data integration both on-premise and cloud based.

Speaker(s):

Christian Cote

Track and Room: Big Data - 5

Title: Documenting your SQL Server environment with PowerShell

Abstract: Do you know what your SQL Server environment looks like? Using PowerShell along with dbatools and PowerBI we will cover how to collect, store, and document this information.

Finding a free and simple method to gather information about my SQL Server environment was difficult. Using a combination of PowerShell, the dbatools module, and a PowerBI report I finally found something that works for me. I hope it can be helpful for you as well.

Speaker(s):

Matthew Anderson

Track and Room: Database Administration - 21

Title: Common TSQL Mistakes

Abstract: We are going to examine a variety of oopsies MANY developers fall prey too - some obvious, some pretty subtle and some down right sneaky! Lots of code examples with the bad AND good code presented. I GUARANTEE that you will find things here that will either prevent you from getting bad data, throwing unwanted errors or vastly improving your database application’s performance. I have given this talk over 100 times now and it is always very highly rated!

Speaker(s):

Kevin Boles

Track and Room: Application Development - 5

Title: SQL Server 2016 (SP1) 2017 ROCKS!!

Abstract: SQL Server 2016 SP1 is probably one of the top 3 announcements for SQL Server … EVER!! Many previously Enterprise Edition only features were opened up to lower SKUs, including SQL Express! Memory usage scenarios changed DRASTICALLY too! And SQL 2016 itself “Just Runs Faster”! This session will be a medium-to-high-level overview of these absolutely incredible changes. We will also talk about some of the awesomesauce released in SQL Server 2017 too! If you are like most entities and NOT on SQL Server Enterprise Edition you WILL want to be on SQL 2016 SP1 or 2017 after hearing this talk!

Speaker(s):

Kevin Boles

Track and Room: Optimization/Tuning - 20

Title: Lightning Talks

Abstract: Five 10-minute sessions on a variety of topics:

Bryan Cafferky: Cool PowerShell Tricks and Tips Paresh Motiwala: LinkedIn for Professional Success! Kevin Boles: Trouble With Triggers Alex Grinberg: SQL Server: XML and JSON technologies Michelle Gutzait: Performance Tuning

Speaker(s):

Kevin Boles

Track and Room: Lightning Talks - 20

Title: DAX and the tabular model

Abstract: With the advent of the tabular model in SQL Server 2012, another analytical option has opened to the BI Specialist. We shall be looking at what critical factors should be analyzed prior to opting for the model and that done, how to extract data from a tabular model using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). We shall discuss many of the often used functions, discuss their ‘overloads’ (utilizing several practical examples) and see how to turn the extracted data into valuable information that may be used by decision makers to help the enterprise achieve its corporate goals.

Speaker(s):

Steve Simon

Track and Room: Self-Service BI - 19

Title: Shaving of Microseconds

Abstract: This session is a compilation of extreme techniques I had to use over time to make very fast operations go a bit faster. It will cover multiple areas (indexing, table design, data access layer, schemas, object naming, datatypes, collations physical data placement and more. All examples given in this session are from real world cases of some of the most demaning workloads in the world.

Speaker(s):

Thomas Grohser

Track and Room: Optimization/Tuning - 7

Title: Launching your database into Azure

Abstract: You have decided to migrate your on-premise SQL Server database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database and then realize you cannot restore a backup to Azure’s Platform as a Service. Seriously!? In this talk, I will explain three different migration methods and demonstrate how they can be used to launch your database into the cloud.

Speaker(s):

Derik Hammer

Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - 7

Title: So you want to Present: Tips and Tricks of the trade

Abstract: So you’ve decided to take the leap into presenting. Maybe it’s at your local user group, maybe it’s at SQLSaturday. This talk will guide you through the process of selecting a topic, preparing for it and actually giving it.

We’ll talk about what can go wrong and how to handle that. We’ll also talk about what can be done to prevent something from going wrong in the first place.

What are some good guidelines to follow and when can, or even should, you break them.

This will be partly interactive so come with questions and be prepared to be asked some.

Speaker(s):

Greg Moore

Track and Room: Professional/Personal Development - 5

Title: An Introduction to Predictive Modeling with R

Abstract: In this presentation we’ll learn the basics of constructing a predictive model in the R programming language. We’ll start by discussing visualizations that help us understand our data and then build and test a predictive model. Key points include selecting the model, training it, and evaluating the model’s effectiveness. In the process, we’ll learn about the R language and the popular integrated development environment RStudio. Find out what all the hype is about!

Speaker(s):

Bryan Cafferky

Track and Room: Machine Learning and AI - 5

Title: Implementing Security Standard Regulations in SQL Server Azure

Abstract: PCI-DSS, SOX, ISO, GDPR… What are the Cyber Standard regulation and how do we implement them in SQL Server? In this session I will cover the main security regulations and will discuss the security configuration required to comply with each one of them. The focus will be on the new GDPR standard.

Speaker(s):

Michelle Gutzait

Track and Room: Database Administration - 7

Title: Introduction to Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Abstract: On-premises data warehouse solutions are typically a large up-front capital expense which expensive boundaries to expansion. This led my organization to look to the cloud. In this session, I cover the basics of Azure SQL Data Warehouse, its architecture, and why you should be interested in combining the flexibility and scalability of the cloud with a massively parallel processing data warehouse.

Speaker(s):

Derik Hammer

Track and Room: Enterprise BI - 7

Title: “Schadenfreude” - Let’s enjoy the mistakes other people made…

Abstract: This session will show a lot of things in the world of data that went very, very wrong… And yes you are welcome to have a laugh at the misfortune of other people (or as the german speaking population would call it: Let’s have some “Schadenfreude”! After a log day, come in and have some fun before the evening event starts

Speaker(s):

Thomas Grohser

Track and Room: Professional/Personal Development - 4

Title: Take the changes under control

Abstract: SQL Server does not support source safe control as the .NET application does. However, utilizing DDL trigger events makes it possible to capture when database users, ether one DBA or Developer, create, alter and drop the SQL Server objects. This session demonstrates the complete solution on how to set up SQL Server source safe control, log any changes and roll back to any historical point of changes.

Speaker(s):

Alex Grinberg

Track and Room: Database Administration - 21

Title: Ask the Experts Panel

Abstract: This is an open session where you may show up any time and ask any technical or professional questions of our panel of speakers.

Ask the Experts is an opportunity to find answers and resources to address ongoing challenges, learn more about our speakers, and maybe stump them : )

Speaker(s):

Bryan Cafferky

Track and Room: Panel - 20

Title: “Go Faster!” And Other Things Yelled at the Backup Jobs

Abstract: This session is an introduction to tuning backups. Learn how to take those backup jobs to disk and change them from running for hours to running in minutes. We’ll be discussing the advantages disadvantages of using the following parameters: COMPRESSION, BUFFERCOUNT, MAXTRANSFERSIZE. We’ll also be covering the concept of striping database backups.

Speaker(s):

Mike Hays

Track and Room: Database Administration - 21

Title: DevOps Database administration.

Abstract: How outsource administrative tasks to your end user groups in a safe, secure, and repeatable pattern. Now you no longer have to pause and stop what you are doing to create that new login, and replicate it to your Disaster Recovery. You do not have to stop and perform a backup/restore to refresh the development environment. Empower your end users, let them do this on their own without compromising your security.

There will be a demo!

Speaker(s):

Stephen Mokszycki

Track and Room: QA/Automation - 5

Speakers

This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.

Bryan Cafferky

LinkedIn: Bryan Cafferky

Contact: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bryancutube256123

Bryan Cafferky is a Big Data and AI consultant. Bryan was previously a Senior Data Science Training Content Developer for Microsoft Worldwide Learning. Prior to this he was a Microsoft Data and AI Enabler for healthcare customers. He is a Microsoft 2017 Data Platform MVP and a 2016 Cloud and Data Center Management MVP. Bryan is the author of Pro PowerShell for Database Developers by Apress, available on Amazon. He leads The RI Microsoft BI User Group, and The Greater Boston Area Data Science Group. He has been working with the SQL Server stack since 1997 and implemented projects in the banking, insurance, e-commerce, utility, and health care industries. He holds a bachelor of science in computer information systems and an MBA.

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.

Kevin Boles

Twitter: - @TheSQLGuru

LinkedIn: Kevin Boles

Kevin Boles is a SQL Server expert, working exclusively with the product since v6.5. With over 25 years of database experience and over 45,000 man hours of SQL Server engine experience, he holds many related certifications, is an MCT and was a SQL Server MVP from 2007 to 2012. Kevin has been a very successful independent consultant for over 20 years. His passion is the relational engine, especially designing, building, analyzing and tuning high-performance database applications.

Greg Moore

Twitter: - @stridergdm

LinkedIn: Greg Moore

Contact: https://blog.greenms.com

John Miner

Twitter: - https://twitter.com/JohnMiner3

LinkedIn: John Miner

Contact: https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/154/john-miner/

John Miner is currently a Data Architect at BlueMetal advising corporations on how to solve their business needs with data platform solutions.

He has over twenty five years of data processing experience, and his architecture expertise encompasses all phases of the software project life cycle, including design, development, implementation, and maintenance of systems.

He has an undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island. Other credentials include an up to date MCSE certificate and currently taking the Data Science program from EDX.

Before joining BlueMetal, John won the Data Platform MVP award in 2014 and 2015 for his outstanding contributions to the SQL Server community.

Edward Pollack

Twitter: - EdwardPollack

LinkedIn: Edward Pollack

Contact: https://www.sqlshack.com/author/edward-pollack/

Ed Pollack has over 20 years of experience in database and systems administration, which has developed his passion for performance optimization, database design, and making things go faster. He has spoken at many SQLSaturdays, 24 Hours of PASS, and PASS Summit. This led him to organize SQLSaturday Albany, which has become an annual event for New York’s Capital Region. Sharing these experiences with the community is a top priority, and encouraging everyone to take the leap into public speaking and engaging others, a passion. In his free time, Ed enjoys video games, traveling, cooking exceptionally spicy foods, and hanging out with his amazing wife and sons.

Taiob Ali

Twitter: - https://twitter.com/SqlWorldWide

LinkedIn: Taiob Ali

Contact: http://www.sqlworldwide.com

Taiob Ali, MVP Data Platform, is an accomplished technical leader with a proven record of success. For 14 years, he has worked with the Microsoft Data Platform and MongoDB both on-premise and cloud. His experience includes all three major business sectors: finance, e-commerce, and healthcare. Taiob has hands-on experience in managing large database projects, massive data migration, intricate process design, testing and deployment, performance tuning, long term capacity planning. Taiob is currently working at “GMO LLC” as a Database Solution Manager, focusing on cloud migration, automation, improving, and streamlining operational workflow. He is a regular speaker at local and virtual PASS chapters, SQLSaturdays, and Azure conferences.

Matthew Anderson

Twitter: - @matholamew

LinkedIn: Matthew Anderson

Matt is a new speaker and Microsoft SQL Server DBA with almost 10 years experience. He has managed databases for healthcare, manufacturing, and entertainment companies on traditional DBA teams and on BI teams.

Vijaya Kokkili

Twitter: - @vkokkili

Vijaya Kokkili is a QA Director at CommerceHub, where her team is responsible for the quality of CommerceHub#39;s external and internal applications. Building the automation from ground up at CommerceHub, she has stumbled upon every issue that you can think of, in the software testing and automation world. #39;Automation is a learning experience#39; is the philosophy she believes in.

Thomas Grohser

LinkedIn: Thomas Grohser

Thomas Grohser has spent most of the past 26+ years exploring the deeper inner workings of SQL Server and its features while working for entertainment, pharmaceutical, and financial services industries. His primary focus is to architect, plan, build, and operate reliable, highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructures for SQL Server. Over the years he has managed thousands of SQL Server instances, processing trillions of rows, taking up petabytes of storage. Thomas has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 9 years and has spoken regularly at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and user groups for 12 years.

John Miner

Twitter: - https://twitter.com/JohnMiner3

LinkedIn: John Miner

Contact: https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlserverauthor/154/john-miner/

John Miner is currently a Data Architect at BlueMetal advising corporations on how to solve their business needs with data platform solutions.

Before joining BlueMetal, John won the Data Platform MVP award in 2014 and 2015 for his outstanding contributions to the SQL Server community.

Andrew Cary

LinkedIn: Andrew Cary

“insert bio when finished”

Michelle Gutzait

Twitter: - mgutzait

LinkedIn: Michelle Gutzait

Contact: http://Google me!

Involved in IT for more than 30 years as a developer, business analyst and database consultant. Worked exclusively with Microsoft SQL Server for the past 20+ years, consulting for many and diverse clients. Skills include everything related to SQL Server: infrastructure and database design, Performance tuning, security, High Availability, consolidation, Disaster Recovery, Cloud migrations and much more! Also active in the community as a speaker and a Blogger. One of the Organizers of the PASS Chapter in Montreal.

James Serra

Twitter: - www.twitter.com/JamesSerra

LinkedIn: James Serra

Contact: http://www.JamesSerra.com

James Serra is a big data and data warehousing solution architect at Microsoft. He is a thought leader in the use and application of Big Data and advanced analytics. Previously, James was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. James is a popular blogger (JamesSerra.com) and speaker. He is the author of the book “Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server 2012”.

Thomas Grohser

LinkedIn: Thomas Grohser

Kevin Boles

Twitter: - @TheSQLGuru

LinkedIn: Kevin Boles

Ray Kim

Twitter: - PianoRayK

LinkedIn: Ray Kim

Contact: https://pianorayk.wordpress.com/

Ray Kim is an advocate for documentation and technical communication. He is a co-founder of the Albany, NY SQL group (CASSUG), a member of the AlbanyUX user group, and has spoken at numerous SQLSaturdays and at PASS Summit. He has worked various positions in technology, including as a developer, webmaster, analyst, technical writer, and instructor. He holds an MS in technical communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BS in computer science from Syracuse University.

A musician in his spare time, Ray plays four different instruments. He also enjoys going to ball games and doing CrossFit, and is a two-time SQLServerCentral.com fantasy football champion. He lives in Troy, NY with his wife, Lianne, and their two cats.

Mike Hays

LinkedIn: Mike Hays

Contact: http://www.thesqlreport.com/

Mike has been working with Microsoft SQL Server for the last twenty years. Currently working as a Database Administrator for a diversified energy company, he has also worked in the retail, manufacturing, banking sectors. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Information Science from Cleveland State University. He currently resides in Ohio with his girlfriend Alexia, her two children and their dog Lanna.

James Serra

Twitter: - www.twitter.com/JamesSerra

LinkedIn: James Serra

Contact: http://www.JamesSerra.com

Paresh Motiwala

Twitter: - pareshmotiwala

LinkedIn: Paresh Motiwala

Contact: https://pareshmotiwala.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2amp;action=editamp;message=6amp;postpost=v2

Paresh Motiwala a Azure/Big Data enthusiast, Manager of Database Platform teams has led several large SQL implementations, migrations and upgrades. He has managed multi terabyte OLTP databases. He has also been a Sr. SQL DBA and a Solutions Architect in Fortune 100 companies. He helps/organizes and speaks at many SQLSaturdays, Azure Bootcamp, Azure Datafests and User Groups(Boston BI UG, NESQL, PASS PD VG and PASS DBA VG).

He is certified in Big Data Analytics, FinTech, PMP, Public Speaking, Business Communications. He is a avid singer, cook, open networker, and stand-up comedian. He teaches public speaking, debating, interviewing and group discussion skills and mentors children around the globe via www.circlesofgrowth.com

Kevin Boles

Twitter: - @TheSQLGuru

LinkedIn: Kevin Boles

Stephen Mokszycki

Twitter: - mokszs

LinkedIn: Stephen Mokszycki

Stephen.Mokszycki@outlook.com DBA for ~4+years, IT Professional for 7.5 years. Currently I am a Data Architect Worked with SQL 2000/2005/2008/2012/2014 I’m currently working on a small environments: 5 instances, 60 databases, 1TB of data
Previously I worked on a large environment: 300+ Instances, ~6000 databases, 10s TBs of data. Automation is my favorite tool.

Steve Simon

Twitter: - SQLServerBoffin

LinkedIn: Steve Simon

Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/simon_says/

Steve Simon is a Database Solutions Architect with Business Knowledge Services Inc. He has been involved with database design and analysis for over 35 years. Steve has presented papers at numerous PASS Summits and PASS SQL Rallies. He is also regular presenter on the SQLSaturday circuit and he is a contributor on SQLShack.com

Bryan Cafferky

LinkedIn: Bryan Cafferky

Contact: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bryancutube256123

Sunil Kadimdiwan

Twitter: - @skadimdiwan

LinkedIn: Sunil Kadimdiwan

Contact: http://www.infotrove.com/events.html

Sunil Kadimdiwan Sunil Kadimdiwan has 25+ years’ experience in architecting and implementing database solutions. He has deep knowledge of the Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence technology stack. He is a frequent speaker at SQLSaturdays, Code Camps, User Group meetings

Deborah Melkin

Twitter: - dgmelkin

LinkedIn: Deborah Melkin

Contact: http://debthedba.wordpress.com

Deborah Melkin has been working as a database professional with SQL Server for almost 20 years. She spends her days helping programmers with all aspects of database design, queries, performance, and deployment. In 2016, she began her blog, Deb the DBA. Soon after that, she began speaking at SQLSaturdays and user groups. Deborah is a board member of the New England SQL Server User group (NESQL) and was recently named as an IDERA ACE Class of 2020. She also won Speaker Idol at PASS Summit 2019. In her spare time, Deborah can usually be found doing something musical.

Christian Cote

Twitter: - Christian_SQL

LinkedIn: Christian Cote

Contact: http://bi-blogger.typepad.com/

Christian Coté is an IT professional with more than 15 years of experience working in data warehouse and business intelligence projects. Christian developed an expertise in data warehousing over the years and designed many ETL/BI processes using a range of tools on multiple platforms. He’s been presenting at several conferences and code camps. He currently co-leads the SQL Server PASS chapter in Montreal as well as Global French SQL PASS Chapter. He is also a Microsoft Data Platform Most Valuable Professional (MVP).

Derik Hammer

Twitter: - https://twitter.com/sqlhammer

LinkedIn: Derik Hammer

Contact: http://www.sqlhammer.com

I am currently working as a Database Operations Team Lead with Subway World Headquarters. Server configuration, architecture, disaster recovery, high-availability, performance tuning, and maintenance automation form the bulk of my responsibilities. Almost all of my previous experience has resided firmly in the traditional / production DBA realm. I also spend as much time as I can spare attending SQL Server community functions. Currently chapter leader for FairfieldPASS.

Derik Hammer

Twitter: - https://twitter.com/sqlhammer

LinkedIn: Derik Hammer

Contact: http://www.sqlhammer.com

Steve Simon

Twitter: - SQLServerBoffin

LinkedIn: Steve Simon

Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/simon_says/

Alex Grinberg

LinkedIn: Alex Grinberg

I have more than 20 years of IT experience. My primary focus is with the latest Microsoft technologies including .NET (VB and C#), SSRS and SSIS. I provide services in tuning, optimization, analysis and development for the creation of new applications, converting legacy technologies (SQL Server, VB.NET and C# ) and site training. I have worked for CSC, VerticalNet, IDP, LSAC , and TMNAS (to name a few) and I am currently employed with Cox Automotive. I am Apress author book “XML and JSON Recipes for SQL Server”, also wrote number of articles for Simple-Talk and SQLServerCentral.com

SQLSaturday #741 - Albany 2018

Sessions

Title: Learning to present and becoming good at it

Title: Full Text Indexing Basics

Title: Effective Data Warehouse Storage Patterns

Title: An introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2016

Title: From (User) Story to Tables: Read Between the Lines to Find Your Data

Title: Whoa! Backup, what happened? The Basics of Backups

Title: Networking: it isn’t just for breakfast anymore

Title: Performance Troubleshooting made easier - new features in Management Studio !

Title: Query Optimization Techniques

Title: Power up SSRS 2017 with Power BI and other new enhancements

Title: BI Infrastructure in Azure: Points to Consider

Title: WIT Luncheon: Women Participation at Conferences/Workshops/Technical Market

Title: Development Test Data Management: Achieving breakthrough saving

Title: Big data architectures and the data lake

Title: Azure Data Factory V2 /ETL in the clouds

Title: Documenting your SQL Server environment with PowerShell

Title: Common TSQL Mistakes

Title: SQL Server 2016 (SP1) 2017 ROCKS!!

Title: Lightning Talks

Title: DAX and the tabular model

Title: Shaving of Microseconds

Title: Launching your database into Azure

Title: So you want to Present: Tips and Tricks of the trade

Title: An Introduction to Predictive Modeling with R

Title: Implementing Security Standard Regulations in SQL Server Azure

Title: Introduction to Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Title: “Schadenfreude” - Let’s enjoy the mistakes other people made…

Title: Take the changes under control

Title: Ask the Experts Panel

Title: “Go Faster!” And Other Things Yelled at the Backup Jobs

Title: DevOps Database administration.

Speakers

Sponsors