Event Location:
Jurys Inn Hotel Exeter
Western Way
Exeter, , United Kingdom
Abstract:
This is one of the most frequent questions I get from our website visitors (mainly as we provide BI Tutorials). I have become a BI Developer and I would like to share my experience and thoughts (and get yours) during this session, which will include: 1) We are not born BI Developers and anyone has a chance to become one! 2) It is not easy but it is easier when you have a clear directions how to get there! 3) Permanent vs. Contractor brief explanation of pros and cons! 4) Money is important aspect so we will talk about salaries and contract rates! 5) My journey to becoming a BI developer was not easy and I have started from not knowing English (in 2005) and any aspects of IT and I worked very hard (and Katie; my wife was my main success factor!) but I no longer want to be a BI Developer so last point is where to go next?
Speaker(s): Emil Glownia,
Abstract:
We’ve all dealt with them: nightmare queries, huge, twisted monsters that somehow work, despite being ugly and unmanageable. The time has come to tame these beasts, and the solution is available now, in SQL Server 2012. New T-SQL functions offer out-of-the-box solutions for many problems that previously required complex workarounds. Paging, Running totals, Moving aggregates, YTD, and much more comes at the power of your fingertips in SQL Server 2012. The only thing you need to do is learn the syntax. And that is exactly what this session is all about: a thorough description and explanation of the syntax, and loads of demos to demonstrate how you can use all these new features. Attend this session to boldly take SQL Server where it has never gone before!
Speaker(s): Hugo Kornelis,
Abstract:
You’ve heard that Business Intelligence projects are prone to failure. You’ve watched the Apprentice with Donald Trump and Lord Alan Sugar. You know that the Project Manager is usually the one gets fired. You know that a quick Bing search for ‘why do Business Intelligence projects fail?’ produces a search result of 25 million hits! Despite all this… you’re now Business Intelligence Project Manager – now what do you do? In this session, Jen will provide a ‘sparks from the anvil’ series of steps and working practices in Business Intelligence Project Management. What about waterfall vs agile? What is a Gantt chart anyway? Jen will give you some ideas and insights that will help you set your BI project right: assess priorities, avoid conflict, empower the BI team and deliver the Business Intelligence project successfully!
Speaker(s): Jen Stirrup,
Abstract:
As a SQL Server DBA you've probably noticed more and more talk of PowerShell over the last few years. You might have never used it, or perhaps you've even downloaded a few scripts to use, or started reading a tutorial, but aren't really sure what it can do for you? Then this session is for you. Trying something new for SQLSaturday Exter 2014, this "session" is in fact 2 sessions long (don't worry, you'll still get a break for coffee half way through). By the end of them you should have a better understanding of what PowerShell is, and how it can be used with SQL Server, so you can start writing your own scripts or have a better understanding of how a script you've downloaded works Session 1 will be a easy high level introduction
Speaker(s): Stuart Moore,
Abstract:
Quote: “A good DBA is a lazy DBA”. When you have to manage a few SQL Servers, it’s not that hard to be a lazy DBA and to automate your day to day activities. But when you have to manage over 100 instances, it can become a tough job. Just imagine how you will deploy a new maintenance job on all your instances? Are you going to connect to each server one by one? Not really… Microsoft provides an enhanced set of multi-server management tools. The purpose of this sessions is to point out which SQL Server tools you can use for multi-server management. The session is bulk loaded with demos and it will give you a good idea what features can be helpful in your environment.
Speaker(s): Pieter Vanhove,
Abstract:
Quite frankly, some aspects of building out a business intelligence solution are tedious. As you cycle through iterations of your star schema, you’ll find that even a simple data type change in the data warehouse requires you to make corresponding changes to staging tables, SSIS packages, and SSAS multidimensional or tabular models that take a considerable amount of time to implement. But there’s a better, faster way!In this session, we’ll explore lessons from a project that required implementation of a framework to easily generate BI objects based on reusable patterns. We’ll walk through the decision points in the framework design, review the implementation steps, and see demonstrations of how easily you can make iterative changes to your BI solution’s design by using reusable design patterns. Whether you simply want to accelerate change management or reproduce objects in bulk on demand, this session will give you practical tips for automating these processes.
Speaker(s): Stacia Varga,
Abstract:
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) include several most important components required in data acquisition, transformation, and load operations. If the problem at hand demands a solution that cannot be solved using the built-in components alone, you can resort to the freely extensible Script Component, but when the circumstances also call for a more complex, and more robust solution, that will be deployed to more than one destination server, the more appropriate alternative is to design a Custom Component.In this session you will learn how this can be achieved, what advantages it provides, and how to perform even the most complex data transformations in a standardised and reliable environment.
Speaker(s): Matija Lah,
Abstract:
In this session we will go through the topics of performance, scalability and availbility - the 3 core topics that every DBA needs to know. Performance is at the core and required for every database application (small or mission-critical). In this talk we will go through the concepts, tools and procedures that will help you in monitoring and start fine-tuning the performance or find the root-cause on your data platform. The subject covered here is excerpted from my book "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration cookbook" and "SQL Server 2012 Cube Security How-to". This will also be an ideal beginning for any IT person who is willing step-into DBA world.
Speaker(s): Satya Jayanty,
Abstract:
Ever tried to import a file with the Import/Export wizard? Or created a bunch of SSIS packages to process a data warehouse load? Then you know how much work it is to specify the metadata correctly just to create a package that actually works. Wouldn't it be cool if you had a descriptive language which looks at your metadata and just created the packages for you? This is what BIML is all about. In this session I explain what BIML is, how it works and I'll show you how you can generate your packages and quickly respond to changes. You can expect a demo rich session with lots of notes from the field and practical examples. This is not just for BI developers, DBA's or SQL dev's who need to import or export data occasionally will learn some quick and easy tricks as well.
Speaker(s): André Kamman,
Abstract:
Yes, you read the title right. No, it's not about the usual "one table per partition" and "restore full backup then copy the data over" methods. No, there are no 3rd party tools involved. Just you and your SQL Server. Yes, it's crazy. No, it's not for production purposes. And yes, that's why it's so much fun. Prepare to dive into the world of data pages, log records, deletes, truncates and backups and how it all works together to get your table back from the endless void. Want to know more? Come and see!
Speaker(s): Mladen Prajdić,
Abstract:
Sometimes you really need an EAV model. In most cases they are ugly and slow. After this session you will have gained new insights how to turn your old, slow, EAV model into a slim superfast model. There will be real life examples from a recent project. With the techniques displayed in the presentation, I cut the execution time down from 134 days down to 0.5 seconds and cut the storage need from 550GB to 45GB.
Speaker(s): Peter Larsson,
Abstract:
SQL Server Management Studio is at the heart of any SQL Server DBA or developer’s day. We take it for granted but rarely do we take a look at how we can customise or improve it to make our day to day work easier and more productive. This presentation will show you how to use SSMS and will look at many of the hidden features and shortcuts that you had forgotten about or didn’t know were there. At the end of this session you will have learnt at least one new feature of SSMS that you can use to improve your productivity.
Speaker(s): David Postlethwaite,
Abstract:
Beginning with SQL Server 2008, Policy-based Management was added to the DBAs toolkit to ease administration, but it only goes so far. This session will cover the principles of PBM, and we'll take a look at how we can make it *work* for us, as opposed to just telling us something is not right. We'll cover PBM and it's insides, Alerts, Operators, Scheduled Jobs, and demo a real-world use when setting up databases.
Speaker(s): Richard Munn,
Abstract:
- Backup Enhancement (Azure, Encryption) - Partition Switching and Indexing - Managing the lock priority of online operations - Columnstore indexes (updatable, showplan,Archival data compression) - Incremental Statistics - Security Enhancements - AlwaysOn enhancements - Buffer pool extension onto SSDs - Resource Governor enhancements for physical IO - Improved optimizer with new costings.
Speaker(s): David Williams,
Abstract:
R, the statistical programming language, is another open-source program making inroads into the Microsoft world. This session will show you how to get data into R directly from SQL Server, perform different forms of analysis, and output to various formats.
Speaker(s): Stephanie Locke,
Abstract:
In this session we will take an in depth look at how query plans work. We will go under the covers and see what happens when you run that query. We will also take a look at various operators, how they work, why they are chosen and how to avoid them being used in the wrong place / context,. Attendees of this session will walk away with a greater understanding of query plans and the operators, which will enable them to both better interpret their query plans and also write more efficient SQL code
Speaker(s): David Morrison,
Abstract:
The IT world is currently in cost-saving mode - cutbacks are all over the place and then Microsoft pushes out SQL Server price hikes. In this session we will discuss how consolidating SQL Server can reduce overall costs and increase efficiency. We will cover the reasons for consolidation along with the advantages and the disadvantages of consolidating SQL Servers. We will also take a look at some of the tools that can assist with a consolidation project and some pitfalls that I have experienced on previous consolidation projects.
Speaker(s): William Durkin,
Abstract:
Learn more about SQL Server 2014, the next major release of SQL Server and Azure SQL DB. SQL Server 2014 delivers higher performance on large volumes of data with our new In-Memory OLTP technology (formerly known as Project “Hekaton”), as well as greater availability through our hybrid disaster recovery and backup solutions. In this session we will walk through the improvements we have made in the product and explain how they address your needs for mission-critical performance and availability, faster insights on any data, and greater efficiency and flexibility.
Speaker(s): Ewan Fairweather,
Abstract:
The life of a SQL Server DBA is a busy one. A fount of all knowledge, the SQL Server DBA is often interrupted with small questions and routine tasks. This session will show you some functions that you can use to save time spent on this and hopefully inspire SQL DBAs to explore PowerShell further by showing how easy it is to explore SQL Server properties with it.
Speaker(s): Rob Sewell,
Abstract:
Microsoft have released a distribution of Hadoop targeted at making big data accessible to everyone. Hadoop is different to SQL Server. Not necessarily better, just different. It is a tool for a job. if you have only ever worked with an RDBMS such as SQL Server then Hadoop is going to play with your mind a little and you are going to need to rethink a few things. This session is going to take Hadoop and break it apart. I will also look at some of the tooling Hive and Pig. Keep an open mind and let me show you that Hadoop has lots to offer.
Speaker(s): Allan Mitchell,
Abstract:
SQL Server 2014 In-Memory OLTP Technology - AKA Hekaton - is here. Should you be getting excited? Will it prove to be the miracle turbo-boost for your databases that you are hoping for? In this session, three simple questions will be answered: Could you use it? How would you use it? And why would you want to use it? Tidy. So when your boss hears the buzz and wants everything converted ASAP, you'll know the score.
Speaker(s): James Skipwith,
Abstract:
The query optimizer is at the heart of SQLServer. Without it SQLServer would be a vastly inferior product, queries would have to be manually tuned at each and every turn, and generally speaking, the optimizer protects us from the complexities and mechanics involved. Much of the optimizer's internal workings are hidden from the user, but can be revealed by using a selection of undocumented trace flags to gain further knowledge and insight into how your queries and data are processed to create a plan. This session will be a deep dive into the optimizers' internals and not for the feint of heart.
Speaker(s): Dave Ballantyne,
Abstract:
In this session I will explain what PowerView is and the benefits it can bring to your business; followed by an overview of how you can deliver it to your business using SQL Server 2014 and SharePoint 2013.
Speaker(s): Kevin Chant,
Abstract:
We all know that ‘Indexing’ is KING when it comes to achieving high levels of performance in SQL Server. When Indexing also combines 2 of the Enterprise features: Partitioning Compression, we can often see substantial gains. Learn how to identify those objects that benefit greatly from being Partitioned or Compressed, OR combining both of these features to even greater effect. Using Demos to illustrate the performance gains with real-world examples, Take away advanced scripts for use in your own environments.
Speaker(s): Neil Hambly,
Abstract:
Illustrate how multipurpose queries can lead to issues with scalability and performance. Show a few alternatives that will work for smaller and simpler queries while highlighting their limitations for more complex queries. Then work through building a dynamic search query to resolve the identified performance issues. Touching on: • Testing. • Tuning each part of the query in isolation. • Plan cache re-use • Security – SQL injection attacks and authorisation / code signing. • Possibly, mentioning greater re-use and extendibility.
Speaker(s): Ian Meade,
Abstract:
We all know that the execution plan is central to understanding query performance, but the way we view the execution plan hides lots of good, useful information from us. The plan is an XML document and knowing what attributes to look for can give you a better window onto your query's performance. In this session Kevan will cover the attributes that he looks for, what they mean and what actions to take. We may even get a sneak peak of what's to come in SQL 2014 too.
Speaker(s): Kevan Riley,
Abstract:
Session Details not available
Speaker(s): n/a n/a,
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robsewellsqldba
Contact: http://sqldbawithabeard.com
Rob was once a production SQL Server DBA, but is now generally found automating the Data Platform and providing training for clients. He has a passion for PowerShell, Data, and DevOps. He is an MVP, an officer for the DevOps PowerShell VG, and has spoken and volunteered at many PowerShell and Data events. He is a member of the committee that organises Data In Devon and the European PowerShell Conference. He is a proud supporter of the Data and PowerShell communities. He relishes sharing and learning and can be found doing both via Twitter @sqldbawithbeard and his blog sqldbawithabeard.com. He spends most of his time looking at a screen and loves to solve problems.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdurkin
Contact: http://williamdurkin.com
William Durkin is a DBA, Data Platform MVP, and Data Platform Architect for Data Masterminds (http://datamasterminds.io). He uses his decade of experience with SQL Server to help multinational corporations achieve their data management goals. Born in the UK and now based in Germany, William has worked as a Database Developer and DBA on projects ranging from single server installations, up to environments spanning 5 continents, using a range of high availability solutions. William is a regular speaker at conferences around the globe, organizes the popular event SQLGrillen (http://sqlgrillen.com).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-chant/
Contact: https://www.KevinRChant.com/
Senior Database Architect originally from the UK and now living in the Netherlands. Over 23 years experience in the IT sector, and has supported databases for companies in the top 10 of the fortune 500 list. In addition to a lot of SQL Server experience also has a fair few Microsoft Certifications. In addition, was probably the last ever person in the world to gain the MCSD Azure Architect certification and has gained the latest Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert certification. Has real life experience with SQL Server and Azure Devops. Currently SQL Server Product Owner of around 1,900 instances. In addition, done various things over the years for the Data Platform Community.
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/sqlmaster
Contact: http://www.sqlserver-qa.net
My experience surrounded with high focus on the data platform with a track record of defining strategy, designing and delivering digital transformation migrations with major enhancements to current working methods. Worked in a capacity of Head of Data Engineering, Enterprise Data Architect and Solutions Key career accomplishment recognition as an industry expert technical excellence from the Microsoft as Data Platform Most Valuable Professional (MVP) recognition since the year 2006 (13 years as MVP and counting), which recognizes exceptional technical community leaders worldwide who actively deliver, present share their extraordinary contributions, high quality, and real-world expertise. Twitter pod (http://twitter.com/sqlmast
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jenstirrup/
Contact: http://www.jenstirrup.com
Jen Stirrup, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP is a well-known Business Intelligence and Data Visualization expert, author, data strategist, and Master of Business Administration (MBA) student in London. Jen leads a boutique analytics consultancy, delivering strategic advice to companies large and small. Jen has presented in Africa, India, Europe and North America. Jen has presented at Ignite, Techorama, TechEd, PASS Summit, SQLBits, and SQLSaturday events in Europe and the US. She also delivers the MAPA Azure Architects course worldwide with Microsoft team members. Jen was also featured on the Best of PASS Summit 2015 DVD as one of the top 10 speakers. Jen also was awarded PASS prestigious PASSion Award in 2012
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mladenprajdic
Contact: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp
Mladen Prajdić is a Data Platform MVP from Slovenia. He's been programming for 20 years, developing different types of applications in .Net (C#) and SQL Server, ranging from standard line-of-business, image-processing applications to high performace and IoT applications. He's a regular speaker at various conferences and usergroup meetings, really likes to optimize slow SQL statements, analyze performance, and find unconventional solutions to difficult SQL Server problems. In his free time, he also develops a very popular add-in for SSMS, called the SSMS Tools Pack (www.ssmstoolspack.com).
Contact: http://www.katieandemil.com/
n/a
Contact: http://andrekamman.com
André is a freelance SQL Server specialist. In previous roles he’s done a lot of DBA work on 100’s of servers where he discovered his love for Powershell and automating processes in general. Today the better part of his day he’s building and tuning ETL processes. André is a SQL Server MPV, Dutch PASS Chapter Leader and organiser of SQL Rally Amsterdam and SQLSaturday Holland
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/staciavarga
Contact: http://blog.datainspirations.com
Stacia Varga is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and SSAS Maestro with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences. A consultant, educator, author, and principal of Data Inspirations, her career spans more than 30 years, with a focus on improving business practices through technology. Since 2000, Stacia has provided consulting and education services for Microsoft's Business Intelligence technologies. As Stacia Misner, she also authored several books covering the Microsoft BI stack.
Ewan Fairweather is a Senior Program Manager on the Azure Customer Advisory (CAT) team at Microsoft. He has extensive background on building complex, high-end OLTP applications on SQL Server as well as significant experience with the largest Windows/SQL Azure applications deployed today. He has worked for Microsoft for seven years in a number of field and Redmond based roles. Lead author on "Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform," and has written many whitepapers.
Contact: http://pietervanhove.azurewebsites.net/
Pieter Vanhove is a SQL Server MVP and Database Consultant in Belgium and has been working with SQL Server since 2000. Performance tuning, SQL audits, migrations and training are part of the job. Pieter has also a profound knowledge in implementing HA/DR solutions and loves the new Azure stuff. Together with the SQLUG in Belgium, he helps organizing SQL Server Days and is also a regular speaker at Belgian and international events. Pieter recently won the Speaker Idol Contest at PASS Summit 2014.
LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/VC3U97
Contact: http://ianmeadedotdotdot.blogspot.ie/
Dave has been working in the IT field for over 20 years, the past 15 of which has been specialising within SQLServer environment. Tuning and optimizing SQLServer processes is his particular talent but no newbie either when it comes to database development and design. Dave regularly contributes to online forums and is a regular speaker at UK events such as SQL Bits and user groups. He also is founder of the SQL Lunch UK user group
Contact: http://stuart-moore.com
Stuart has been working with SQL Server since 1998 and version 7, splitting the years between roles as a DBA and a Developer.
Contact: http://sqlpimp.com/
A former programmer, James to the dark side over thirteen years ago. He is a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server 2008 and a C# lover. Automation makes him smile. SSDT junkie.
Contact: http://www.sqltopia.com
Peter Larsson is a key player for performance written code. He can turn a 10 hour query into a 3 minute piece of code. Peter is also a SQL Server MVP since 2009. He often hangs out at SQLTeam.com (27k+ posts) and other various sites where he helps all people understand SQL Server.
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/neilhambly
Contact: http://dataidol.com/NeilHambly
Neil Hambly is a SQL Server consultant, founder and consultant at Datamovements, a Gold Microsoft Data Analytics Consulting company. Neil has 20+ years in a variety of SQL Server roles and is an MCT. He is a regular presenter (200+ events) at user groups, and PASS events, including PASS Summit and SQLSaturday, and many UK events (SQLBits, SQLRelay). Neil is the leader of PASS London (UK), a Professional Development VC, a Melissa Data MVP, and a SQL Cruise Technical Lead, who loves Guinness, whisky, and dancing.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevriley/
Contact: https://www.rileywaterhouse.co.uk/blog
Kevan Riley (MCSE: Data Management and Analytics) has been working with SQL Server since 1999 in a variety of DBA and DB developer roles. He now works as a freelance SQL Server Consultant in the UK and is no more happier than when knee-deep in performance tuning. He can be often found contributing at ask.sqlservercentral.com and getting involved with the SQL community at UK user groups, SQLSaturdays, SQLBits and SQL Relay.
Richard has been a DBA for so long, he thinks he's now a Data Professional. After 16 years with SQL Server, he's seen most things come and some of them go (not before time). He's currently to be seen working SQL magick in Swindon, but happily does not actually live there.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpostlethwaite
Contact: http://www.gethynellis.com/
David Postlethwaite has been a DBA for Liverpool Victoria in Bournemouth, England since 2008 He supports both Oracle and SQL Server from 2000 to 2017, DBMS, SSIS, SSAS and Reporting Services. In 2015 David built and deployed the company's first cloud solution using Microsoft Azure SQL Database and web services Before becoming a DBA David was a .NET developer and way back in history a Windows and Netware administrator. He is an occasional blogger on www.gethynellis.com David is a regular speaker for SQLSaturday. Most of his presentations can be found on his YouTube channel www.youtube.com/c/DavidPostlethwaiteSQL
LinkedIn: http://si.linkedin.com/in/matijalah/
Contact: http://milambda.blogspot.com
Matija Lah has more than a decade of experience working with Microsoft SQL Server, mostly architecting data-centric solutions in the legal domain. His contributions to the SQL Server community have led to the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in 2007 (Data Platform), which he held until 2017. In 2008 Matija joined SolidQ as a Mentor, located in Central and Eastern Europe. He spends most of his time on projects involving advanced information management, and natural language processing.
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephanielocke
Contact: https://itsalocke.com
Steph Locke leads a life of data, coffee, books and board games. During the day, Steph runs her own consultancy helping people start doing data science. Steph enjoys being her own gal as it means she gets to spend plenty of time building communities to provide platforms for people to help each other be better with data.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justdaveinfo?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile
Contact: http://justdave.info
David is a cross product DBA (SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, Informix, Sybase) who has worked for 25 years as a DBA for both private, local/central government customers including a Fortune 50 investment bank. Certifications include MCSE 2014 Data Platform, MCTS SQL Server 2008 DBA and Developer as well as certifcations in other products. David has spoken at multiple SQLSaturdays as well as local usergroups and is a regular volunteer at events including SQLBits.
Contact: http://tsqlninja.wordpress.com
David is a senior BI consultant at Coeo. Having worked in some for of database development or another for around 14 years his areas of specialisation are sql server engine internals, tsql and query performance tuning. David has spoken at numerous conferences including several SQLBits and SQLSaturday events as well as user group meetings. He is a a confident speaker who uses humor and a down to earth approach to make even the most technical subject matters easily attainable and engagin
Contact: https://onlysearch.wordpress.com/
Allan Mitchell is a SQL Server MVP and runs elastio, a small consultancy helping customers to make informed decisions about their data storage and integration. His focus is on enterprise search as well as real-time data integration.
Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/hugo_kornelis/default.aspx
Hugo is co-founder and RD lead of perFact BV, a Dutch company that improves analysis methods and develops computer-aided tools to generate completely functional applications from the analysis deliverable. The platform for this development is SQL Server. In his spare time, Hugo likes to share and enhance his knowledge of SQL Server by frequenting newsgroups and forums, reading and writing books and blogs, and attending and speaking at conferences. Hugo is also a SQL Server MVP since 2006.
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event.