Event Location:
Microsoft (Burlington, MA)
5 Wayside Road
Burlington, Massachusetts
Abstract:
Reporting requests that are required ‘yesterday or sooner’, oft times necessitate working more efficiently and effectively. We have all been through this at one time or another. In this hands on presentation we shall be looking some of the more challenging techniques of extracting our data from our Multidimensional and Tabular Models, in addition to our Data Mining Models. We shall be utilizing concepts of ‘Openquery()’ and ‘linked servers’ as a means to extract data, in addition to looking at the way that these two concepts can help us extract our data utilizing MDX, DMX and DAX expressions; AND YET maintain the flexibility and the ability to utilize all those wonderful techniques that may be done with T-SQL.
Speaker(s): Steve Simon,
Abstract:
The relationships defined in Power BI and SSAS Tabular data models directly impact both the filter context and the performance of queries. This session will briefly review the fundamentals of relationships in Power BI and SSAS Tabular models including filter propagation in classic one-to-many star schema relationships. The majority of the session, however, will cover the features and design patterns available to handle common but more complex modeling scenarios such as many-to-many, multiple granularities, counting values from dimension tables, and implementing 'virtual relationships' via DAX when physical relationships can't be created in the model. Example models will be shared using single and bidirectional relationships as well as relationship functions such as CROSSFILTER(), USERELATIONSHIP(), and TREATAS(). Recommended practices for choosing and implementing the alternative modeling techniques will be shared along with relationship pitfalls to avoid.
Speaker(s): Brett Powell,
Abstract:
Have you been thinking about presenting at a user group? Are you being asked to present at your work? Is learning to present one of the keys to advancing your career? Or do you just think it would be fun to present but you are too nervous to try it? Well take the first step to becoming a presenter by attending this session and I will guide you through the process of learning to present and becoming good at it. It's easier than you think! I am an introvert and was deathly afraid to speak in public. Now I love to present and it's actually my main function in my job at Microsoft. I'll share with you journey that lead me to speak at major conferences and the skills I learned along the way to become a good presenter and to get rid of the fear. You can do it!
Speaker(s): James Serra,
Abstract:
Being able to group data into logical and meaningful sets can be extremely useful. When the data involved is a non-repeating sequence of integers, grouping is not too difficult. Most real data, though, is made up of dates, times, decimals, and rarely can guarantee non-repeating, non-null data sets. This is a fast-paced session that delves into methods that can be applied to any data. Want to know how many production incidents make up a single common problem? Can we track sales success by the number of consecutive weeks that an agent has exceeded their goal? How about the longest home run streak hit by Derek Jeter at night games on Tuesdays? Discussion will include performance, CTEs, recursion, set-based vs. iterative analysis, and some pretty hairy TSQL!
Speaker(s): Edward Pollack,
Abstract:
Data is today’s currency. Azure Data Catalog (ADC) is a relatively unknown resource in the IT community. This is an unfortunate state since ADC is an incredibly useful tool that is easy to implement and use. Companies that are able to leverage their data have seen the greatest gains in growth and market capitalization. The reason for this is simple: We live in the information age. Being able to leverage the data you gather is the invitation you need just to compete in information age. ADC is an indispensable tool that helps companies organize and make sense of the mountains of data they collect every day. By walking participants through an implementation of ADC, I will introduce them to the product, and show how easy it is to use. By presenting concrete examples of how ADC is used, I will demonstrate its importance. Participants should leave this session determined to introduce ADC to their team and resolute in their intention to implement it within their company.
Speaker(s): Melody Zacharias,
Abstract:
SSRS 2016 provides a modern, on-premises solution for enterprise reporting and mobile business intelligence. Will start off by demonstrating recent technical previews that support hosting Power BI reports (.PBIX) in SSRS. Then also review and demonstrate the new Mobile Reports, KPIs and Paginated reports. The new Mobile Report publisher produces stunning dashboards that can be viewed on any device (iOS, Android and Windows). Other enhancements include, parameters can now be positioned across more than two columns and custom branding your SSRS portal's with your choice of colors and logo.
Speaker(s): Sunil Kadimdiwan,
Abstract:
Every data has meaning, but we had limitation to use data through big long running process Extraction, Transformation and Representation, but now Power BI solves your problem to kick start having Data extraction in Power Query, Data Modelling and Transformation in Power Pivot and reach data representation using power view and power map on demand any nearby device on your fingertips. Learn how to create Power BI Dashboard from scratch.
Speaker(s): Vishal Pawar,
Abstract:
You are provided with requirements for an ETL Process that has hundreds of rules that need to be applied and you code them all and during testing some rules change and more are added requiring you to modify SSIS packages taking hours of your time and there is no simple method to isolate testing the changed and new rules costing even more time. In this session we will go over how we addressed this situation with a rules-based architecture, where rules are defined in a database and read and executed from SSIS.
Speaker(s): Jack Corbett,
Abstract:
In the last two decades Thomas always had more open positions than I could fill, not because of lack of applicants, I must have interviewed close to 300 people for DBA, database developer, data architect, data modeling and other data related positions. Come to this highly interactive session to learn why 99% of the candidates failed the simplest questions and disqualified them self. Thomas will share what he misses in resumes and how to respond to questions better.
Speaker(s): Thomas Grohser,
Abstract:
A lot of changes have come to Power BI. Do you understand how Premium fits in? What is an app workspace and why would you use it? And, what the heck is a capacity? We will take a look at Premium, Apps and App Workspaces along with the changes to embedding. We will also see how Power BI Report Server fits into the picture.
Speaker(s): Adam Saxton,
Abstract:
This session is designed to teach DBAs and developers the best strategy to transfer large data. We will first analyze how data gets accessed from the source and how data gets updated or inserted to the target server: index access patterns in read operation and minimal logging in wring operation. I will introduce TF610 and cover its benefit for minimal logging even in full recovery mode.
Speaker(s): Simon Cho,
Abstract:
Master Data Services can be readily be employed for Rapid Application Development. We shall be looking at important development, data security and data maintenance aspects, all based upon a recent client implementation.
Speaker(s): Steve Simon,
Abstract:
In this breakout session, you'll learn the basics of the DAX language, Power BI’s modeling language. We will introduce you to the concept of calculated columns, measures and basic data modeling, with some practical examples you will reproduce on your machine. This introduction will cover basic calculations and an overview of all the scalar and table functions.
Speaker(s): Belinda Allen,
Abstract:
If you're interested in Hadoop but don't know where to begin, this session will give you an idea of what you can do with the open-source platform. We will see an overview of the Hadoop architecture, becoming familiar with the overall platform and its solutions for warehousing, ETL, streaming data ingest, in-memory processing, and more. We will compare Hadoop to SQL Server to help gain an understanding of when to deploy which technology.
Speaker(s): Kevin Feasel,
Abstract:
Come see Microsoft's Power tools demonstrated for advanced analytics and hear about Microsoft's embrace of Open Source and the Hadoop platform. We'll also present on Microsoft's tools for handling Big Data, such as the Parallel Data Warehouse and HDInsights.
Speaker(s): David Patrick,
Abstract:
Successful reporting and transactional systems start with proper architectural principles and considerations. Learn how to design new database systems for optimal performance and how to discover, document and prove when performance issues are caused by the system configuration.
Speaker(s): Matt Henderson,
Abstract:
You've heard the buzz words. Stewardship. Governance. But what does it all mean? Learn from an individual that has successfully formed and co-chaired Data Governance teams at multiple companies. I will cover how to sell Data Stewardship to the management, composition of a team, and the activities to perform in order to prevent a Data Information Disaster. In a world where the data architecture is comprised of multiple DBs and business users have direct access, data stewardship is needed NOW.
Speaker(s): Beth Wolfset,
Abstract:
Power BI provides analytics solutions for your whole organization. Small Businesses can profit by exposing their data, and see the impact in their clients sites. I will introduce "Oil test Systems" a small business that tests oil in trucks. It's clients portal and the test data as other insights and recommendations, can be viewed by the clients using SharePoint 365. Performance dashboards are displayed using PowerBI, giving the business the opportunity for efficient decision making. The demo was built without code, every ITPro can do it!.
Speaker(s): Yana Berkovich,
Abstract:
A new-to-SSAS data professional can build a simple tabular SSAS cube from a dataset. We will discuss how SSAS Tabular can create a data model, and easily be surfaced as a data source for reporting.
Speaker(s): George Walters,
Abstract:
Power BI is all the rage right now in visualizing data on the Microsoft BI stack. We've seen multiple how tos and presentations on the features, but in this hour, we will actually go through the journey of a specific problem, research it, storyboard it, work through how we solve it (before we ever open Power BI) and then build the Power BI visualization. Make your visualization count. Come join us on the journey.
Speaker(s): Jonathan Stewart,
Abstract:
This session is packed with practical tips and lessons learned about using Azure as a database platform. You will learn the fundamentals about how Azure is structured to help you make architectural decisions. Ideas will be shared for planning resource groups, naming conventions, and the separation of Dev, Test, and Prod. We will discuss database platform options, data storage options, and why PowerShell and ARM are so important to deployment scenarios.
Speaker(s): Melissa Coates,
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://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgrohser/
Thomas Grohser has spent most of the past 26+ years exploring the deeper inner workings of SQL Server and its features while working for entertainment, pharmaceutical, and financial services industries. His primary focus is to architect, plan, build, and operate reliable, highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructures for SQL Server. Over the years he has managed thousands of SQL Server instances, processing trillions of rows, taking up petabytes of storage. Thomas has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 9 years and has spoken regularly at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and user groups for 12 years.
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/melodyzacharias
Contact: http://sqlmelody.com
Melody is the Sr. Microsoft Solutions Manager at Pure and has been in love with data since 1991. She has been sharing her passion with the community in technical sessions and blogs since 2014. She has been a Microsoft MVP since 2016, including winning Rookie of the year for Canada that year. This last year, she was elected to the board of directors for PASS.org, the professional association for SQL Server and was awarded Regional Director by Microsoft. She has co-authored 3 books, including, SQL Server 2019 Administration inside out by Microsoft Press.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqllocks/
Contact: https://sqllocks.net/
Jonathan Stewart is a Business Intelligence consultant specializing in data visualization, data warehousing, and data management technologies. An advocate for educating others, he is a public speaker, teacher and blogger, continually teaching people about the Microsoft BI Stack. Since 2000, he has been working in the database field with industry leaders in healthcare, manufacturing, financial, insurance and federal, state and local governments. Jonathan is very active in the community. He has presented on SQL Server, SSIS, Reporting Services, Power BI and Business Intelligence at numerous SQLSaturday events, local user groups, and conferences throughout the United States and around the world. He participates in webcasts, podcasts, and on
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackcorbett
Contact: http://www.wisemanorwiseguy.com
JJack Corbett began working with SQL Server, Access, and VB in 1999, when he served an apprenticeship with a good friend who was the software development manager at the local paper mill. He found his niche and has concentrated on SQL Server development and administration since late 2000. He has worked with SQL Server through version 2017 and was a Microsoft Data Plaform MVP from October 2011 to October 2016. Jack is passionate about helping companies architect, design, and develop high performance applications based on the Microsoft Data Platform. He also has a passion for seeing database developers get the core application code (the database) protected under source control. Jack has presented at many user groups and SQLSaturday even
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilkadimdiwan
Contact: http://www.infotrove.com/events.html
Sunil Kadimdiwan Sunil Kadimdiwan has 25+ years’ experience in architecting and implementing database solutions. He has deep knowledge of the Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence technology stack. He is a frequent speaker at SQL Saturdays, Code Camps, User Group meetings
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidepatrick
Contact: http://www.madsharepoint.com
Dave has been developing database applications for over 25 years. An MCT since 2001, he has taught many classes from Intro to Visual Interdev to Advanced SharePoint Development. Dave runs two user groups, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Microsoft Developers User Group, www.mapamdug.com, and MAD SharePoint, www.madsharepoint.com. Dave does SharePoint training and development for DSA, Inc., a DoD contractor that does great work for the Army over at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Dave is also an MVP.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rie-irish/2/34a/78/
Rie lives with her family just north of Atlanta, Georgia. She worked as a SQL Server DBA, manager director for over 20 years. She's worked in many industries including the non-profit sector, education, big pharma, and e-commerce. She was awarded the MVP in the Data Platform 3 times beginning in 2017 and gave that up to accept her role as a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft in 2019. She is very involved with the Atlanta MDF User Group, SQL Saturday Atlanta and is co-leader of the PASS Women in Tech virtual group.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsql
Contact: http://simonsql.com
Simon Cho is one of the founders of SQLAngeles.com, which is a Los Angeles Korean Tech PASS community group. As a Local Group leader, he is a Microsoft SQL community speaker. He has presented many times at SQLSaturdays and to PASS Local Groups. He moved his passion to VISA Inc, the largest credit card provider in the world, where he used database technology to build a strong solution and a secure environment, with new strategies and features to maintain thousands of SQL Servers. He has now joined the Nowcom Corp, as a Director of DevOps, where he leads the DevOps team and DBA team. He is pretty much working on SQL server running on kubernetes.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyinacube
Contact: https://guyinacube.com
Adam Saxton is just a guy in a cube doing the work! He is on the Power BI CAT team at Microsoft, working with customers to help adopt Power BI. He is based in Texas and started with Microsoft supporting SQL Server connectivity and Reporting Services in 2005. Adam has worked with Power BI since the beginning, on the support side, and with documentation. In addition, he produces weekly videos for his Guy in a Cube YouTube channel.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehillwig
Contact: http://www.mikehillwig.com
Veteran DBA Mike Hillwig is a native Pittsburgher and resident of the Boston Suburbs. He’s a DBA Manager for a financial software company that’s owned by one of the world’s largest bank. Mike has been working with SQL Server since version 7 and has a background in infrastructure and network. Today, he manages a team of DBAs around the globe.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenrsimon/
Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/simon_says/
Steve Simon is a Database Solutions Architect with Business Knowledge Services Inc. He has been involved with database design and analysis for over 35 years. Steve has presented papers at numerous PASS Summits and PASS SQL Rallies. He is also regular presenter on the SQL Saturday circuit and he is a contributor on SQLShack.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqllocks/
Contact: https://sqllocks.net/
Jonathan Stewart is a Business Intelligence consultant specializing in data visualization, data warehousing, and data management technologies. An advocate for educating others, he is a public speaker, teacher and blogger, continually teaching people about the Microsoft BI Stack. Since 2000, he has been working in the database field with industry leaders in healthcare, manufacturing, financial, insurance and federal, state and local governments. Jonathan is very active in the community. He has presented on SQL Server, SSIS, Reporting Services, Power BI and Business Intelligence at numerous SQLSaturday events, local user groups, and conferences throughout the United States and around the world. He participates in webcasts, podcasts, and on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msbelindaallen/
Contact: http://www.BIBelinda.com
Belinda Allen is a (Power BI) Data Platform Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Belinda has just completed her second book, Building Dashboards with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 - Second Edition. Belinda is also an inaugural member of the Board of Advisors for PBIUG (Power BI User Group.) Belinda is also well known for her blog, www.BelindaTheGPcsi.com. On her blog, she shares really useful information about the product quickly and succinctly. With followers from all over the globe, she can share knowledge and achieve her mission: “To improve the lives and business success of my followers.”
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guyinacube
Contact: https://guyinacube.com
Adam Saxton is just a guy in a cube doing the work! He is on the Power BI CAT team at Microsoft, working with customers to help adopt Power BI. He is based in Texas and started with Microsoft supporting SQL Server connectivity and Reporting Services in 2005. Adam has worked with Power BI since the beginning, on the support side, and with documentation. In addition, he produces weekly videos for his Guy in a Cube YouTube channel.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanaberkovich/
Contact: http://yanaberkovich.com
A people-oriented professional, aspiring Product Manager, with 11 years of process analysis, building solutions, customization, developing, managing and training experience. Working with Power Bi, Oracle SQL and SQL server for the past few years. Data enthusiast with international experience in many companies as a BA, Team Lead and everything SharePoint Office 365.
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/billwilder
Contact: http://blog.codingoutloud.com
Bill Wilder is a cloud computing veteran and CTO at Finomial, providing SaaS solutions to the global hedge fund industry from the public cloud. Bill is recognized by Microsoft as a 10-time Azure MVP awardee for his cloud expertise and community leadership. Excited about the possibilities of Microsoft's Azure cloud platform since watching the public announcement at the 2008 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, in 2009 Bill started the Boston Azure User Group, the first of its kind in the world, and published through O'Reilly Media the book "Cloud Architecture Patterns" in 2012. Starting in 2019 Bill is an adjunct faculty member teaching in the Quinnipiac MS CYBERSECURITY program. Please reach out @codingoutloud and @bostonazure.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawarvishal
Contact: http://bimentalist.com/
Vishal Pawar is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), founder of the Global Power BI User Group and co-leader of the PASS Business Analytics Virtual Group. He is a Principal BI Architect in Green House Data, with decades of experience in BI solution architecture and best practices. He has published more than 1000 articles since 2011 in SQL and BI. Vishal teaches a free Power BI course through Udemy, which has more than 65K students from the glob. Vishal is an exceptional technology community of leaders worldwide who actively share their high quality, real-world expertise with the technical communities.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenrsimon/
Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/simon_says/
Steve Simon is a Database Solutions Architect with Business Knowledge Services Inc. He has been involved with database design and analysis for over 35 years. Steve has presented papers at numerous PASS Summits and PASS SQL Rallies. He is also regular presenter on the SQL Saturday circuit and he is a contributor on SQLShack.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=81593638
Contact: https://www.sqlshack.com/author/edward-pollack/
Ed Pollack has over 20 years of experience in database and systems administration, which has developed his passion for performance optimization, database design, and making things go faster. He has spoken at many SQLSaturdays, 24 Hours of PASS, and PASS Summit. This led him to organize SQLSaturday Albany, which has become an annual event for New York’s Capital Region. Sharing these experiences with the community is a top priority, and encouraging everyone to take the leap into public speaking and engaging others, a passion. In his free time, Ed enjoys video games, traveling, cooking exceptionally spicy foods, and hanging out with his amazing wife and sons.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-feasel/7/716/504
Contact: http://www.catallaxyservices.com
Kevin Feasel is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and CTO at Envizage, where he specializes in data analytics with T-SQL and R, forcing Spark clusters to do his bidding, fighting with Kafka, and pulling rabbits out of hats on demand. He is the lead contributor to Curated SQL (https://curatedsql.com), president of the Triangle Area SQL Server Users Group (https://www.meetup.com/tripass), and author of PolyBase Revealed (https://www.apress.com/us/book/9781484254608). A resident of Durham, North Carolina, he can be found cycling the trails along the triangle whenever the weather's nice enough.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henderson1134/
A 20 year veteran of designing database architectures for high performance, business critical transactional and analytics systems, Matt has worked as an independent consultant, managed data centers for large corporations and most recently has been a solutions consultant and evangelizing force for startups in Silicon Valley including speaking engagements on 5 continents. Today Matt works for Vexata, an Intel-backed leader in all-flash storage who is transforming what is possible.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgewalters
Contact: https://georgewalters.wordpress.com/
Currently a partner technical strategist, George has been solving customer needs and issues. He can translate customer pain into potential solutions. A seasoned Microsoft SQL and Azure expert, with over 20 years of experience with Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, and other relational databases. Specialties: Partner strategy, PreSales Engineering, Cloud Architecture, Enterprise Scalability, SQL Server performance, Business Intelligence, High Availability, Scale. I volunteer and present relevant topics at SQL Saturday and internal Microsoft events
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/melissacoatesprofile
Contact: https://www.CoatesDataStrategies/blog
Melissa Coates is a data architect with a background in data warehousing and business intelligence. Her current professional focus is enterprise-level Power BI governance, deployment, security, and administration. As the owner of Coates Data Strategies, Melissa produces training and consults to help companies strengthen and sustain their data-driven initiatives. Melissa is big supporter of the technical community, and has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP since 2013. You can visit Melissa's website at CoatesDataStrategies.com, which includes community resources like diagrams, blogs, and videos.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-powell-61547819?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile
Contact: https://insightsquest.com/
Brett is the author of the Microsoft Power BI Cookbook, Mastering Power BI, and an active technical blogger on Insight Quest (https://insightsquest.com). Brett also owns Frontline Analytics, LLC, a data and analytics consulting firm specializing in the Microsoft data platform. Brett has held multiple BI and analytics roles within corporate analytics functions, BI/IT organizations, and as a consultant for Microsoft BI Partner firms. Outside of work Brett contributes to the Power BI Community and the Boston Business Intelligence User Group.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JamesSerra
Contact: http://www.JamesSerra.com
James Serra is a big data and data warehousing solution architect at Microsoft. He is a thought leader in the use and application of Big Data and advanced analytics. Previously, James was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. James is a popular blogger (JamesSerra.com) and speaker. He is the author of the book “Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server 2012”.
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/melodyzacharias
Contact: http://sqlmelody.com
Melody is the Sr. Microsoft Solutions Manager at Pure and has been in love with data since 1991. She has been sharing her passion with the community in technical sessions and blogs since 2014. She has been a Microsoft MVP since 2016, including winning Rookie of the year for Canada that year. This last year, she was elected to the board of directors for PASS.org, the professional association for SQL Server and was awarded Regional Director by Microsoft. She has co-authored 3 books, including, SQL Server 2019 Administration inside out by Microsoft Press.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-wolfset-86114b7
Beth Wolfset has more than twenty-five years of data architecture, analysis, modeling, development and administration experience. She has presented at several conferences and user groups. She has worked primarily in the Healthcare and Defense industries. Beth strives to create practical data solutions that balance current requirements with the needs of the future. She has a MS in CS from Northeastern University, a BA in CS and Psychology from Clark University, and a Data Science Certification from Johns Hopkins University.
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event.