SSWUG Data Platform Virtual Conference Fall 2016

   
 

ONLINE REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

To keep on top of the changes in technology and the industry, attending classes, conferences, and webcasts has become a necessity. SSWUG.org puts together two conferences a year to help you get all that information in one place - allowing you to stay sharp and still have time to do your work. (Thanks, boss!)
SSWUG.org is hosting their Fall Virtual Conference on November 15th and 16th, 2016. We know that you have a busy schedule - which is why we would never require you to fly across the country to attend the event of the season! Because of this, this event will take place entirely online, for you to enjoy from your office, home, or anywhere that has an internet connection. 
Also - because we want this event to be available to all, we've made it free!
If your job requires continued education or you like to stay sharp, this is the event for you. 



(All content subject to change without notice.)


 

All-Access Pass

Your registration gives you access to unparalleled content. Here's what you can expect at the SSWUG.org Fall Virtual Conference:

  • Access to all content 
  • All presentation slides and scripts
  • Interactive Q&A - Chat live with presenters during their sessions
  • Networking lounge to chat with your fellow attendees as well as the sponsors and speakers
  • All sessions are recorded in HD, all the time. Crisp and clear video
 

If you're a PRO member of SSWUG.org (thanks!) we're giving you a full 30 days to view the event afterwards! Still not enough time? You'll be able to view it in the PRO center, too!

By attending the conference, you will also receive a discount code to become a PRO member yourself - or to extend your current PRO membership!

 

Give Aways and Discounts

We'll be having daily fantastic give aways during the live event! Stay tuned for more information!  Click Here for Give Away Rules and Regulations.

We'll also be offering a 30% PRO discount during the event! Make sure to keep an eye out for it.
 

Tell a Friend!

Send this page to your friends and colleagues so they can experience the conference too!  Our surveys reveal that 94% of attendees gained knowledge they could use immediately, and 99.5% said they would recommend a SSWUG.org Virtual Conference in the future.

Sessions



New features in Entity Framework 7

Joydip Kanjilal

Entity Framework is an open source, lightweight,extensible Object Relational Mapper that abstracts the calls to your ADO.Net data access provider underneath. This presentation would discuss the some of the interesting new features / enhancements in EF7.
These include:
  • Support for in-memory data
  • Support for Windows Phone and Windows Store applications
  • Support for new platforms and new data stores
  • Support for Batch Update and Optimized Query generation 

Building a Home Grown Auditing Infrastructure for SQL Server

Brian  Kelley
Not everyone has the budget for 3rd party tools to provide audit / security information on their SQL Server environment. If you are in this situation, what do you need to build? What information should you be capturing in order to know what's going on for each of your SQL Servers? How do you gather that information and store it? How do you report on it? In this presentation we'll answer each of those questions, presenting options you can build yourself. We'll look for the most efficient solutions because if you don't have budget, you likely don't have allocated time except for what you can carve out amidst your other responsibilities. Knowledge of T-SQL and Powershell is expected.

Best of - Reading Execution Plans for Performance Tuning

Thomas LaBlanc
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

This will be a Beginners session highlighting the starting point for using the execution plans from SQL Server to assist in query tuning. Briefly, we will look at the history to get an idea of how Microsoft has improved the display through Graphical Plans and Missing Index suggestion. The, we will answer questions like the following. What is the difference between a Table and Clustered Index Scan? What is a Lookup? How do you improve performance of Lookups? What are the different types of Loops? How to get more information from the Plan with the properties window?

In-Memory OLTP Architectures and Customer Case Studies

Jos de Bruijn
In-Memory OLTP can bring incredible performance benefits in both SQL Server and Azure SQL Database, but it can be a little daunting to understand whether it can benefit a given customer application. In this session we discuss where and how In-Memory OLTP is used today to realize performance gains. We go into detail with scenarios, architectures, and actual customer case studies, with some demos along the ways. Scenarios range from replacement of tempdb objects (e.g., TVPs) to data ingestion with IoT devices to low latency and high update workloads (e.g., trading, gaming).

Creating an End to End Power BI Solution

Devin  Knight
Power BI has a many moving parts that can make it difficult to know when and where each part of the tool is necessary. In this session you will get a clear end to end journey through creating a Power BI solution. Start with the data discovery phase by importing and applying business rules to your data. Then load that data into a data model where you can apply hierarchies and calculations. Finally using that data model design reports to visualize the results. Once complete learn how the results can be shared with others by creating dashboards on the Power BI service. Taking this end to end trip through the tool will allow you to fully understand how each piece fits together.

Best of - Indexing for performance

Jeffrey Garbus
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

This session for beginners or experts discusses index structures and how the server uses them to optimize queries. With this knowledge, you can tune queries BETTER than the Tuning Adviser.

How I Use PowerBI as a DBA

Tjay Belt
Microsoft’s PowerBI is the new hotness. In this session you will get your hands dirty and dive into PowerBI and create an actual report, with actual data. You will get to learn from examples from what a DBA has done to implement PowerBI in his shop and make his data accessible.
As a DBA, we often need to collect and display data in a friendly and interactive fashion. We will play with some PowerShell to collect data from several systems, store this data in an Azure DB in the Cloud, then point PowerBI at this data to display and interact with said data. You will learn a little about PowerShell, Azure SQL DB, PowerBI, and how to make these work for you.
You will be given permissions to an Azure DB, and get connected to this source. You will also need to have PowerBI desktop downloaded and installed. We will be using this to create the report during the session. So please come prepared to interact with the internet, with a cloud based database you will be provided, and PowerBI Desktop.

Ten Query Tuning Techniques Every SQL Developer

Kevin Kline
 SELECT statements have a reputation for being very easy to write, but hard to write very well. This session will take you through ten of the most problematic patterns and anti-patterns when writing queries and how to deal with them all.  Loaded with live demonstrations and useful techniques, this session will teach you how to take your SQL Server queries mundane to masterful.

Best of - Everything you wanted to know about Stored Procedures

Jeffrey Garbus
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

Everything you wanted to know about Stored Procedures but were afraid to ask.

This session talks about stored procedure creation management, performance, and transaction management. We also review and make formal recommendations on optimal coding techniques and mechanisms for managing return values.

Powershell

Ben Miller
 

Performing a Risk Assessment for Your SQL Server Environment

Brian  Kelley
You have SQL Servers you need to secure. But where do you start? In this presentation, we'll look at how to do a security risk assessment on SQL Server. First we'll start off with how to present your findings to management. What information do you need to give them? What will sway them to your side? We'll then switch to the technical side and cover what to look at first: the issues that could lead to a server breach, data loss, and/or a system becoming unavailable due to mismanagement. Finally, we'll discuss how to assess other problems you may find and how to rank and prioritize them.

Best of - What is the SSIS Catalog? And Why do I care?

Stan Geiger
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

SQL Server 2012 redefined how SSIS packages are stored and executed. The advent of the SSISDB catalog gives a central point for working with SSIS projects deployed to the server. From this catalog we can set project and package parameter, configure environments, and monitor execution. There is no need to build in package logging because Microsoft had done it for us. This presentation covers what is in the catalog, how to deploy packages, environment, tips and tricks as well as monitoring package execution.

Best of - The Data Warehouse of the Future

Stan Geiger
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

So you think you have the ultimate Data Warehouse...well think again. The landscape or should I say the data lake is changing constantly. We are getting data from all over the place. How do we make it available and relevant for the consumers of a data warehouse. Is Kimbell obsolete now, what about unstructured data, how about the gazillioin rows of click data, etc. So the data and BI architects are all on suicide watch. Well its not really that bad. Microsoft has woken up and seen all that is going and has brought functionality to SQL Server to solve some of these issues. This presentation provides an overview of technologies such as Polybase, Temoporal Tables, Columnstore Index, In memory tables, JSON support, etc. that can be utilized to build the data warehouse of the future.

VMware, SQL Server, and Encrypting Private Data

Townsend Security

Encryption has traditionally been the hardest part of data security, with key management being the hardest part of encryption. Join Patrick Townsend, Founder & CEO of Townsend Security, as he discusses these technologies and how they no longer deserve the reputation they have earned for being difficult and expensive. This session will cover:
  • Encryption and key management simplified
  • Encrypting data on SQL Server
  • Securing data in VMware environments
  • Encryption and key management in the cloud
  • Encryption best practices 
  • Meeting compliance requirements      


Sponsored by:

Advanced TSQL Querying

Mitchell Pearson
Do you know the basics of T-SQL and want to take your skills to the next level? If so this fast paced, demo-packed session is for you! In this session you will learn how to use advanced T-SQL concepts to quickly solve some of the common business problems. In this session Mitchell reviews CTEs, Window Functions, and more!

Asynchronous programming in ADO.NET

Joydip Kanjilal
You can take advantage of the support for asynchronous processing in ADO.Net to receive progress messages from long running database calls. This presentation explores the concepts of asynchronous programming and discusses how to perform asynchronous operations in ADO.Net. It discusses the support for asynchronous Programming in ADO.Net in detail with special focus on the async and await keywords and how they can be used.

End-to-End Troubleshooting Checklist

Kevin Kline

Learning how to detect, diagnose and resolve performance problems in SQL Server is tough.  Often, years are spent learning how to use the tools and techniques that help you detect when a problem is occurring, diagnose the root-cause of the problem, and then resolve the problem. 

 

In this session, attendees will see demonstrations of the tools and techniques which make difficult troubleshooting scenarios much faster and easier, including:

 

•           XEvents, Profiler/Traces, and PerfMon

•           Using Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)

•           Advanced Diagnostics Using Wait Stats

•           Reading SQL Server execution plan

 

Every DBA needs to know how to keep their SQL Server in tip-top condition, and you’ll need skills the covered in this session to do it.

Best of - SQL Server 2016 Security: Why to Upgrade

Tommy Mullaney
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

SQL Server has been the enterprise database with the fewest security vulnerabilities for six years running. Now, SQL Server 2016 takes security to the next level with new features like Always Encrypted, Dynamic Data Masking, and Row-Level Security, and also enhancements like support for TLS 2.1. In this session, we'll explore how SQL Server 2016 helps keep your data more secure than ever before.

Using JSON in SQL Server 2016

Russel Loski
JSON is the new kind on the block, playing a role similar to XML in sharing data across the internet. Until recently, there was no easy way to read JSON in SQL Server. However, with SQL Server 2016, Microsoft has provided several functions for working with JSON. In this talk you will learn how to read specific items from a JSON document. You will learn how to shred JSON arrays into SQL Server row sets. And you will learn how to convert your SQL results into JSON documents.

Superior Customer Service

Laura Rose

What does superior customer service take?

What does superior customer service even mean?

 

Does it mean putting the client first – at every turn?

Does it mean the customer knows best? And is always right?

 

 

Not necessarily.

Often times the client doesn’t know what they really want or need.  In those cases, they can’t be always right.   In those cases, you are the expert.

 

 

Also – you are in the business to make money.  Therefore, can’t always put our customer’s interest first.  After all – many times their interest is to get your products and services for free.  And you can’t continue to accomodate that and stay in business.

 

 

So what does it really take to provide superior customer service?

Today’s webinar will explore all those different aspects of superior client service.

Best of - Simplify database performance tuning with Azure SQL Database

Borko Novakovic
Vladimir Ivanovic
Veljko Vasic
Best of session from Spring 2016

Simplify database performance tuning with Azure SQL Database

SQL Server Tracing for Developers

Jason Strate
 

Why Data Pros Own the Future

Kevin Kline
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re probably aware of a new computing paradigm called cloud computing. Cloud computing has a variety of advantages over traditional in-house computing and, in many cases, is commoditizing certain IT jobs. But not all IT jobs, especially those that administrate, analyze, and interpret data. In fact, now more than ever, the most exciting trend in the IT industry is our data-driven future. This session will delve into the macroeconomic trends driving this new paradigm and discuss three stories that give us deeper insight into why data and database professionals own the future. Share insights and inspirations in this talk with Kevin Kline, a founder and president emeritus of the Professional Association for SQL Server, to discover the broader trends that are pushing data professionals into greater prominence and strategies you can use to become the most respected, influential, and credible member of your organization’s technical staff.

Best of - Technical Review of the Microsoft Cloud Data Platform

Dandy Weyn
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

Technical Review of the Microsoft Cloud Data Platform

Getting Started with Query Store

Jason Strate
Sometimes you need to know what SQL Server was doing before things went wrong. And other times you need to a better understanding of how it's behaving and if this is good for the platform. This is where Query Store comes in. With Query Store, SQL Server now has the abiltiy to track and report on the performance of queries and execution plans over time to help you better identify and solve performance issues. Join this session for an overview and dive into Query Store.

Best of - New Features in SQL Server 2016

Joydip Kanjilal
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

This session will present a discussion on the mission-critical capabilities in SQL Server 2016 that you can take advantage of to work with your relational data in Azure, on-premise or even in a hybrid model. The new features and enhancements in SQL Server 2016 that would be discussed in this session include (but are not limited to) the following:

- JSON Support
- Row Level Security
- Always Encrypted
- Polybase
- Stretch Database
- Query Store
- In-Memory Enhancements

Building the 30-Minute Data Warehouse in Microsoft Azure

Jason Strate
 

Oracle Parallel Execution Plans Deep Dive

Randolf Geist
If you have ever come across a parallel execution plan in Oracle you might have asked yourself, how this Parallel Execution feature exactly works and what all these additional PX operators and PX specific columns in the execution plan stand for. In this "deep dive" session these questions will be addressed providing an unique insight into the internal workings of the Oracle SQL engine Parallel Execution feature. You should have a fairly good understanding of the meaning of serial execution plans and be used to reading them if you want to get most out of this session.

Best of - Performance Comparison of SQL Server 2016 Columnstore indexes for Real-Time Operational Analytics

Rick Roberts
Best of session from Spring 2016... 

SQL Server 2016 has introduced Columnstore indexes that can be used for Real-Time operational analytics. This is the first time Columnstore indexes will be available for OLTP databases alongside In-Memory optimized tables. This presentation will first compare and contrast the use of SQL Server 2016 Columnstore indexes for Real-Time Operational Analytics with In-Memory Optimized Tables. A performance comparison will then be performed between the two types of in-memory index structures in Azure. The performance comparison will show when it is best to use each type of in-memory index structure.

Meeting Compliance Regulations and Best Practices for Encryption

Townsend Security

Meeting data-at-rest encryption requirements for data privacy compliance regulations can be a challenge.  By deploying standards-based encryption and key management, businesses can demonstrate compliance and protect intellectual personally identifiable information (PII), electronic personal health information (ePHI), and more.
  • Where do compliance regulations come from?
  • What are industry standards for encryption and key management?
  • What are the most common regulations?
  • Encryption & key Management best practices


Sponsored by:

Azure SQL Database Cost and Performance

Mike Yeager
Putting your databases in the cloud is scary. Can you really let Microsoft handle your DBA duties? Will it really stand up to the real world? What are your options for scaling up and out? What is it *really* going to cost? This session leaves the marketing brochures behind and takes a real world look at SQL Server in the Azure cloud. Azure SQL Database is absolutely awesome for many scenarios and this session includes demonstrations, real world experience and hard earned lessons to demystify what you’ll find if you move some of your workload to Microsoft’s Platform as A Service (PAAS) SQL offering. Updated for 2016.

Sponsors

PAVILION Sponsors



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SQL Server Live! is proud to be a part of Live! 360. Through 5 full days of workshops, deep dives and breakout sessions, SQL Server Live! will leave you with the skills needed to Lead the Data Race. With timely, relevant content delivered by recognized experts, SQL Server Live! provides a broad range of content for administrators, DBAs, developers and BI professionals to help them do more with their SQL Server investment. Sessions will cover performance tuning, security, reporting, data integration, adopting new techniques, improving old approaches, and modernizing the SQL Server infrastructure. Head to sqllive360.com to learn more!


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SSWUG.org is excited to announce its Pro Member Center! A page dedicated to the benefits of the Pro Members of SSWUG, this hub presents the best content on the site, putting knowledge literally at your fingertips. Courses, videos, and articles are only a small part of what is offered with this great, all-inclusive membership, and the Pro Member Center exhibits that.


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