Search results matching tags 'Community' and 'SQL Server'

SQL in the City Event Dates Announced!

andyleonard — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

If you didn’t know that already, you know it now. The latest evidence to support this claim is the publication of the schedule for US SQL in the City events. They are:

9 Oct – Pasadena
11 Oct – Atlanta
14 Oct – Charlotte

Registration for these events opens 24 May.

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A SQL Saturday in Cambridge – Buck Woody’s Ragtime Database Workshop

BuckWoody — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:49:00 GMT

The SQL Server community is really engaged. They are an active bunch on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, they help each other on forums, they attend conferences. But that isn’t enough interaction – the community started a grass-roots effort to hold local conferences on a Saturday. Free conferences. Odds are there’s one near you… http://www.sqlsaturday.com/default.aspx … and if not, you can start one.

Sessions at SQL Saturdays are all over the map, and there’s something for (almost) everyone, from Business Intelligence to Database Administration and Development. Some of these events have “training days” associated with them – longer, more in-depth training that has a fee. I’ve taught quite a few of these, and of course I’ve done my share of other presentations at the events as well.

I’m honored to be presenting at the Cambridge, UK SQL Saturday this year (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/162/eventhome.aspx) in September. For one thing, I used to live near there and plan to take the family with me to show them my old stomping grounds. For another, I’m excited about the sessions I get to present.

The Training Day

Friday I’ll be leading one of those training days – and I’ll be delivering a very important workshop, where I’ll cover SQL Server – all of it. OK, maybe not *all* of it, and maybe you won’t be a complete PhD after the class, but we’ll do a complete immersion in learning SQL Server as a product from the ground up. It’s a workshop format, so no sitting and listening to someone droning on and on for hours. You’ll be asked to bring a laptop, and do actual work on the product from the first few minutes of the 8-hour day to the last of the workshop. You’ll be jumping in from the very start, and in deep until the end of the day.

But wait – this is kind of a “beginner” thing, isn’t it? Shouldn’t I be doing something on the internals of the locking mechanism of the hashing system in memory on x64 architectures, with complete code diagrams? Shouldn’t you be able to snatch the T-SQL pebble from the master’s hand when you’re done, or be able to shoot the wings off of an XML fly when you’re done?

No.

We need this kind of session. For one thing, you can get that depth in other sessions. For another, we need to have a place for someone that wants to learn SQL Server but doesn’t have a lot of time to do that. We need something relatively inexpensive that a boss can send a developer, administrator or new employee to learn how to take over the SQL Server, or augment the DBA team. We need a place where good habits are formed, and where someone can branch out into a new part of technology, into one of the best places in tech to be – data.

After you’re done with this session, stick around for Saturday – now all those presentations will make more sense. And you’ll be able to network with a lot of folks that already do what you learn about on Friday, and who knows – find out where to look for work in this amazing career field.

What will you learn?

You’ll start with knowing that SQL Server is a database product by Microsoft. That’s all the pre-requisite you need, other than being the technology industry. From there we’ll cover:

The Data Professional Career
Installing, setting up and configuring the right Edition of SQL Server for the job (including SQL Azure)
Database engine fundamentals – How does the engine work, what are the components, what can you configure and tune
Transactions, Locking and Blocking
Creating and managing databases
Database options and their impact
Database Objects including Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Functions and more
General maintenance including backups and recovery
Security fundamentals including users, roles, and object security
Performance tuning fundamentals including indexes and query research tools
Multiple resources to help you get to the next level

In 8-hours. Come ready to learn. You’ll need a laptop, and complete focus for a few hours. You’ll leave with the ability to manage and work with a SQL Server system – and you’ll learn what to do next.

Who should go?

If you’re new to Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS’s) but not technology, and you’re looking to expand your technical reach, coming from another platform (to be sure, there will be some repeat info here), want to explore a new tech career area, want to learn more about developing against an RDBMS or know someone who does.

The registration for the training day is here: https://www.regonline.co.uk/?eventID=1120017&rTypeID=242030

What else are you doing whilst (I love saying whilst) there?

I’m also pleased to be providing the keynote on Saturday. (I can’t wait to see what I’m going to say), as well as two other sessions – more on those soon. My daughter wants to be a Zoologist, so while we’re there we’ll be visiting the Zoology museum at one of the colleges, I’ll probably eat too much and potentially go punting. I’ll also mingle with you, my SQL Family, and we’ll just generally have a good time.

If you’re not busy in September, and even if you are, make plans to come check all this out. It promises to be awesome. (Americans think everything is awesome)

See you there.

Moving on up… but not to the East Side

AaronBertrand — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:46:00 GMT

It is with both sadness and excitement that I am announcing I am leaving my position as Senior Data Architect at OTO Labs.

The sadness comes because I am leaving behind a great company and an outstanding team, many of whom I am quite happy to consider friends rather than co-workers. This decision was not easy; I spent several days and sleepless nights wrestling with it because my current team and job are all I have known in my professional career, going back 13 years.

The excitement is because I feel like the Remington man or that guy from Hair Club for Men commercials - I am joining a team to work with a product that I am a huge fan of, and that has served me very well over the years. And on day one I will already be welcomed by co-workers I already consider friends.

But before we talk too much about where I'm going, let's talk about where I've been.

I grew up in Canada, hating computers. I had a Commodore Vic 20 and used to curse those cassette tapes when I'd make a typing mistake while "recording." My favorite thing about the Commodore 64 was Moon Patrol - I don't think I did much else with it. My first real computer was a 486; it ran Windows 95, but barely. I still remember the hours-long process of upgrading from Windows 3.11 for Workgroups using a stack of, what, 23 3.5" floppy disks?

You can read more sordid details about how I became a dork in these two blog posts:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2009/10/06/tagged-how-i-became-a-dork.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2010/01/19/what-three-events-brought-you-here.aspx

But essentially I have been evolving in the same position for over 13 years. I first came to work for Eric Picard (twitter) in Rhode Island immediately after graduating in 1997. The company name changed from Waterworks Interactive, to 9th Square, to Bluestreak, before finally being absorbed by One to One Interactive in 2007. And the office I've called "home" has moved from several locations in Newport, to Middletown, to Providence, and finally to Charlestown (a quaint little area just north of Boston). But it has still felt like a single job to me, even though I have expanded my skillset and responsibilities there.

At PASS 2005 in Grapevine, Texas, I met Greg Gonzalez (blog | twitter) and his fantastic team from SQL Sentry. I fell in love with their flagship product, Event Manager, and had several great conversations with Greg about what I liked, and to a much lesser extent how it could be improved (because it already did a *lot* of the things I found at the time, and still find, lacking in Management Studio). I like to think that some of those conversations led to innovations in the existing product, and the further development of new tools such as Performance Advisor.

Last year, I published a product review of Performance Advisor on SQLServerCentral, comparing it to the Management Data Warehouse feature introduced with SQL Server 2008:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Product+Reviews/66278/

Having been a long-time user of the tool, it served mostly as a review for me; however, through interviews and conversations, I did get a better feel for the camaraderie of the team and the quality of the product they continue to build and perfect. I have also spoken at the Charlotte SQL Server User Group multiple times, and also at SQL Saturday #33; at these events I have had several positive conversations with the team.

Over the past year I have been involved in a benchmarking project that has measured in very fine and excruciating detail the overhead of using SQL Sentry to monitor your servers. I can't wait to continue the work on this project and show you how little you actually "pay" for the wealth of information it provides. This project, too, has led to a much better appreciation and understanding of the product, the team, and the company.

Also over the past year, and along with a few MVPs and other esteemed colleagues, I have served on a Product Advisory Council that has helped provide product feedback and steering to the SQL Sentry team. I can say with no hesitation that my interactions with the company have always been stellar.

So it should come as no surprise to many of you that my new employer, effective October 25th, is SQL Sentry. My official title will be "Senior Consultant" but, in addition to assisting with consulting services, I will wear many hats… from product tester, to blogger, to evangelist, to public speaker, and several things in between. I will be working out of my house for the most part, often pantsless (don't be jealous @buckwoody). I think the only thing I will *not* miss about my current job is the annoying commute - and when I do need to travel to Charlotte, I suspect the total travel time will be shorter than my current drive to Charlestown - on a good day.

I'll repeat again, that other than the commute, it has not been easy for me to leave my current position. I have made a lot of good friends over the past 13 years, and I feel that my contributions have been valuable and have greatly impacted their offerings. And while my new career path will bring about a whole new set of challenges, many of my responsibilities will consist of things that I have already been doing in my spare time - blogging, speaking, helping folks out on twitter... so if you're worried about my community involvement changing, it will only change for the better.

I am very excited about this opportunity… October 25th can't come soon enough.

Boise SQL Server User Group Presentation

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:24:13 GMT

Thanks to those who attended the second meeting of the Boise SQL Server User Group. We had a good turnout of around 30 people and I hope everyone enjoyed my presentation of SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS). I tried to balance the presentation between those who hadn't used SSIS and those who have.

If you are interested in the sample projects, packages, and data files from the talk, here they are.

Boise SQL Server User Group

Anonymous — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:45:07 GMT

The newly formed Boise SQL Server User Group kicks off its first meeting with Kalen Delaney on June 25, 2008.

I'm happy to see a Microsoft SQL Server user group in Boise. It will fit nicely with the other development and SharePoint groups in town.

For more information, contact Cindy Gross of Microsoft.