Becoming an Azure SQL DBA – New Opportunities from Basics to Microsoft Copilot

Pam Lahoud

In this session you’ll explore new skill development opportunities as an Azure SQL DBA. Many traditional SQL Server DBA tasks have been partially or fully delegated to Microsoft, and this shift in responsibilities provides a great opportunity to invest in developing new cloud skills that will help you excel as an Azure SQL DBA champion.

For those migrating to a fully-managed Azure SQL PaaS service, we will cover managing resources at scale in Azure, monitoring them, and setting policies at scale to ensure your resources are compliant. We will also share how to use cloud elasticity to your advantage for cost optimization, as well as the automation of cost-savings techniques – ultimately making you a cost-saving champion for your organization.

Once in Azure, your SQL workloads exist in an expansive neighborhood that offers a myriad of Azure services. As such, we will teach you how to use this to your advantage when integrating with other Azure services such as Data Lake and Fabric, and when leveraging the power of AI using Microsoft Copilot for Azure.

In each of the areas and throughout the session, we will map on-premises SQL Server DBA responsibilities to the Azure SQL DBA role – highlighting what responsibilities are new, which ones stay the same, and what is shared or fully delegated to Microsoft. You will walk away with an understanding of the relevant DBA skills you need to evolve as an Azure SQL DBA.