This one-day training introduces data engineering concepts for enterprise data warehousing using Microsoft Fabric Data Factory. Designed for those new to data engineering and self-taught professionals looking to expand their knowledge, this course balances theoretical concepts with practical demonstrations. The day begins with a lecture-based overview covering the essentials of enterprise data warehousing and Microsoft Fabric's role in modern data architectures. We'll explain key terminology, fundamental concepts, and how Fabric Data Factory fits into the broader data engineering landscape. This foundation ensures all participants share a common understanding before moving into more technical content. The second part transitions to demonstration-focused learning, where you'll observe practical implementation of pipeline-driven staging and loading processes. Rather than marketing promises, we'll show you real-world patterns that address common challenges in data warehousing projects. Each demonstration illustrates pragmatic solutions that balance theoretical best practices with practical constraints. The final section continues with demonstrations of lifecycle management, showing straightforward approaches to monitoring data pipelines, implementing maintenance routines, and establishing sensible governance. We focus on practical techniques that can be implemented immediately, regardless of your organization's maturity level. This training emphasizes practical knowledge, providing a realistic view of data engineering with Microsoft Fabric that you can apply regardless of your current experience level.

The pressure on data engineers to deliver data faster and reliably continues to grow, especially with increasing demands for data governance, security, and compliance. This workshop provides a practical, hands-on approach to accelerating database and data warehouse changes while maintaining security and reliability. Whether working with Fabric Data Warehouse or Azure SQL Database, you'll learn best practices for version-controlling database changes and implementing CI/CD workflows using GitHub, Azure DevOps, and SQL Projects to all variants of SQL Server. We will also showcase how to supercharge development with CoPilot, enabling faster SQL and Fabric coding while ensuring best practices are followed. By the end of this session, attendees will: Understand how to automate database change management efficiently. Learn how to apply DevOps and CI/CD principles to database deployments. Gain insights into leveraging CoPilot for AI-assisted development in SQL and Fabric. See practical demos and real-world implementation strategies. The session will be a hands-on workshop combining interactive demos, guided exercises, and real-world case studies, where attendees will learn to automate database deployments, leverage CoPilot for SQL development, and implement CI/CD best practices using GitHub, Azure DevOps, and SQL Projects. If you're a data engineer, database administrator, or DevOps engineer looking to modernize your database delivery pipeline, this session is for you!

Unlock the power of automation and enhance your database management skills in this full-day PowerShell workshop designed for DBAs. This session will equip you with essential skills and streamline your daily operations and reduce manual errors through scripting and automation. We will start with PowerShell fundamentals before moving into advanced scripting best practices tailored to the needs of SQL Server management. A key highlight of the workshop is our in-depth exploration of the **dbatools module**—a powerful, community-built toolkit that simplifies SQL Server management tasks. With over 700 cmdlets/functions it is a treasure trove of greatness (in my opinion). This mostly demo session with many real-world examples, you’ll learn how to leverage dbatools to automate tasks such as backups, restores, performance monitoring, and migrations, dramatically enhancing your operational efficiency. Whether you’re looking to learn PowerShell and dbatools or to explore automation strategies, this workshop offers a rich blend of theoretical insights and interactive scenarios. Join me for a day of learning, collaboration, and fun that will allow you to take full control of your database operations with the combined power of PowerShell and dbatools.

Are your users frustrated by slow reports? Do your SQL Server instances—on-premises or in Azure—struggle under high demand? Whether you manage a single server or a large-scale environment, performance tuning is essential, and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In this full-day session, learn how to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks using a wide range of tools, scripts, and best practices. We’ll start with practical techniques for analyzing your environment, reading execution plans, and tuning for performance. You'll gain a clear understanding of how everyday maintenance tasks—and even infrastructure—can impact your server’s responsiveness. This session focuses on SQL Server 2019 and newer, including Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025, covering the latest performance enhancements and cloud-specific considerations. We’ll walk through real-world examples of common performance problems and how to fix them using straightforward, repeatable methods. You’ll leave with: A checklist of key performance areas to evaluate in your environment—whether in the cloud or on-prem Strategies for addressing both query-level and server-level issues Insights into how SQL Server and Azure features can work for—or against—you. Confidence to apply what you’ve learned, regardless of your current skill level. Designed for DBAs, developers, and anyone responsible for SQL Server performance, this session emphasizes practical, real-world solutions you can use right away—on any platform.

Let’s be honest: even experienced developers write T-SQL that starts to smell over time. Maybe it works, but it’s tangled, hard to maintain, and full of traps for future you. In this full day, demo-packed session, Erik Darling and Kendra Little will walk you through the real world query problems that quietly haunt OLTP systems—and how to fix them without rewriting the whole app. We’ll dissect the subtle stuff that tanks performance: implicit conversions, sneaky NULL logic, non-sargable filters, and joins that don’t do what you think they do. You’ll compare EXISTS to JOINs, untangle OR conditions, and learn when EXCEPT and INTERSECT save you from disaster. You'll see where views go off the rails, when temp tables and table variables shine, and how to modify data in a way that won’t make your DBA cry. Along the way, you’ll learn to leverage window functions, cross apply, and patterns for parameterization that hold up under pressure. You’ll know exactly how to refactor messy code into queries that are easier to understand, debug, and evolve—without sacrificing intent or introducing subtle bugs. If you’ve ever looked at a query and thought, “I have no idea what this does, and I’m afraid to touch it,” this session is for you. You already know how to write T-SQL that works. Now it’s time to write T-SQL you’re proud of.

A well-designed Power BI report should engage, inform, and be accessible to all users. Yet, many reports suffer from poor usability, cognitive overload, and accessibility barriers, making insights harder to interpret and act upon. In this interactive workshop, you’ll explore UX best practices and digital accessibility principles to create reports that are intuitive, clear, and inclusive. Through hands-on exercises, case studies, and live critiques, you’ll gain practical strategies to enhance usability and accessibility in your Power BI reports. What You’ll Learn: - Identify audience needs and design for different personas - Apply UX best practices to improve clarity and reduce cognitive fatigue - Recognize and fix common accessibility challenges in Power BI reports - Integrate accessibility checks and automation into your reporting workflows The workshop includes two key segments: UX-Driven Report Design – Learn about different audiences, layout strategies, and improve usability through a hands-on redesign challenge. Accessibility in Power BI – Experience digital barriers firsthand, apply real-time fixes, and explore Power BI’s accessibility features to enhance inclusivity. By the end, you’ll have actionable techniques, tools, and best practices to build user-friendly, effective, and inclusive Power BI reports.

You've been working with Microsoft SQL Server for a few years. You're comfortable reading wait stats, analyzing execution plans, and designing indexes, but now you're starting to look at other databases. You want to leverage what you already know, but have it translated into Postgres terms to understand what that database platform has available. Postgres is just similar enough to fool you into thinking it'll be easy - but so dramatically different that you'll need help making the jump. Let's get you started in one fun day packed with side-by-side examples comparing SQL Server versus Postgres.

Advance your DAX skills in this workshop designed to bridge the gap between basic and advanced concepts. Through real-world scenarios, you’ll learn to write efficient expressions, solve complex business challenges, and create dynamic, impactful reports with DAX. Here are a few examples of what you can learn in this workshop: • Using OR conditions between slicers in DAX. • Creating a slicer that filters multiple columns in Power BI. • Learn how to use REMOVEFILTERS / VALUES for “natural” hierarchical calculations. • Show updated year-to-date actuals and forecasts in the same chart. • When and how to use visual calculations in DAX. • Optimize cumulative totals using variables and windows. • Implement different types of ranking calculations. • Aggregate relative periods (like each new customer's first 30 days of purchase) efficiently. Good experience writing DAX measures in Power BI or Analysis Services is a prerequisite for attending this training. You must know row context, filter context, and context transition. You are comfortable using CALCULATE and are not afraid to learn something new.

You’ve seen it before: the procedure that looks like it was generated by an AI trained on Stack Overflow and despair. It’s got MERGE. It’s got RIGHT JOINs. It’s got logic so tangled you’d need a flowchart, a flashlight, and a therapist to debug it. And now… it’s your problem. In this full-day festival of query-fixing, Erik Darling and Kendra Little lead you through the real world mysteries of advanced T-SQL: the strange, the slow, and the occasionally cursed. You’ll tackle tangled paging logic, rescue window functions and indexed views from spools and spills, and finally learn when to keep a CTE—and when to yeet it. We’ll refactor data modifications that block like linebackers, decode procedural patterns, and write dynamic SQL that’s powerful and polite. You’ll learn when to CROSS APPLY, dig into views vs. inline TVFs, and discover why RIGHT JOIN is not simply LEFT JOIN’s syntactic twin. We’ll uncover when user-defined functions wreck your query execution plans—and how to rewrite them with flair. If you’ve ever been curious about why that query sometimes takes SO long and how to best rewrite it without just guessing, this is your playground. Expect fast demos, big laughs, and a glorious cheat sheet to take home. Because refactoring SQL isn’t just necessary—it’s super fun when you're in the right party.

Wondering how to get started with enterprise Fabric Development? This workshop will provide attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to create a enterprise-ready Microsoft Fabric environment. The workshop covers everything from getting started gathering data from different sources, transforming the data into an analytical model, securing access, and monitoring it’s performance. As Fabric provides many different methods for performing these tasks, we will cover a variety of different development tools, including using shortcuts, copying data, pipelines, Data Flow Gen 2, notebooks, and explain which is the best choice in a given situation. Participants will practice the steps in hands on exercises using medallion architecture to transform the data into an analytical lakehouse, which can be used for ad-hoc querying, and of course as a source for Power BI reports. Participants will learn how to provide ongoing maintenance, security and monitoring of the lakehouse to ensure it is an enterprise level solution. The workshop experience and examples will provide participants with the knowledge needed to implement the techniques to create their own lakehouse. By the end of the session, participants will not only understand the technical steps involved but also when and why to choose a lakehouse architecture for their organizational data needs.

All the Azure Data offerings are great. But they are also confusing. Which one is right for you? Which size do you need? The answer is of course: It depends. Join us for a day of unmystifying the jungle of offerings! We will walk you through the different service offerings from SQL Server running in a VM over Azure SQL DB up to Fabric. To make sure, this is applicable and actionable, we will clearly structure this day by use cases for both, your needs to have your data land in Azure as well as how to make it accessible for consumption: - HA/DR – are you intending to use Azure only as your backup datacenter? - Migration – is Azure going to be your new home? - ETL, Replication, Mirroring and Links – are you only intending to run some of your workloads, like analytics in the cloud and need to build a landing zone for your data from other sources? - Streaming - Are you getting data from sensors or other devices? - Analytics – Is Fabric really your only choice to run reports in the future? This demo packed day will be your fast track to figure out which of the countless offerings is right for you and what it will take you to get there. We’ll focus on the technical aspects but also take a look at implications like security, governance and of course: cost.

In today's data-driven world, SQL Server continues to a powerhouse for organizations looking to leverage their data effectively. This all-day training session offers practical, actionable insights for optimizing SQL Server environments and ensuring operational efficiency, whether on-premises or in the cloud. We’ll start by breaking down the basics of hardware and performance. You’ll learn how SQL Server uses system resources like CPU, memory, and storage, and how to choose the right setup for your environment. We’ll showcase both on-prem and cloud-based options so you can make smart choices that fit your organization’s needs. From there, we’ll walk through essential day-to-day administration tasks. You’ll learn how to configure your SQL Server environment, set up backups, manage routine maintenance, and build simple disaster recovery plans. We’ll use real-world examples to help you understand what to do, why it matters, and how to handle common challenges that come up in a DBA’s world. In this session - You will: • Learn about critical facets of SQL Server architecture • Exam common configurations & administrative practices • Review high availability & disaster recovery options for SQL Server By the end of the day, you’ll walk away with the confidence and knowledge to start managing SQL Server environments effectively—and a solid foundation to grow from as your experience builds.

SQL Server performance tuning can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. In this session, we will break down key strategies that help improve query performance, optimize indexes, and enhance database efficiency. If you already know SQL and want to step into performance tuning, this session is for you. We will cover essential tuning techniques, such as indexing strategies, query execution plans, and common performance bottlenecks. Along the way, we’ll also explore how Generative AI (GenAI) tools can assist in performance analysis, query optimization, and database monitoring. Additionally, we will touch on how Python can be used for database performance analysis and automation. Expect a practical discussion with real-world examples, covering: - How to analyze and optimize slow queries. - The role of indexing and execution plans in performance tuning. - A brief look at how GenAI can provide performance insights. By the end of this session, you will have a strong foundation to start your journey in SQL Server performance tuning, along with an understanding of how GenAI can enhance the optimization process.

Join us for an exciting and demo filled session where we explore how customers can leverage the powerful combination of SQL Server on Red Hat Linux Enterprise and OpenShift to achieve unparalleled performance and flexibility. We will delve into the latest Ansible enhancements helping with deployment automation, including the new functionality for enabling AES encryption for user accounts using adutil and support for the latest mssql-tool18 package. Discover how SQL Server container images can be utilized with WSL2, and learn about the custom password policy introduced with SQL 2025. We'll also showcase AI-related features for SQL Server 2025 with some impressive RAG-based demos. Additionally, we'll highlight improvements in SELinux supporting features, ensuring robust security and compliance. This session is designed to provide valuable insights and practical demonstrations, helping you make the most of SQL Server on Red Hat Linux Enterprise and OpenShift. Don't miss out on this opportunity to enhance your database management capabilities and stay ahead in the ever-evolving tech landscape and add technologies

Data loss can devastate businesses and individuals, making prevention critical in today’s digital era. Leveraging digital and database forensics offers tools to identify vulnerabilities, recover lost data, and implement preventive measures. This session explores how forensic techniques proactively safeguard critical assets. Attendees will learn key methodologies such as detecting unauthorized access, tracing data breaches, and analyzing logs or HDD dumps to uncover hidden threats. We'll discuss practical strategies to validate backup integrity, address weak points in database configurations, and enhance system resilience. Along the way, you'll gain insights into concepts like the 4th Amendment, Chain of Custody, Tagging and Bagging Evidence, and Honeypots to strengthen security protocols. With real-world examples, this session emphasizes actionable tips to prevent data loss, preserve evidence for audits or legal needs, and ensure compliance. Whether you’re a DBA, IT professional, or security expert, you'll leave equipped with knowledge to mitigate risks, bolster security, and maintain data integrity effectively.

In this session, we’re taking a fun look at three of the newest tools in SQL Server 2025 — Vectors, Regex, and JSON — or as we like to call them: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Whether it’s finding patterns, organizing tricky data, or speeding things up, these features can save you time and hassle.

Modern data professionals increasingly find themselves managing diverse database technologies, often in the same organization. This session is designed for those who want to sharpen their proficiency across Oracle, MySQL and MongoDB, learning the tips, tools and techniques that can reduce the friction to efficiency when working across platforms. We'll explore the unique strengths and quirks of each database, focusing on administrative monitoring, administration and performance tuning. We'll see how tools can streamline your multiplatform development and operations. If you're balancing enterprise and open-source databases, along with emerging NoSQL use cases, this session is your practical toolkit.

Migrating enterprise databases to the cloud is a complex but necessary evolution for data-driven organizations. This session is designed for data architects, DBAs, and IT leaders looking to build a robust, secure, and cost-effective cloud architecture while maintaining business continuity. We'll explore the architectural decisions, patterns, and governance models that support successful migrations of SQL Server and PostgreSQL from on-premises environments to cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, or hybrid infrastructures. From selecting the right PaaS vs. IaaS options to implementing secure multi-platform strategies, this session delivers practical guidance for every stage of the journey. Key topics include: - Cloud migration frameworks for SQL Server and PostgreSQL with minimal downtime - Building hybrid and multi-cloud architectures for diverse workloads - Securing data with role-based access, encryption, and network isolation - Managing cloud costs effectively using scaling strategies and usage monitoring - Implementing data governance policies with tools that span both database platforms - Integrating DevOps practices to streamline database deployments and maintenance Whether you're modernizing legacy SQL Server workloads or planning a greenfield PostgreSQL deployment in the cloud, this session will provide the architecture and tools to move confidently and securely.

We have been measured all of our lives, from when we were young to today in our daily efforts. Most often, these measurements lead us into the trap of being compared with each other. But what if we looked at this from a different angle? One that helps you put focus on you? This talk presents taking a different approach by defining your personal average and placing focus there in an effort to break through the comparison trap. 15 years ago, I became a paraplegic. I'll detail my story of overcoming many challenges, helping me become a better person, spouse, and parent - and leading me back to a leadership position in my career all while competing in major marathons around the world in my wheelchair. I'll present the concept of 'personal average' and describe how it has helped me overcome many challenges since my accident.