Southampton SQL Server User Group

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#SQLSat467 - Pre-con spotlight | SQL Server For Develoeprs

9. August 2015 21:08 / John Q Martin / Learning . SQL Saturday . Pre-con . SQL Server . SQLSoton . Training Comments (0)
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the pre-con sessions that we are running ahead of SQL Saturday 467 in Southampton in December 2015. In this post we will be focusing on Mladen Prajdic's session on SQL Server for Developers: database is no dumping ground, so, over to a few words from Mladen.

Mladen Prajdić
Q: Mladen, can we have a quick background on who you are and what you do?
A: I've started programming as a hobby in high school. It turned out it was also the most fun way to gain enough money to put myself through college and to get a lot of experience. I studied medical cybernetics which is a branch of electrical engineering which gave me a good insight into building complex interconnected systems. Once you have to build an electrical medical device from scratch and test it on yourself you start appreciating good design, testing and component decoupling which are all basic principles in IT or other kind of engineering.

I'm from Slovenia and have been a SQL Server MVP for a few years now. I've been working with C# and SQL Server developer for about 15 years on various projects from standard line-of-business to image analysis and processing applications. I also develop a popular add-in for SSMS, called the SSMS Tools Pack (http://www.ssmstoolspack.com/).

Q: What do you enjoy most about training days like the one that you are delivering?
A: Sharing knowledge. It's the first thing that comes to mind. I try to live by the principle "We all do better when we all do better", and sharing what you know is the best way to achieve that in my opinion. Education is important. Nobody can take what you know away from you. It gives me great pleasure to see people leave with ideas on how to improve their work processes by applying things they learn at such events. I have yet to see a person not have at least one "Oh, I will so use this!" moment.

Q: You're the man behind the incredibly useful SSMS Tools Pack, what made you decide to build that plugin for SSMS?
A: It all started in December 2006 when I talked with a friend from Sweden about the new SSMS for then newly released SQL Server 2005. He was telling me how he misses a few things inside, so this piqued my "must reverse engineer" part of the brain and I started looking into it. I had the first prototype working in about a month. This only included simple CRUD generating capabilities since this was what he was missing. From then on it grew in features and popularity and is now known to over half a million people.

I constantly get emails from people thanking me for it, and even quite a few "you saved my job with it" type emails. It's a good feeling.  I don't know for sure but I think the SSMS Tools Pack was the first add-in for SSMS in the wild. Thinking about it, it'll be 10 years I'm doing it next year. That's a long time sticking with a product.

Q: What will be one of the key things that the attendees will take away from your session?
A: My pre-con is very oriented towards the developer side of SQL and .Net. I aim to show them how to be even better and what they do. I teach things that I have seen the majority of developers don't know about when working with SQL Server and .Net. I always try to finish this pre-con with an eye-opening security demo. There I show how to hack your company and
I've realized this is usually the most eye opening part because security is usually an afterthought. There's something disturbing in showing you your potential weaknesses. I exploit that for educational purposes. :)

So, what will Mladen be teaching during this pre-con;

In this pre-conference session we'll go over what every developer dealing with SQL Server and .Net has to know to be as effective and productive as possible. Because speed is important too, we'll also focus on areas where you as a developer can contribute most. If you like the sounds of this then you can read the full abstract along with registration details just click on the button below.

Eventbrite - Mladen Prajdic - SQL Server for Developers: Database is no dumping ground!

Hope to see you there.

John
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#SQLSat467 - Pre-con spotlight | Query performance & Internals

9. August 2015 21:08 / John Q Martin / SQL Saturday . Pre-con . SQL Server . SQLSoton . Training Comments (0)
This is the first in a series of blog posts about the pre-con sessions that we are running ahead of SQL Saturday 467 in Southampton in December 2015. Here we will be focusing on Dave Ballantyne and his Query Performance and Internals pre-con, so, over to a few words from Dave.

Dave Ballantyne
Q: Dave, can we have a quick background on who you are and what you do?
A: I've been in IT for all of my working life and I guess like a lot of people in the SQL Server field almost came to it by accident.

I was working at a software company that had a database independent product and happened to be the one in the office when SQL server 6 was delivered.  Fast forward a good twenty plus years and I'm still learning about the product, more specifically the optimizer, and applying those discoveries to aid my clients to streamline operations and user experiences.

Q: What do you enjoy most about training days like the one that you are delivering?
A: Along the route I've taken, there has been many “light bulb” moments, that's something that's particularly satisfying as an individual, but to see that happen in other people is amazing.  Take, for instance, parameter sniffing : Its a great cost saving optimization, but when it ‘goes wrong’ it can be disastrous for a system…  As you take people through the steps how and why that happens, you can almost see in their faces that they are mentally reliving problems where they know they dump the procedure cache and it solves the problem , but know they know why the problem happens.

Q: You authored a chapter on T-SQL Windowing Functions in SQL Server, how useful do you find these functions in your everyday work?
A: I've lost track of the amount of queries I've had to write that have a calculation based upon the value in a previous row, last days sales , last quarter sales etc…  and tbh , before windowing functions there was not a good way of doing that in TSQL, if you *had* to do it in TSQL then there would be hideous triangular joins or a cursor, even a quirky update, now you have  succinct TSQL statement that gets the job done.  They are not perfect, there are lots of opportunities for the function to spool and spill to disk, but, like a lot of SQL Server, once you have visibility to the problems they can be solved, mostly Smiling face with smiling eyes.

Q: What will be one of the key things that the attendees will take away from your session?
A: That SQL Server is not magic, its just code.  To develop/design/debug/fix a system so that it performs ( and scales) well, the internals of how the SQL Server works have to be understood.  For me, the most important part of that puzzle is the optimizer,  you can have the best highly available SAN system in the world driven by magical unicorns that make each page of data available in a nanosecond, but if the optimizer decides to scan a 50TB table rather than use an appropriate index, the hardware magic is all for nowt.  I'm often asked which stream my session sit in , DBA, DEV, BI , the answer is Yes, all of the above. If you write SELECT statements then you will gain knowledge from understanding the impact that has on the system.

So just what is in the session;

When faced with performance issues there are many lines of attack. Tuning the hardware and infrastructure can get you so far, however for maximum effect you need to understand how the engine translates your submitted SQL statements into performable actions.  This is not a simple task, the number of permutations of logical operations can be immense and to perform optimally the engine has to select the ‘best one’. If you like the sounds of this then you can read the full abstract along with registration details by clicking on the button below.

Eventbrite - Dave Ballantyne - Query Processing & Internals

Hope to see you there.

John
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#SQLSat467 - Pre-con Spotlight | Building Blocks of BIML

9. August 2015 21:08 / John Q Martin / Learning . SQL Saturday . Pre-con . SQL Server . SQLSoton . Training Comments (0)
This is the third in a series of blog posts about the pre-con sessions that we are running ahead of SQL Saturday 467 in Southampton in December 2015. In this post we will be focusing on Stacia's session on Building Blocks of BIML, so, over to a few words from Stacia.

Stacia Varga
Q: Stacia, can we have a quick background on who you are and what you do?
A: I am a business intelligence consultant by day and author by night, and sometimes I switch times for those roles. I also teach classes on BI, speak about BI, and generally live and breathe by the numbers.

Q: What do you enjoy most about training days like the one that you are delivering?
A: Working as a consultant, I solve a particular client's problem which is rewarding. However, I get exposed to many more different types of problems and ways that people use BI when I teach so I get to help a broader audience and I can take what I learned from that experience forward to the next group of people that I work with!

Q: What is BIML and why should we learn about it?
A: BIML makes Integration Services fun. Really! Honestly, as important as Integration Services is to a BI solution, I find it incredibly tedious to build out packages. And tedious to update packages when the data warehouse schema changes - which happens often in the early design stages. With BIML, I can easily accommodate changes and blast out a new set of packages in seconds. I think that's a really good reason to learn about it! Why spend your time connecting tasks with arrows when you can instead devote your brainpower to solving problems?

Q: What will be one of the key things that the attendees will take away from your session?
A: The main take-away will be a set of BIML files that illustrates a basic framework for data warehouse design that covers many of the patterns attendees are likely to use. That means they don't have to start from scratch, but they'll have a set of templates that they can modify as needed and start working with BIML productively right away! And of course they'll get the training to understand how all those files work!


So just what is in the session;

It’s generally accepted that creating and maintaining ETL packages is one of the more time-consuming steps in the data warehouse development process. Which would you rather do with your time? Spend seemingly endless hours working through repetitive SSIS package development tasks and more hours tweaking those packages as schemas evolve? Or invest in a framework that gracefully adapts to changes and updates your package designs in minutes so you can spend your time solving bigger problems or expanding the scope of your data warehouse?. If you like the sounds of this then you can read the full abstract along with registration details by clicking the button below.

Eventbrite - Stacia Varga - Building Blocks of BIML

Hope to see you there.

John
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#SQLSat467 - Pre-con Spotlight | Windows Azure SQL Database - A Journey from Zero to be Hero

9. August 2015 21:08 / John Q Martin / Learning . SQL Saturday . Pre-con . SQL Server . SQLSoton . Training Comments (0)
This is the forth in a series of blog posts about the pre-con sessions that we are running ahead of SQL Saturday 467 in Southampton in December 2015. In this post we will be focusing on Tobiasz's session on Windows Azure SQL Database - A Journey from Zero to be Hero, so, over to a few words from Tobiasz.

Tobiasz Janusz Koprowski
Q: Tobiasz, can we have a quick background on who you are and what you do?
A: For the last year I'm a fully independent consultant and trainer, before this I spend over nine years in the data processing centre jungle, previously I spent over five years in banking sector, before... I'm focused on data (SQL Server) and collaboration (SharePoint) with a strong focus on security, audits and licensing aspects. I'm one of few Friends of RedGate (continuously for the last four years), and a member of several other community organizations. I'm also community leader and volunteer for the last twelve-fifteen years (not only in ICT sector) and the result of my work is well recognizable: I am a SQL Server MVP (sixth year in a row), and a member of the boards of: Polish Information Processing Society and Information Systems Security Association (Polish Chapter). I moved from Poland to the UK in January this year and am actually settled in a quiet, posh area of Nottingham.

Q: What do you enjoy most about training days like the one that you are delivering?
A: I have attended many training days, and I’ve helped to organize many others. I always enjoy being focused on a specific subject, having time to listen, learn, sometimes making a short demo, exercises and - which probably is most important - having direct contact with lecturer and other students. If I have access to internet and can block connection from my clients for this day, and unlimited coffee is provided - I don't need anything more.

Q: How important do you think the cloud will be in the next three years?
A: Cloud. Some people say that it's a buzz word. We actually have had discussions in engineers group in Poland about power of Mainframes (and mainframes are the fathers of clouds), but... The world is changing, our life is changing and even I personally don't like this sentence, but: life is a constant change. We use cloud services from many years, not only Azure Services or Amazon Services, but almost whole our daily applications and services are 'cloud services'. Personally I use One Note, EverNote, DropBox, SkyDrive, One Drive, GoogleDrive, TripIt, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Endomondo, YouTube, iCloud, and other cloud services from TrendMicro, Symantec, Virgin Mobile, IBM, Polish Government, and UK Government. And of course Azure. In summary: it is important and will be important. And (because I always think about worst case scenario) everything will collapse when Internet will stop...

Q: What will be one of the key things that the attendees will take away from your session?
A: I will give few key things for attendees, but I hope that all delegates will have a great chance to see how easy adoption for cloud services is. I know that not too many peoples actually use cloud services like Windows Azure SQL Database (I have ascertained this knowledge from my previous sessions at user groups). But even - after four years from official premiere - they not use it. So the pre-conference seminar in Southampton is good place to start. In eight (or nine hours) they will get the best and worst practices, they can share knowledge and experience, and finally the can try how and why it works. Discovery is always exciting.

So just what is in the session;

Windows Azure SQL Database, four years in the market, continuously changing, but still not understood. In AD2015 is it the right time to change this. With a full day Pre-Conf we start with our on-premises instances, next we touch the Sky, and as masters we will parachute back to the Earth. If you like the sounds of this then you can read the full abstract along with registration details by clicking on the button below.

Eventbrite - Tobiasz Koprowski - Windows Azure SQL Database - A Journey from Zero to be Hero

Hope to see you there.

John
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SQL Soton - SQL Saturday Precon sessions LIVE!

9. August 2015 20:08 / John Q Martin / Learning . SQL Saturday . Pre-con . SQL Server . SQLSoton . Training Comments (0)

So, here we are with a new blog and a new event for you to look at. The Southampton SQL Server user group team have enlisted the help of some of the best SQL Server speakers to put together a paid for pre-con day ahead of out SQL Saturday in December 2015.

We are pleased to announce that the sessions are now confirmed and open for sign-up.

So who will be joining us, what sessions are there and how much does it cost I hear you ask. Well, the cost is £150 before the 1st of November, after that it will be £200 for a full day of training. The pre-cons will be hosted at Jury's Inn in Southampton on Friday the 4th of December and will run from 08:00 until 17:00 with lunch and refreshments provided. In order to attend you will need to have registered, paid and confirmed ahead of the session.

So now onto the sessions, I think you will agree that we have some fantastic sessions here;

So, if you want a fantastic day of training at an amazing price then take your pick and sign up, the sooner you can the better as places are limited.

Thanks

SQL Soton Organizing Team

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