Event Location:
The MIXER building
15255 NE 40th Street
Redmond, Washington
Abstract:
If you want to be a successful business intelligence analyst in today’s market, you need to bring more to the table than fancy dashboards and drill through pivot tables. Now, you need sophisticated cluster analysis, decision-trees and bona fide product recommendations. In this session I’ll show you where to find the free Microsoft tools that allow you to tap into these features of SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 R2 and beyond. After this session you will be able to create everything above without learning R, or stepping out of the Microsoft BI stack. You’ll see how you can create fantastic data visualizations that are better than you could accomplish in the same time with years of experience in expensive statistical packages like SAS or SPSS. More importantly than the how’s, you’ll leave knowing the when’s to use these powerful data science tools.
Speaker(s): David Lydston,
Abstract:
Congratulations on landing your first SQL Server DBA Job. Do you have a DBA Training Plan? In this presentation we will follow Alice as she steps into her first days as a new DBA. We will travel with Alice as she navigates through SQL Server Land following her DBA Training Plan. We will be watching Alice as she discovers, learns, and actually performs those typical tasks to maintain a SQL Server environment. In this presentation Alice will discover the following and more: • Monitoring your server • Backup / Recovery • Managing Databases • Managing and Monitor Resources • Installation considerations • Managing Security and Auditing • SQL Server version management As Alice travels through SQL Server Land we will be watching Alice as she performs her on the job training exercises. These demos that Alice will be working through should provide those attending with some examples that will walk us through the actual mechanics of what Alice will need to deal with as SQL Server
Speaker(s): Greg Larsen,
Abstract:
Many SQL Server performance issues can be solved with the information available from the DMVs, even if it is collected only after the problem occurred. But management might ask why something that was not an issue yesterday became an issue today i.e., who is to blame? On modern server systems with many powerful processors cores and massive memory, problems may be infrequent, but they do still occur. And so we may have neglected to collect and archive data on a routine basis. It is equally important to collect sufficient information to fully diagnose and a resolve a problem. Too many (all?) third party tools seem to stop after identifying a problem on the presumption that the the DBA’s responsibility ends with passing this information to someone else. To this end, I have automated the collection and partial analysis of index usage, query execution statistics and executions plans in my own tool ExecStats (http://www.qdpma.com/ExecStats/SQLExecStats.html)
Speaker(s): Joe Chang,
Abstract:
Columnstore indexes were introduced in SQL Server 2012 have been wholly re-architected optimized for SQL Server 2014. Columnstore indexes are optimized for data warehouse workloads are a hybrid technology leveraging the best of off-disk in-memory capabilities. Transparent to the app, columnstore has been shown to render queries at sub-second response times which heretofore took many minutes or longer. This presentation includes an overview of SQL Server 2012 a deep dive into SQL Server 2014 columnstore indexes, including a review of the architecture, as well as the challenges, workarounds, travails, big wins at customer sites inside MSIT. The presentation is rich in demos, including leveraging IaaS—Columnstore in The Cloud. Learn whether columnstore can change your users' world why columnstore may be a compelling reason to upgrade. Learn how columnstore indexes flip the DW faster bit why columnstore manifests my motto, “Change the world or go home!”
Speaker(s): Jimmy May,
Abstract:
Before SQL Server 2012, it was easy to develop several SSIS packages in a project and deploy each package as you complete it. However SQL Server 2012 introduces the project deployment model. With its awesome features comes the limitation that you can no longer deploy a single package. You must deploy the whole project every time! How do you deploy a project that contains a mix of deployed packages, ready to deploy packages and packages in development? In this session I demonstrate common problems that arise in the package development lifecycle that affect project deployment. I will then demonstrate how to use Team Foundation Server to address these problems. I will develop the story for handling packages at various stages of development using TFS.
Speaker(s): Russel Loski,
Abstract:
Along with backups, consistency checks are arguably the two most important tasks that DBAs need to perform regularly. Our databases are getting bigger every day, and CHECKDB run times, along with its performance impact to Production systems, keep increasing. In this session we discuss how to improve your system so that you can reduce the time that it takes to run CHECKDB or the individual DBCC CHECK* commands. We will cover topics like Transaction log and VLF management, tempdb configuration, trace flags, Resource Governor, and many more. In one of many the demos we will explore a real life example where SurveyMonkey's consistency checks were taken from 7 days down to 6 hours.
Speaker(s): Argenis Fernandez,
Abstract:
In your OLTP database you often need to find category or yearly totals. Most people are familiar with getting totals by using GROUP BY with an aggregate function. What if you want get market share reports like how each product is selling as it’s percentage of the total category. You can combine aggregate functions with individual records without even using GROUP BY or nesting your queries. • Learn about aggregation queries that combine totals in the same records set as your row data. • Learn to write aggregation queries that don’t use the GROUP BY keywords • See how aggregate table data by groups or partitions using all types of aggregate keywords
Speaker(s): Rick Morelan,
Abstract:
This session will provide an introduction to Master Data Management (MDM). We explore the basic concepts, types of MDM solution, and the basics for a successful MDM Implementation. With a working definition in hand, we'll discuss strategies for beginning a successful MDM pilot in your organization and look at some of the pitfalls to avoid. We'll wrap the business discussion up with some tips for selecting the right domains to solve and some tips for managing the politics of MDM. After we've set the stage for what, how and why you need MDM, we'll take a brief look at SQL Server MDS through the Excel add-in and talk about the Architecture of MDS.
Speaker(s): John McAllister,
Abstract:
Do you know what code is going onto your production systems? How can you support something you haven't seen? Whether you currently do code reviews or think it might be a good practice to start doing, this session will help you make the most of the code review process. For DBAs, we'll cover key things to look for such as looking for potential problems. For developers, this will be insight for you into how DBAs think when reviewing your code so you have a better idea what to expect.
Speaker(s): Robert Davis,
Abstract:
Abstract for 60 min session: In this session, I will show you how SQL Server Waits reveal which of your statements most need tuning. SQL Waits expose the specific workload generated by each statement running against your SQL Server. Methods for capturing this information will be shown, and ideas for aggregating and viewing the data over various time ranges will be discussed.
Speaker(s): Trent Mera,
Abstract:
Replication in SQL Server is great tool for scaling out your master database(s) onto other servers for reporting and remote site access with near real-time data propagation. In this session, I will cover LAN and WAN data replication tricks-of-the-trade to offload work from your master servers. Using these techniques, you can improve your performance and monitoring of your existing installations or gain knowledge and confidence to implement new solution for your company.
Speaker(s): Chuck Lathrope,
Abstract:
Spotlight on SQL Server gives real-time alerts and brings together all of your critical SQL Server metrics onto a single dashboard-type screen, color-coded for problem severity and clickable for drilling down to the details and causes of problems. Performance Analysis for SQL Server enables you to see how each statement hitting your SQL Server contributed to overall workload, over whatever time range you are interested in. Performance Analysis also provides advisories on improving the performance of your SQL Server, covering coding tips, configuration and other best practices.
Speaker(s): Trent Mera,
Abstract:
In this session we will do a case study for a typical situation in industries like telecommunication or healthcare. We have a stream of multiple relatively small files incoming from external system and we need to load them to SQL Server database in near-real-time. Typical examples are CDR billing files, HL7 diagnostic results or medical claims. In this session we will cover how we can use WMI event watchers to monitor for incoming files and we examine option for managing worker treads loading the files. We will look into SQL Server broker queues, conversations between treads and activation to achieve robust solution.
Speaker(s): Piotr Palka,
Abstract:
When to use what when it comes to temp tables, table variables, CTEs and more! Developers have a lot of options but they are quite different. In this session we will go through the different types and look at the significant differences with the different options, you may think twice about what you choose!
Speaker(s): Rich Baumet,
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 FIFTY times now and it is always very highly rated!
Speaker(s): Kevin Boles,
Abstract:
Upgrading your SQL Servers requires planning and decision making. In this session you'll learn about the parameters for deciding the type of upgrade strategy to choose based on your system constraints. In addition, you'll learn about how to put together an upgrade checklist that includes workflow and inter-team handoffs that can guide the upgrade process.
Speaker(s): Ron Talmage,
Abstract:
As a DBA, two of your most important responsibilities are backing up data and knowing how to recover it. In this presentation, we’ll talk about backup types, recovery models and recovery point objectives. I’ll demonstrate backing up data and recovering it to a point in time. By the end of the session, you’ll know what a copy-only backup is, when to take a tail-log backup and what it means to restore a database with no recovery.
Speaker(s): Theresa Iserman,
Abstract:
SQL Server 2014's In-Memory OLTP allows truly optimistic locking and no latching! In this session, we see how rows can be inserted, deleted and updated without the need for latches or locks.
Speaker(s): Kalen Delaney,
Abstract:
Power Query Power Pivot Power Query Power Map Let's use public SQL Server community data to highlight capabilities of the Latest Microsoft BI Toolset
Speaker(s): Scott Stauffer,
Abstract:
Do you need to write some queries and not sure how to make sure they will perform well? Do you already have some poorly performing queries and don’t know where to start to improve them? In this session I’ll start with a little bit of optimizer basics, then show you how to avoid some query writing pitfalls that result in poor performance. I’ll then show you how to read the execution plan and use other tools to help identify why a query is performing poorly, and how to fix it. I’ll have several examples of how seemingly insignificant changes to a query can have drastic effect on performance.
Speaker(s): Vern Rabe,
Abstract:
Learn how easy it is to utilize the free download from Microsoft that allows users to create maps, charts, dashboard objects and reports against any kind of data easily without having to use Visual Studio. See how SQL Report Builder makes creating executive dashboards easy!
Speaker(s): David Eichner,
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
Piotr Palka has been working with high volume data processing systems since 1999. Piotr implemented and maintained multiple systems for telecommunication companies, including call records processing, billing and customer relationship management and operation support systems. Now he is lead data warehouse developer for Washington State Department of Corrections. He regularly delivers technical presentations at Olympia, WA, PASS chapter.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vern-rabe/a/ba3/980
Contact: http://www.rabedata.com
Vern Rabe is an independent SQL Server consultant and contract trainer in Portland, OR, and leader of the Oregon Data Community user group, formerly OregonSQL. He has attained MCSE, MCITP (both Administration and Development), and MCT certifications, among others. Vern has been passionate about databases since 1992 and has worked with SQL Server since version 4.21a. He provides broad technical SQL Server knowledge gained from the mixture of academic and practical experiences acquired from his classroom instructing and varied consulting contracts. Vern regularly presents technical sessions at SQL Server user group meetings, SQLSaturdays, and PASS Summit.
Rick has worked more than 12 years at Microsoft and has attained over 30 Microsoft technical including certifications in applications, networking, databases and .NET development (MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP, MCAD, MOE, MCSE, MCSE+I). He has also provided training for NW University, Volt Technical Education, The DigiGirlz, and Microsoft. Rick is the Author of the 5 volume SQL Joes 2 Pros book series.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-baumet
Rich Baumet has been working in the Database field since 2001. 18+ years as DBA, Data Architect and just all around data guy for RBC Global Asset Management (previously Philips, Hager North Investment Management Ltd.). Has recently taken on a new role at Softlanding Solutions as a Data Platform Specialist in September 2019. His main focus is on the data platform with in the Microsoft space. He has served as a local PASS Chapter leader and presented at SQLSaturdays in Vancouver and Redmond. He is also an avid cyclist taking part in the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and local Gran Fondos.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/argenis
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.
Trent Mera has been a database performance Systems Consultant with Quest Software for 11 years. He specializes in showing customers how to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in their SQL Server systems. His experience prior to Quest includes 7 years as a Database Developer and Administrator in the Real Estate, Finance and Defense Industries.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thesqlguru
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.
Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jimmy_may
Jimmy May is a Principal Architect in Microsoft IT. He's formerly a Senior Program Manager for the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (SQL CAT) where he managed the Customer Lab which hosts the biggest, fastest, most interesting SQL Server apps from all over the world. He is a Microsoft Certified Master (MCM). Visit his SQL Server performance personal productivity blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jimmymay. Jimmy tweets at www.twitter.com/aspiringgeek.
Trent Mera has been a database performance Systems Consultant with Quest Software for 11 years. He specializes in showing customers how to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in their SQL Server systems. His experience prior to Quest includes 7 years as a Database Developer and Administrator in the Real Estate, Finance and Defense Industries.
Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/joe_chang/default.aspx
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/icansoftware
David Eichner is a licensed CPA and is also CEO of ICAN Software Corporation, a Microsoft Dynamics amp; Acumatica ERP partner firm that sell and implements ERP and CRM software, develops software solutions and provides technology consulting. He is the host of a radio show called Business In The Cloud that airs weekly on KLAY 1180AM. He is skilled in building integrated cloud app solutions. His career spans more than 20 years in various technical/managerial positions within industries as diverse as military service, engineering/construction, municipal government, consulting and certified public accounting. Additionally, he holds various national certificates in technology (MCDBA, MCSE, CNE, CITP, Dynamics CRM and ERP, Acumatica CRM and ERP)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chucklathrope
Contact: http://www.sqlwebpedia.com
Chuck Lathrope is a data architect for Limeade, a SaaS health and wellness platform. Chuck is a two-time SQLSaturday event speaker on replication, was a Top 5 nominee of Red-Gate Exceptional DBA Award in 2009 and often shares his 20 years of IT knowledge on twitter under the name @SQLGuyChuck and his website www.sqlwebpedia.com.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grlarsen/
Greg Larsen has been working with SQL Server since 1999. He has authored 100's of articles related to SQL Server. He holds a MCSE Data Management and Analytics. Greg also a SQL Server Consultant, adjunct professor and technical writer.
LinkedIn: http://rtalmage@solidq.com
Ron Talmage is database administrator with B3 Group, Inc, on a major healthcare data warehouse. He is also a mentor and co-founder with SolidQ. He is a former SQL Server MVP and chapter leader of the Pacific Northwest SQL Server Users Group. He has authored numerous SQL Server white papers and contributes to SQL Server technical publications.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottstauffer
Contact: http://scottstauffer.ca
Scott Stauffer (@SQLSocialite) is very PASSionate about data and enjoys meeting with like-minded data geeks. He started the Vancouver PASS Chapter in 2004. In 2008, Scott was recognized by Microsoft with a SQL Server MVP award. In 2009, Scott started a PASS BI Chapter in Vancouver, and was also at one time the PASS Regional Chapter Mentor for Canada. For over 10 years he has been an independent consultant working with clients to solve their data woes and extract insight from their business data.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertldavis/
Contact: http://www.sqlsoldier.com
Robert is a SQL Server Certified Master, MVP, and has spent 17+ years honing his skills in security, performance tuning, SQL development, high availability, and disaster recovery. He served as PM for the SQL Server Certified Master Program at Microsoft Learning, and in various roles at Microsoft specializing in SQL Server administration, development, and architecture. He currently works as a Database Engineer at BlueMountain Capital Management where he spends a vast majority of his time tuning massively parallel queries. Robert feeds his passion for security by acting as co-leader of the PASS Security Virtual Chapter.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/russloski
Contact: http://www.sqlmovers.com
Russ Loski is a SQL Server BI Developer based in Dallas-Fort Worth. He current works as a Data Analytics Engineer for Navisite, a remote managed IT services company. Twenty years ago, he began working with SQL Server 6.5. He has since continued to develop applications connected to all of the versions of SQL Server. He has worked with clients in industries from insurance to healthcare, from movie theaters to American football. Russ is a regular speaker at SQLSaturday events, as well as the SQL Server Users Groups in the North Texas region. Russ likes working with data in various shapes.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/theresaiserman/
Theresa Iserman is a SQL Server Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft. She’s been working with databases for over 15 years and has held roles working with transactional amp; data warehouse systems, web application development, amp; technical project management. Theresa tweets at www.twitter.com/theresaiserman
Kalen Delaney is a Data Platform MVP who has worked with SQL Server for more than 32 years. She has provided performance consulting services and taught advanced courses on SQL Server to thousands of people and organizations. In addition to her courseware development, Kalen has been writing about SQL Server for decades. She is the primary author of SQL Server Internals and the Inside SQL Server series. Kalen is also one of the primary editors for the Red Gate SQL Server Stairways tutorials.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbmcallister/
Contact: http://www.profisee.com
John McAllister co-founded Stratature, an Independent MDM software vendor, in 2001. Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Stratature in 2007 John served as Group Program Manager for MDS and oversaw the incorporation of MDM into SQL Server. John now serves as the Regional Sales Director for Profisee, Inc. which provides enterprise-class MDM Solutions built on top of Microsoft’s MDS offering. John has worked with 100’s of organizations around the world in all phases of MDM projects.
Over the past decade I have blended equal parts data(base) engineer, business analyst, and quantitative psychologist to solve data puzzles and provide insights into why people do what they do. I have published my work in peer-reviewed journals, presented at international conferences, and provided my professional services for cancer HIV submissions to the FDA and marketing intelligence at Microsoft. Along the way I have taught and used: SPSS, SAS, and SSAS.
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event.