SQLSaturday #948 – Cincinnati – Virtual 2020
Event Date: 05/16/2020 00:00:00
Event Location:
- College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services University of Cincinnati
- 250H Teachers-Dyer Complex
- Cincinnati, Ohio
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: Querying NoSQL with SQL: HAVING Your JSON Cake and SELECTing it too
Abstract: Until recently, agile business had to choose between the benefits of JSON-based NoSQL databases and the benefits of SQL-based querying. NoSQL provides schema flexibility, high performance, and elastic scaling, while SQL provides expressive, independent data access. Recent convergence allows developers and organizations to have the best of both worlds.
Developers need to deliver apps that readily evolve, perform, and scale, all to match changing business needs. Organizations need rapid access to their operational data, using standard analytical tools, for insight into their business. In this session, you will learn the ways that SQL can be applied to NoSQL databases, and what additional features are needed to deal with JSON documents. SQL for JSON, JSON data modeling, indexing, and tool integration will be covered. This session will focus mainly on CosmosDb and Couchbase, but it will also touch on emerging relational approaches to JSON data.
Speaker(s):
- Matthew Groves
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room B
Title: Using Open Source Software to Collect Performance Metrics
Abstract: Ever had a manager standing over your shoulder, wanting to know why an instance is running slow or if it can handle additional workload? If only you knew what performance metrics to collect and had them for your existing instances to answer these questions.
In this session, we will discuss sp_whoisactive and Query Store to track what queries are running. Then, we will be combining three open source tools – Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana – into an inexpensive and easy to set up system that collects performance metrics you can use to troubleshoot issues and answer important questions about your SQL Server instances, including your Linux SQL Server instances, Azure Managed Instances, and Azure SQL Databases. Attendees will see how easy it is to get good performance data and visualize it interactively, and combine with other tools to troubleshoot issues. Finally, we will look at a problem I solved using this solution as an example.
Speaker(s):
- Tracy Boggiano
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: Azure SQL Database: Maximizing Cloud Performance and Availability
Abstract: When you move to Azure SQL Database, you select a predefined set of allocated resources across several dimensions such as CPU, memory, storage, and more. For a typical business application you need to find a balance between cost, performance demands and availability requirements. Yet for your mission critical application your focus moves toward the highest availability (i.e. 99.995% uptime) and performance. In this session we’ll review best practices around how to select your Azure SQL database configuration that is optimized for a specific application pattern and how to maximize its performance and availability. We’ll review the natural advantages you can leverage from the Azure SQL Database ecosystem and detail factors to consider when optimizing for performance in the cloud, including application patterns and anti-patterns that you may encounter when migrating legacy applications from SQL Server to Azure SQL Database.
Speaker(s):
- Anna Hoffman
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Virtual Room C
Title: SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters Architecture
Abstract: In this session Buck Woody explains how Microsoft has implemented the SQL Server 2019 relational database engine in a big data cluster leverages an elastically scalable storage layer that integrates SQL Server and HDFS to scale to petabytes of data storage. You’ll see the three ways you can interact with massive amounts of data: Data Virtualization, Data Marts, and working with a complete Kubernetes Cluster in SQL Server. You’ll also learn common use case scenarios that leverage big data and the SQL server 2019 Big Data Cluster on-premises, in the cloud, and in a hybrid architecture. Learning Objectives: - Articulate the Big Data Landscape and the problems it addresses - Present the technology approaches to analyzing large, heterogenous data sets to an audience - Design a solution using SQL Server 2019’s Big Data Clusters architecture and programming model
Speaker(s):
- Buck Woody
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: Getting started with Azure Machine Learning
Abstract: Azure Machine Learning is a managed service that integrates services together for a full end-to-end machine learning solution. Azure ML enables Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Business Users faster development, deployment, and access to machine learning models. Services available for each role include zero-code/low-code designer, Python, R, Databricks, Azure Kubernetes Service, and many more. Workspaces keep assets and artifacts in one place for easy management. Models can be developed locally, trained in Azure, and deployed to any device or environment. In this session, we will cover the built-in tools of the service and see an end-to-end solution for a simple machine learning model.
Speaker(s):
- Lucas Feiock
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: Introduction to M (a.k.a Power Query)
Abstract: When it comes to getting your data into Excel or Power BI, M is your best choice. The M Language (A.K.A Power Query) is a powerful tool for self-service data preparation. However, it’s not clear where it fits compared to tools like SSIS or TSQL. It’s also not clear what it’s limitations are. This session will cover the basics of M and when to use it.
In this session, we’ll demonstrate how M is a linear series of transformations, just like a set of steps from a recipe. We’ll show how 80% of what you will ever need to do can be done from the GUI. We’ll also talk about how to write custom code for that other 20%. By the end of this presentation, you’ll be able to take any manual cleanup you do today and turn it into a repeatable process with M.
Speaker(s):
- Eugene Meidinger
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Virtual Room C
Title: Getting started with Azure SQL Database: What You Need To Know!
Abstract: Azure SQL Database offers a way quickly spin up new databases with minimal management requirements. However, the number of differences between on-premises SQL Server and Azure SQL Database can be overwhelming. Even worse, with DBaaS it’s not clear who is responsible for what anymore. In this session, we will cover all the basic steps of getting your first Azure SQL Database instance spun up. We’ll cover common gotchas, like firewall settings and resource locks. We’ll also dive into some more advanced options with templates, allowing you to make your processes reproducible. By the end of this presentation, you’ll understand if Azure SQL Database is the right choice for you and your needs. You’ll understand how it can simplify management and allow you to scale easily. Finally, you’ll have the confidence to go and create your own instance with ease.
Speaker(s):
- Jim Donahoe
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Virtual Room D
Title: More Common Than You Think: Mental Illness in Tech
Abstract: Mental illness is more common than you think. One in four Americans suffers from a mental illness each year. In the tech community, this is often not talked about. Many times, people feel alone and isolated in the tech community with us mostly being introverted people. It is time to start talking about mental illness out in the open and honestly about how it affects us and those around us.
In this session, we will talk about what mental illness is and what it is not. How my mental illness has affected me. How it effects the tech industry. How mental illness can affect you and how you can tell if you are starting to have issues. What to say and what not to say to people you know that are affected by mental illness. Finally, how to get help and where reach out for help.
Speaker(s):
- Tracy Boggiano
Track and Room: Professional Development - Virtual Room B
Title: AWS vs. Azure: What’s The Difference For A DBA?
Abstract: Everyone has strong opinions and reactions to which cloud database platform companies should be using but how different are they, really? What features does one cloud provider support that the other might not? How will normal DBA activities, such as backups and restores, change depending on the cloud provider your company uses? Join me in this session as I share my migration stories and discuss the results of my research about how AWS and Azure are different and how many of my daily tasks and tools changed as our company migrated to AWS. Come and listen as I share what I have learned on this journey from on-premises to the cloud. Join me and find out which platform I would use.
Speaker(s):
- Corey Hambrick
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: Enable Real-time Analytics and Machine Learning with Azure Stream Analytics and Azure IoT
Abstract: As Organizations are looking to transform into data driven organizations. Stream analytics has emerged as an integral part of Enterprise Data platform architectures along with batch ETL. Stream analytics help to gain maximum value from user-interaction events, applications and machine logs. Ingesting, processing, and analyzing these data streams quickly and efficiently is critical in fraud detection, click stream analysis, sentiment analytics, online recommendations and IOT Scenarios among many examples. In this session we will look at options available in azure for real-time analytics and deep dive into Azure Stream Analytics. Build streaming jobs that can blend and aggregate data as it arrives to drive live Power BI dashboards. Plus, we’ll explore how a complete lambda architecture can be created when combining stream and batch data together and finally how it integrates with Azure ML.
Speaker(s):
- Sriharsh Adari
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Virtual Room D
Title: Query Plans For Visual Learners
Abstract: You’ve looked at query plans and done some tuning, but you’re not sure what’s going on underneath. Hash Match? Merge Join? Watch both come to life in animations, and more! See (not just hear) the inner workings of a plan, and learn about the details that matter for performance. When plans make sense, tuning will become easier, and maybe even fun!
Speaker(s):
- Forrest McDaniel
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room B
Title: AI For Good: Cognitive Services Vision
Abstract: Are you curious about the role that AI will play in predictive modeling? Are you wondering what the difference is between the Computer Vision API and the Custom Vision API? Do you want a quick introduction to get you up to speed on both, so that you can quickly build and deploy a Cognitive Services model?
Join us for an introduction to the Cognitive Services Computer Vision and Custom Vision APIs on Azure.
In this session, we will look at the basics of Cognitive Services Vision. First learn how to create your Cognitive Services model. Then you can see how to train and improve accuracy. Finally, we will step through python code in Azure Notebooks to call the APIs.
After this session, you will get up and running in Cognitive Services Vision in under an hour!
Prerequisites: Attendees should have an Azure account, as well as an account on Azure Notebooks. Experience with coding in python is helpful, but not required.
Speaker(s):
- Alicia Moniz
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Virtual Room B
Title: Real World Use Cases Utilizing DbaTools.IO
Abstract: If you have been anywhere near the SQL community in the past year, you have heard of this cool new toolset call DBAtools. DBAtools is set of PowerShell commands that will help make every DBA’s (including the accidental DBA’s) life easier. With just a few piece of information, you can manage and report on your SQL instances, from one to many, with ease. This session is a quick overview of what DBAtools is, some of the things you can do with it, and then some real world examples that are taken from our daily uses. Our objective is that when you leave this session, you will be comfortable reporting on your instances, and be prepared to take the next steps, AUTOMATION!!
Speaker(s):
- Josh Handler
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room D
Title: Navigating Today’s Azure SQL Services
Abstract: Five years ago there was a limited number of ways to deploy and use the SQL Server engine in the Azure Cloud. Today, there are many different services that one can choose.
How do you determine which service to use?
In this presentation we focus on key attributes of your data to pick the correct service. Certain services have limits on size, performance and movability of database. Other factors, such as the budget of your project, may also come into the decision making.
Transferring a database to the cloud is usually the easiest part of the project. Scheduling batch processes, executing maintenance jobs and providing alerts is usually part of the DBA equation. For companies that have a large amount of ETL packages, a lift and shift of this code might be a consideration. Other companies are more security conscious which means auditing, compliance, and threat detection are key factors in the decision.
At the end of the presentation, the attendee will have a broad knowledge of the Azure SQL services and when to apply each to a given project.
Speaker(s):
- John Miner
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Virtual Room C
Title: When to use indexing pro features
Abstract: Using the right index for the right scenario can be the “go fast” button that keeps queries and customers happy.
Over the years, Microsoft has given us many different indexing options and flavors. Today there are many more considerations beyond “clustered or non clustered”. We’ll cover all those different flavor options: Filtered, Compressed, Columnstore, included columns, and Partitioning.
We’ll cover an overview of what each of these options are, and then dive into some code examples to see how and when each of these work, and when the don’t.
You will leave the session with a much better idea of how and when to use each of these special indexing flavors to meet your needs.
Speaker(s):
- Andy Mallon
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room C
Title: Azure Data Studio – Way Cool for Azure and On-Prem SQL
Abstract: Azure Data Studio (ADS) cross-platform database development tool which runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. ‘ADS’ supports SQL Server and Postgres (with more DB platforms soon) and works both on-prem and in the cloud. ADS is highly extensible, open source, and can dramatically change the way you approach SQL coding.
In this session, we will cover ‘ADS’ features and capabilities such as
- Connections
- Code Snippets
- Notebooks
- Extensions And demonstrate why Azure Data Studio is in fact Way Cool.
Speaker(s):
- Jim Miller
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room D
Title: Azure Data Studio – Way Cool for Database Applications
Abstract: Azure Data Studio (ADS) cross-platform database development tool which runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. ‘ADS’ supports SQL Server and Postgres (with more DB platforms soon) and works both on-prem and in the cloud. ADS is highly extensible, open source, and can dramatically change the way you work with databases.
In this session, we will provide a case study on how Azure Data Studio can directly integrate with an existing ELT/ETL database application. Topics include:
- ADS Snippet and Extension Capabilities
- ADS Terminal Window
- ADS Platform Integrations
- ADS Application Reporting And why Azure Data Studio could be Way Cool for your Database Application
Speaker(s):
- Jim Miller
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room B
Title: Achievement Unlocked: How to Get Promoted
Abstract: Have you ever felt like an extra in Office Space? You’ve got the skills. You’ve got the big brain. You feel like you have a higher calling, but those other guys get picked instead. What’s the deal?
In this session, you’ll learn how to promote yourself, how to speak confidently, how to build your personal brand, how to demonstrate value, and how to interview.
Speaker(s):
- Dave Mattingly
Track and Room: Professional Development - Virtual Room B
Title: SQL Server Virtualization and I/O Patterns
Abstract: In this session we will explore the SQL Server engine’s I/O patterns and how they play into virtualization infrastructure. With the knowledge you’ll gain in this session you will be able to have more educated conversations with your cloud/infrastructure/VM/storage administrators in order to get the most performance and use the best features for your SQL Server (or SQL in Azure/AWS/GCP) environments.
Speaker(s):
- Argenis Fernandez
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: SQL Server By Example
Abstract: Sometimes there is no better way than to learn by example. In this session, you will learn key capabilities of SQL Server and Azure SQL by seeing demonstrations. This session is all about less slides and more demos! This session will show you demonstrations on topics such as containers, Kubernetes, performance, availability, and data virtualization. You will walk away with all the resources you need to try out everything you see on your own time.
Speaker(s):
- Bob Ward
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room A
Title: A Better Way to Run MsSql (aka Can You Believe This is Even Possible?!?!)
Abstract: Ten years ago, if you said that we would someday run Sql Server not only on Linux, but on Linux ON WINDOWS, you’d have been laughed out of the room. Here in 2020, though, not only is it possible, but it’s faster and easier than installing Sql Server the old-fashioned way!
In this talk, we’ll discuss:
- The basics how to run Docker containers locally on Windows 10.
- How to get Sql Server for Linux running on it.
- How to connect to it locally for your development needs.
Speaker(s):
- Chris Smith
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room D
Title: New Features in SSRS 2017
Abstract: SQL Server Reporting Services 2017 offer many new features, making it more robust than ever. These features include Web Report Portal with KPI, Mobile Report Publisher, Redesigned report rendering engine supporting HTML5, and treemap sunburst chart types. With intuitive interfaces and rich data visualization, business users and stake holders can now view valuable information, not just numbers. This session will cover requirements for installing and configuring SSIS, and how to quickly generate reports.
Speaker(s):
- Sam Nasr
Track and Room: BI Information Delivery - Virtual Room D
Title: Improve your daily productivity levels with SentryOne solutions
Abstract: In this session, Jon Moore will be diving into a quick, high-level overview of the vast monitoring, development analysis capabilities provided by SentryOne throughout most of the Microsoft stack. Whether you’re a DBA, developer, manager, business analyst or somewhere in between, SentryOne has something to take the pain out of your daily operations.
Speaker(s):
- Jon Moore
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Room 533
Title: Charlie and the Data Factory
Abstract: Azure Data Factory is your golden ticket to moving and transforming data in Azure! On your tour of the factory you’ll learn all the basics - Pipelines, Datasets, Connections and Triggers. Taking a closer look at pipelines, you’ll see how to use a variety of activities, set up variables and parameters, and view debugging output. Next you’ll learn how to monitor your pipelines and how using templates can improve your Data Factory experience. Finally you’ll get to see the data mapping capabilities of Data Flows. By the end of your tour, you’ll be saying that Azure Data Factory is Scrumdiddlyumptious!
Speaker(s):
- Vanessa Kesten
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Virtual Room A
Title: Presentation Skills for the Technical Professional
Abstract: Whether you’re new to presenting or an accomplished professional, all of us need to learn more about presentation skills. In this real-world session, Buck Woody, a Data Scientist from Microsoft will show you how to:
- Choose and develop a topic that draws in an audience
- Create a story-line for your session
- Understand the technologies and tools for delivering your session effectively
- Deal with presentation disasters
Speaker(s):
- Buck Woody
Track and Room: Professional Development - Virtual Room B
Title: SARGability: The Case of the Unused Index
Abstract: I just wrote some tSQL code, and made a perfect index! But wait, it’s still slow and it’s not being used! Why not? We’re going to take a look at indexes and how they work, and then do a deeper dive into the ways we write our code that will not allow it to use those wonderful indexes. Participants will come out with a deeper understanding of indexes and yet more coding anti-patterns to avoid!
Speaker(s):
- Lisa Bohm
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room B
Title: Making Your Reports Faster – Introduction to Power BI Performance Tuning
Abstract: Even the most beautifully designed reports that provide the most brilliant insights may suffer from a crippling problem: slow performance. In this demo-rich session we will discuss the key factors that impact the performance of your Power BI reports and learn simple, practical guidelines for making your reports faster.
Speaker(s):
- Slava Trofimov
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Virtual Room C
Title: SQL Server Security Features
Abstract: SQL Server provides several several security features for developers and architects. Features such as Dynamic Data Masking (DDM), “Always Encrypted”, and Row-Level Security provide an additional level of security natively through the database server. We’ll explore the implementation of these features on the client/server for data in transmission or at rest. In addition, we’ll examine built-in features and custom implementations.
Speaker(s):
- Sam Nasr
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Virtual Room A
Title: Power BI Data Modeling with Less Than Ideal Data Sources
Abstract: Ever get frustrated when watching Power BI training videos or reading through best practice documentation because the data sources that you have at work aren’t anything like the pristine data warehouse sources from the video?
This course will provide guidance and tips for building a solid Power BI data model with less than ideal data sources. If you have ever struggled building a data model from super wide, flattened out excel spreadsheets, this course is for you. We’ll start off with some flattened data sources and end up with a star schema that will impress any data warehouse architect!
Speaker(s):
- Mark Beedle
Track and Room: BI Information Delivery - Virtual Room D
Title: Managing Availability Groups with PowerShell, Tips, Techniques, Cool Scripts!
Abstract: Availability Groups can help an organization smoothly handle OLTP and Reporting Requests, as well as provide a site for Disaster Recovery in a data synchronous manner. As a DevOps DBA, managing the availability groups using PowerShell makes the job of deployment, upgrades, and security a breeze. The PowerShell SqlServer module has many useful functions to achieve the goal of simplifying administration of availability groups. I will share my experiences and also some additional custom scripts to help in managing your Availability Groups.
Speaker(s):
- Julie McLain-Harper
Track and Room: Enterprise Database Administration Deployment - Virtual Room C
Title: An (Advanced) Introduction to DAX
Abstract: Coming from the Excel world, DAX can look like Excel formulas on steroids. However, to be successful with DAX and Powerpivot, you’ll need a completely different mental model. In this introduction to DAX, we won’t spend too much time on the basics. Instead, we’ll focus the concepts that make DAX unique. This will help you avoid the stumbling blocks of working with DAX. We will cover calculated columns, measures, aggregations, filtering, and iterators.
Speaker(s):
- Eugene Meidinger
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Virtual Room C
Speakers
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
Corey Hambrick
Twitter: - HamboneDBA
Corey Hambrick is a Database Administrator for Cafepress. He has been working in IT for over 20 years, using SQL Server since 2000. He has worked on SQL Server since SQL 7.0. He enjoys learning and sharing his knowledge with others in the user community. When he is not being a geek, he can be found with his family, at his church and helping in the local jail ministry with those involved in the substance abuse program getting their lives back on track.
Jon Moore
LinkedIn: Jon Moore
My career started with device support for Apple, and that’s where I found my love for helping people! I then worked for Pragmatic Works supporting software, and found my love of big data. And now that SentryOne acquired Pragmatic Works software, I get to do the best of both worlds while working with a top-notch crew in the best company culture I’ve ever experienced.
As a Solutions Engineer, I leverage technical knowledge with consulting skills to provide advice, demonstrations and support on SQL Sentry products by being a key point of contact for existing and potential clients. I also work with development teams to provide insight into future development through testing and customer feedback, among other responsibilities.
Sam Nasr
Twitter: - SamNasr
LinkedIn: Sam Nasr
Contact: http://samnasr.blogspot.com/
Sam Nasr has been a software developer since 1995, focusing mostly on Microsoft technologies. He’s a Sr. Software Engineer with NIS Technologies where he consults and teaches clients about the latest .Net technologies. Sam has achieved multiple certifications from Microsoft (MCSA, MCAD, MCTS, MCT), and is the leader of the Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group since 2003. In addition, he’s the leader of the .Net Study Group, an author for Visual Studio Magazine, and a Microsoft MVP since 2013. When not coding, Sam loves spending time with his family and friends or volunteering at his local church.
Dave Mattingly
Twitter: - @dave_mattingly
LinkedIn: Dave Mattingly
Contact: http://www.davemattingly.net
Dave Mattingly has spent thirty years of designing, developing, databasing, documenting, and directing a variety of projects in many industries. In the past, he’s worked on space travel, fraud prevention, data accuracy, and virtual reality for industries such as games, ecology, health, religion, and money. He also writes, publishes, orates, teaches, and preaches.
Jim Donahoe
Twitter: - SQLFlipFlopsDBA
Contact: http://www.sqlflipflopsdba.com
Jim is a Premier Field Engineer for Microsoft in the Data/AI space. He lives in Pittsburgh in a small suburb. He loves working with all things Azure(ARM templates, DBaaS, SQL on IaaS). He is an avid collector of retro video games! He is a member of the Idera ACE program for 2018.
Lucas Feiock
Twitter: - @LucasFeiock
LinkedIn: Lucas Feiock
Contact: https://sql-stack.com
Lucas Feiock is a Senior Business Intelligence Consultant with KiZAN Technologies. He has four years of experience with the Microsoft BI Stack. In addition to data warehousing, data integration and data visualization, Lucas is also involved with machine learning and advanced analytics. He has experience working in multiple industries including manufacturing, sales, gas and electric utilities, and health care.
Argenis Fernandez
Twitter: - DBArgenis
LinkedIn: Argenis Fernandez
Contact: http://blog.purestorage.com/author/argenisfernandez/
Argenis is a Principal Architect at Pure Storage. He works with customers around the world to make sure they don’t have to worry much about their infrastructure for Data. He is a former Data Platform MVP, former VMware vExpert, Microsoft Certified Master, and more recently worked in the Microsoft Azure Data/SQL Server engineering team as a Principal PM in the Tiger team.
Bob Ward
Twitter: - bobwardms
Contact: http://aka.ms/bobsql
Bob Ward is a Principal Architect for the Microsoft Azure Data SQL Server team, which owns the development for all SQL Server versions. Bob has worked for Microsoft for 26+ years on every version of SQL Server shipped from OS/2 1.1 to SQL Server 2019 including Azure SQL. Bob is a well-known speaker on SQL Server, often presenting talks on new releases, internals, and performance at events such as PASS Summit, Red Hat Summit, Microsoft Ready, SQLBits, SQLIntersection, Microsoft Inspire, and Microsoft Ignite. You can follow him at @bobwardms or linkedin.com/in/bobwardms. Bob is the author of the books Pro SQL Server on Linux and SQL Server 2019 Revealed available from Apress Media. Twitter: http://twitter.com/bobwardms.
Lisa Bohm
Twitter: - LisaGB_SQL
LinkedIn: Lisa Bohm
Contact: http://www.lisagb.info
Lisa started in IT as a web developer. Designing databases as back ends for the web applications left the desire to learn more about solid design and coding for SQL performance. She has been on an ongoing mission to learn and improve code wherever she goes.
Buck Woody
Twitter: - BuckWoodyMSFT
LinkedIn: Buck Woody
Contact: http://buckwoody.wordpress.com/
Born helpless, naked, and unable to provide for himself, Buck Woody overcame these amazing handicaps to become a software developer, data professional, teacher, and a productive invertebrate member of society.
Slava Trofimov
LinkedIn: Slava Trofimov
Slava Trofimov has over 15 years of experience in leading business transformation using data and and analytics. He currently works as a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, specializing in Data AI.
Jim Miller
LinkedIn: Jim Miller
Contact: https://https://www.bitracks.com/blog
Jim has worked in various facets of the IT business for over 30 years, with a primary focus on data warehousing, reporting and analytics, business intelligence, data modeling (relational, multi-dimensional), ETL frameworks, database architecture, as well as database performance tuning. In previous engagements, Jim has fulfilled roles as Data Architect, DBA, IT Director, and Senior Consultant. He also has experience in account management, marketing/technical support, and software application training. Jim has also had some extraordinary opportunities to lead IT organizations, with multinational participants, on reconstruction projects based in Bosnia and Iraq.
Matthew Groves
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/mgroves
LinkedIn: Matthew Groves
Contact: https://crosscuttingconcerns.com
Matthew D. Groves is a guy who loves to code. It doesn’t matter if it’s C#, jQuery, or PHP: he’ll submit pull requests for anything. He has been coding professionally ever since he wrote a QuickBASIC point-of-sale app for his parent’s pizza shop back in the 90s. He currently works as a Developer Advocate for Couchbase. His free time is spent with his family, watching the Reds, and getting involved in the developer community. He is the author of AOP in .NET (published by Manning), and is also a Microsoft MVP.
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.
Eugene Meidinger
Twitter: - @sqlgene
Contact: http://www.sqlgene.com
Eugene Meidinger works as a BI consultant and full time Pluralsight author. He currently focuses on content on Power BI and related products. He also leads the Pittsburgh Power BI User Group. He is certified in querying and administering SQL Server.
Anna Hoffman
Twitter: - AnalyticAnna
LinkedIn: Anna Hoffman
Anna is a Data and Applied Scientist on the Azure Data (SQL) product team at Microsoft. In her time at Microsoft, Anna has worked in Microsoft Consulting Services, AI Engineering, and now SQL Engineering. She spends most of her time working on Azure SQL and participating in the community to democratize intelligence over all your data, from ground to cloud. You can follow her on Twitter at @AnalyticAnna.
Mark Beedle
Twitter: - markbdi
LinkedIn: Mark Beedle
I’m a BI developer at Tempur Sealy International, where I spend most of my time building out an enterprise data warehouse and support/administer/develop in Power BI. I’ve been working in the BI space for about 3 years now and have loved every minute of it! I’m working on starting a Power BI consulting company on the side, and in my free time I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, and learning to play bass guitar.
Chris Smith
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/chlsmith
LinkedIn: Chris Smith
I’ve been an IT professional for about 20 years and have basically seen it all. I worked my way up the old fashioned way, starting on a helpdesk, earning some certifications (Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix), and moving up the ladder. I’m current a DevOps Engineer working with the full range of Azure offerings, including Azure SQL database, Cosmos DB, Azure Devops, and App Services. I’m a database guy the way many folks are….just because someone has to do it.
Sam Nasr
Twitter: - SamNasr
LinkedIn: Sam Nasr
Contact: http://samnasr.blogspot.com/
Sam Nasr has been a software developer since 1995, focusing mostly on Microsoft technologies. He’s a Sr. Software Engineer with NIS Technologies where he consults and teaches clients about the latest .Net technologies. Sam has achieved multiple certifications from Microsoft (MCSA, MCAD, MCTS, MCT), and is the leader of the Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group since 2003. In addition, he’s the leader of the .Net Study Group, an author for Visual Studio Magazine, and a Microsoft MVP since 2013. When not coding, Sam loves spending time with his family and friends or volunteering at his local church.
Julie McLain-Harper
LinkedIn: Julie McLain-Harper
As “The Goddess of the Database”, I am a Sr DBA, Technical Professional and Microsoft Certified Trainer who has over 25 years of experience and a passion for EDUCATING, new technology, system performance and troubleshooting. My experience started with Hierarchical Databases and thankfully moved to Relational Databases, Open Systems technology, and SQL Programming. Because of my desire to give Developers a new perspective on their process of interacting with database data, I began educating co-workers and then training others in SQL Programming best practices. I have significant background as a professor/educator; a Sr. DBA; in performance tuning; as a data, app and infra architect; an Adopter of PowerShell and am MCSA Certified.
Tracy Boggiano
Twitter: - TracyBoggiano
LinkedIn: Tracy Boggiano
Contact: http://databasesuperhero.com
Tracy Boggiano is a Senior Database Administrator for DocuSIgn. She has spent over 20 years in IT, using SQL Server since 1999, and is currently certified as an MCSE Data Platform. Tracy has worked on SQL Server since 6.5. She has spoken at local user groups and numerous SQLSaturdays. She is currently a co-leader of a TriPASS Local Group in Raleigh, NC.
Tracy also tinkered with databases in middle school to keep her sports card collection organized. She blogs at databasesuperhero.com.
Her passion outside of SQL Server is volunteering with foster children as their advocate in court through volunteerforgal.org and being a mental health advocate as part of the PAIMI NC Advisory Council.
Josh Handler
Twitter: - gt1gt1
LinkedIn: Josh Handler
Josh has been working with SqlServer since 1999. He is currently the Sr. Data Architect for Cozen O’Connor. Josh has been working with databases since DBase 3 and MS based DB’s since Access 97 and SQL Server 7.0 in a development role. In addition to DB’s, Josh also works on the front end with all things Visual Studio. In his current role, he now also handles the DBA roles as well.
Jim Miller
LinkedIn: Jim Miller
Contact: https://https://www.bitracks.com/blog
Jim has worked in various facets of the IT business for over 30 years, with a primary focus on data warehousing, reporting and analytics, business intelligence, data modeling (relational, multi-dimensional), ETL frameworks, database architecture, as well as database performance tuning. In previous engagements, Jim has fulfilled roles as Data Architect, DBA, IT Director, and Senior Consultant. He also has experience in account management, marketing/technical support, and software application training. Jim has also had some extraordinary opportunities to lead IT organizations, with multinational participants, on reconstruction projects based in Bosnia and Iraq.
Forrest McDaniel
Twitter: - tsqladdict
Contact: https://www.forrestmcdaniel.com
Simply put, Forrest is a nerd. For over a decade he’s applied his math skills in various industries, and has become specialized in SQL Server performance. His current goal is to animate all the operator algorithms in query plans.
Alicia Moniz
LinkedIn: Alicia Moniz
Alicia Moniz is a Microsoft AI MVP. She authors the blog HybridDataLakes.com, a blog focused on cloud data learning resources. Alicia has been in the Database/BI services industry for 14+ years and is an expert in T-SQL, Data Modeling, Database Administration, Analytics, Data Visualization, and Data Warehousing. Her skill set spans SQL Server 2005 through 2016 and Azure. She has hands on experience architecting, developing, and optimizing BI solutions in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Alicia holds certifications for both AWS/Azure Architect and AWS/Azure Big Data, and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Expert (MCSE): Data Management and Analytics.
Vanessa Kesten
Twitter: - VanessaEHL
LinkedIn: Vanessa Kesten
Vanessa Kesten is a Data Engineer with BrightSpring Health Services. She is an Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) in Data Management and Analytics. Vanessa has over a decade of experience with the Microsoft BI Stack and has led large scale deployments of data warehousing solutions and has worked in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, health insurance, and government contracts.
Andy Mallon
Twitter: - AMtwo
LinkedIn: Andy Mallon
Contact: http://www.AM2.co
Andy is a Data Platform MVP and SQL Server DBA that has managed databases in the healthcare, finance, e-commerce, and non-profit sectors. He has been supporting high-volume, highly-available OLTP environments with demanding performance needs since 2003.
Andy is the founder of the BostonSQL User Group, and previous co-organizer of SQLSaturday events in Boston. He blogs at am2.co.
Andy lives just outside Boston, Massachusetts, USA with his husband and their two dogs.
Eugene Meidinger
Twitter: - @sqlgene
Contact: http://www.sqlgene.com
Eugene Meidinger works as a BI consultant and full time Pluralsight author. He currently focuses on content on Power BI and related products. He also leads the Pittsburgh Power BI User Group. He is certified in querying and administering SQL Server.
Buck Woody
Twitter: - BuckWoodyMSFT
LinkedIn: Buck Woody
Contact: http://buckwoody.wordpress.com/
Born helpless, naked, and unable to provide for himself, Buck Woody overcame these amazing handicaps to become a software developer, data professional, teacher, and a productive invertebrate member of society.
Sriharsh Adari
Twitter: - Sriharshadari
LinkedIn: Sriharsh Adari
Contact: https://www.sriharshadari.com/
Sriharsh Adari is a technology strategist and Cloud BI Architect. He has around 16 years of experience helping customers with setting up Data Platforms focused on Microsoft BI. He has helped multiple global customers across different industry verticals set up enterprise data platforms using the Microsoft Data Platform and Business Intelligence stack. Over the past few years, he has been helping customers migrate on-premise data workloads onto Cloud Data Platforms - Azure, AWS, and set up new data platforms on cloud. Sriharsh is passionate about all things related to data, big data and Business Intelligence.
Tracy Boggiano
Twitter: - TracyBoggiano
LinkedIn: Tracy Boggiano
Contact: http://databasesuperhero.com
Tracy Boggiano is a Senior Database Administrator for DocuSIgn. She has spent over 20 years in IT, using SQL Server since 1999, and is currently certified as an MCSE Data Platform. Tracy has worked on SQL Server since 6.5. She has spoken at local user groups and numerous SQLSaturdays. She is currently a co-leader of a TriPASS Local Group in Raleigh, NC.
Tracy also tinkered with databases in middle school to keep her sports card collection organized. She blogs at databasesuperhero.com.
Her passion outside of SQL Server is volunteering with foster children as their advocate in court through volunteerforgal.org and being a mental health advocate as part of the PAIMI NC Advisory Council.
Sponsors
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event: