SQL FRIDAY #46 – Benjamin Kettner on ‘Straight from the Dojo: T-SQL string manipulations with the T-SQL Ninja’

T-SQL, the SQL dialect of SQL Server is one of the most important tools for working with data in tables throughout the data platform. However, since SQL has also found its way into other products such as Stream Analytics, we believe that a sound knowledge of SQL is a good basis for your work in the data platform. And while manipulating strings feels so 80ies, today many Web APIs consume or produce string-formats that need to be processed to be stored or delivered in the correct format. We introduce several functions that are available in T-SQL to master this task.

The T-SQL Ninja (www.tsql-ninja.com) is a project aimed at making T-SQL and the Microsoft Data Platform accessible for beginners and MVP Frank Geisler and Benjamin Kettner will present T-SQL language features at an entry level.

About Benjamin Kettner

Dr. Benjamin Kettner ist Mitgründer und CTO der ML!PA Consulting GmbH. Er promovierte im Jahr 2012 an der Freien Universität Berlin in angewandter Mathematik. Zur Zeit seiner Promotion war er Mitglied des DFG Forschungszentrums Matheon – Mathematik für Schlüsseltechnologien und Mitglied der Arbeitsgruppe Computational Nano Optics am Zuse Institut Berlin.

Während der Promotion und des Studiums beschäftigte er sich mit Software-Entwicklung und Programmierung sowie Datenbanken und Datenmodellen. Nach der Promotion arbeitete er als Berater bei einem Microsoft BI Partner, wo er technischer Projektleiter war und außerdem den Bereich Forschung und Entwicklung leitete und als Software-Architekt tätig war. Im Jahr 2015 gründete er die ML!PA Consulting GmbH, einen Microsoft-Partner mit Schwerpunkten im Bereich Advanced Analytics, Internet der Dinge und Cloud-Lösungen. Dort ist er als CTO und Software-Architekt tätig und konzipiert, entwickelt und gestaltet Kundenlösungen. Die ML!PA Consulting GmbH wurde im Jahr 2017 als einer von nur vier Partner des Jahres Finalisten der Firma Microsoft im Beriech Internet der Dinge ausgezeichnet. Dr. Benjamin Kettner ist in der Microsoft Data Plattform Community aktiv, leitet dort die Regionalgruppe Berlin des PASS Deutschland e.V. und tritt häufig als Autor von Blogbeiträgen und wissenschaftlichen Artikel und Sprecher auf technischen Veranstaltungen auf.

https://twitter.com/DataMonsterBen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-kettner-0b5556128
https://www.tsql-ninja.com

SQL FRIDAY #45 – Lou Segers on ‘🚂 Turn your slow steam locomotive into a streamlined high-speed train 🚄’

>> 10 Performance tips to speed up your Power BI reports <<

Arriving at work and the first thing you do is opening your Power BI report and going for a coffee while waiting for the report to render. Seems familiar?
Well, it shouldn’t. Your reports should render instantly, especially if there is a large or C-level audience consulting them on a regular basis.
Luckily enough there are some tips and tricks to melt your frustrations like snow in the sun.

About Lou Segers

Lou Segers is a Data Analytics consultant at Belgium’s Lytix with a strong emphasis on the Microsoft BI stack.
He loves to interact with anyone breathing data.

Some say good health is true wealth. A sweaty run or a satisfying gym session are among Lou’s favorite energy drainers.

Come have a chat with me or simply connect via LinkedIn!

All aboard the data train, CHOO CHOO 🚂 🚂

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lou-segers-451baa80
https://www.thedatatrain.be

SQL FRIDAY #44 – Damir Matešić on ‘Historical Data with MS SQL System Versioned (temporal) Tables’

Before the existence of system-versioned temporal tables, tracking changes in a database table forced us to implement some custom solutions based on triggers, stored procedures etc.

System-versioned temporal tables offer us the possibility to keep a full history of data changes and allowing us easy point in time analysis. Using this solution, we can easily time travel through the data and see what the exact state of the data in a point of time was.

In this session we will see what system-versioned temporal tables are, how we can create and use them and what are the limitations and benefits of such implementation.

About Damir Matešić 

For many years Damir is a passionate programmer and a Microsoft SQL Server developer (ver. 2000+).
He is a certificated Microsoft professional on various technologies. In 2020 Microsoft awarded him with Data Platform MVP.

Damir leads the Croatian SQL Server User Group (PASS) and he introduced and organizes SQL Saturday events in Croatia.

He is working as Senior Database Developer @Span.eu.
Damir speaks on various community events and conferences like SQLSaturday, Advanced technology days and user groups.
When free he blogs about SQL @ https://blog.matesic.info.

https://twitter.com/matesic_damir
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmatesic

SQL FRIDAY #43 – Ronen Ariely on ‘SQL Internals – Physical Table Structure under the hood, and implementation on real case scenarios’

Understanding what we have under the hood is not only done for the sake of learning theory, but it directly impacts your daily work, and it can help us to improve performance and reduce resources dramatically.

During this session, we will go over the structure of the tables behind the scenes. I will show the changes in the table structure behind the scenes, related to actions which we execute on the table. Using this information, I will demonstrate several real case scenarios and the dramatic impact of understanding the internals in choosing our solution.

Is the order of the columns in the “”Create Table”” statement important? Can a specific order of columns affect performance or lead to an error in the future use of the table? Is dropping a column that is no longer needed is the right solution? Questions like these are very common in forums, but usually do not get the right answers even from experts.

Note: This session is a live demo, level 500 internals. It based on undocumented tools.

About Ronen Ariely

Ronen Ariely is a senior consultant and architect, in the fields of data platform and application development. He has more than 15 years’ experience in variety programming languages and technologies, leading development teams, and software companies, SQL & BI enterprise level solutions. Ronen is active in communities (aka pituach) in the field of Programming, SQL Server, and T-SQL. He serves as Moderator at MSDN and as one of the Microsoft TechNet WIKI communities’ leaders. Ronen writes technical blogs, TechNet articles and blogs, and has been awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.

SQL FRIDAY #41 – Dennes Torres on ‘Data Virt. and Data Lake using SQL Big Data Cluster’

Cloud and globalization bring to us more and more challenges every day. With the increase in the volume of data, we are evolving from data warehouses to big data and data lake architectures. In this session, we will better understand the concept of data virtualization, data lake architectures and how SQL Server 2019 Big Data Cluster can help us with these challenges

About Dennes Torres

Dennes is a Brazilian software architect and Data Platform MVP living in Malta who loves SQL Server and software development and has more than 20 years of experience. He moved to Malta after more than 10 years leading devSQL PASS Chapter in Rio de Janeiro and now is a member of the leadership team of MMDPUG PASS Chapter in Malta organizing meetings, events, and webcasts about SQL Server. He is an MCT, MCSE in Data Platforms and BI, with more titles in software development. He can be found working for Ascent Software and speaking in SQL Saturdays around Europe

SQL FRIDAY #40 – Gonzalo Bissio on ‘Azure SQL DB Serverless, a new autonomous database?’

On this session we are going to cover Azure SQL DB Serverless compute tier. Introduction, best practices and some limitations!

About Gonzalo Bissio

A truly passionate about SQL Server on all of its editions (that include express as well (?)). I’m speaker of the PASS Argentina chapter, father of Pedro, Fan of Club atletico Independiente from Argentina (Soccer or futbol fan 😛😛) and Rocky Balboa’s Soldier💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻.

I have the following certifications -> Microsoft certified trainer, Azure Database administrator, Azure data engineer and Azure administrator but the most important one is that I LOVE AZURE SQL! On all of the versions 😛

https://twitter.com/gbissio
https://ar.linkedin.com/in/gonzalo-juan-jose-bissio-19b3bb32
https://sqlserverrules.wordpress.com

SQL FRIDAY #39 – Cédric Charlier on ‘Azure databricks: brick by brick for the data engineer’

Still developing ETL with SSIS but you’re willing to take a look to the new Azure databricks platform? This session is the first step to start developing with Azure Databricks! We’ll start by the use-cases or if you prefer “”when is it smarter to switch your good old SSIS for the new tools””. Then we’ll take a look to a data preparation and a data move with Databricks and we can automate its execution. Finally, we’ll go for a few tips with the tooling.

About Cédric Charlier

Cédric is a talented architect active in the domain of Business Intelligence, Data warehousing and Graph Databases. He has more than 15 years of successful experience with Microsoft Data Platform in large European industrial groups and Services companies.

Driven by quality and reliability, he is the main developer of an open-source solution for testing BI solutions (cubes, etl, reports …) named NBi (http://www.nbi.io) and is contributing to other open-source solutions. Cedric also advocates for the introduction and general usage of agile practices in BI’s world. He is also a fan of prototyping and has developed some advanced knowledge about Power BI and especially the Power Query/M Language.

https://twitter.com/Seddryck
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cedriccharlier
http://seddryck.wordpress.com

SQL FRIDAY #38 – Ásgeir Gunnarsson on ‘Reel in the Power BI Wild West’

In this session we will hear about a method to govern your Power BI environment. This method is built upon my experience as a Power BI lead for a multinational company as well as my work with various customers of different sizes.

In my experience many organizations start thinking Power BI governance too late. Users are already working with Power BI and used to be in the Power BI Wild West. No matter if you are starting your Power BI journey or already in the Power BI Wild West this session will help you start with Power BI governance or enhance your existing one.

The method has four main pillars:

• Process
• Training
• Monitoring
• Roles

All these pillars are equally important but with different complexity. We will dive into each pillar and look at examples on documents and implementation methods. We will then bind it all together into a cohesive method and suggest how to approach the implementation.

About Ásgeir Gunnarsson

Ásgeir is a Data Platform MVP and owner of North Insights IVS. He works on Business Intelligence solutions using the whole of the MS BI stack. Ásgeir has been working in BI since 2007 both as a consultant and internal employee. Before turning to BI Ásgeir worked as a technical trainer and currently teaches BI courses at the Continuing Education Department of the University of Iceland.

Ásgeir speaks regularly at events both domestic and internationally and is the group leader of the Icelandic PASS Group as well as the Icelandic Power BI user group.

Ásgeir is passionate about data and loves solving problem with BI.

https://twitter.com/bidgeir
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asgeirgun/
http://blog.northinsights.com/

SQL FRIDAY #37 – Deepthi Goguri on ‘SQL Server Internals and Architecture’

Many DBAs and Developers work with SQL Server but don’t fully understand how it really works behind the scenes.

Join Deepthi on her dive into the internals of SQL Server to explain why knowing what goes on under the covers will help you make better decisions quickly when solving performance problems in SQL Server.

This session will cover ACID properties, key components of the Relational Engine, Storage engine, Cache and the Transaction manager. You will learn how SQL Server manages Plan cache and Buffer pool and how SQL Server optimizer chooses the plans.

We will also cover what happens under the covers during read and write operations within SQL Server.

This session also has Demos showing how components of SQL Engine works for queries.

Deepthi will show you how the SQL engine thinks – enabling you to think like it!

About Deepthi Goguri

I am a SQL Server Database Administrator with 7 years of experience in Administering SQL Servers. I did my Maters in Computer Technology at Eastern Illinois University. I am a Microsoft Certified professional with an Associate and Expert level Certification on Data Management and Analytics. I blog for DBANuggets.com.

https://twitter.com/dbanuggets
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepthigoguri
https://dbanuggets.com/

SQL FRIDAY #36 -Manish Kumar on ‘Secure Your Data with Azure SQL Database’

The session will take you through Industry-leading security which comes built-in with Azure SQL database. In this session we will have an overview of Network security and Access Management and then dive deep into Threat Protection & Security Management and Information Protection and Encryption. A high level aim would be to give sound understanding of following features to attendees :

Network Security (Overview)

• IP Firewall rules
• Virtual Network Firewall RulesAccess Management (Overview)

• Authentication
• SQL Authentication
• AAD Authentication
• Authorization
• Roles and permissions
• Logins and Users
• Row-Level Security

Threat Protection and Security Management (deep dive with demo’s)

• Auditing
• Advanced data security
• Data Discovery and Classification
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Vulnerability Assessment

Information Protection and Encryption (deep dive with demo’s)

• Transport Layer Security (Encryption in transit)
• Transparent Data Encryption (Encryption at rest)
• Always Encrypted (Encryption in use)
• Dynamic data masking

About Manish Kumar

Manish Kumar is a Microsoft certified Solution Expert in ‘Data Management and Analytics’ and work as a Sr. cloud solution architect at Microsoft.

He is a thought leader in modern data platform which includes solutions involving relational and non-relational databases, data lakes, advanced analytics, MPP, big data and hybrid cloud implementations.

He has over 20 years of IT experience working as Software developer, SQL Server DBA, Solution/Data Architect, Cloud Solution Architect and extremely passionate about blogging and public speaking.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishk5/