After a long hiatus of not blogging, I’m trying to get back into writing. So, to kick it off first thing in 2024, I’m speaking!
I’m honored to have been selected to speak at SQL Bits 2024. The conference runs from Tuesday March 19th through Saturday March 23rd. It’s being held at the Farnbourough International Exhibition & Conference Center in Hampshire, UK. h I’ll be traveling to London and will be giving 3 different sessions. SQL Bits is a world-renowned conference that has been around for many years, and it is probably one of the biggest community driven events that you can attend. If you can afford to attend, I highly recommend it. It’s multiple days of Data-centric goodness and worth the expense.
I’ve been fortunate to go previously and needless to say I’m very excited for the opportunity to do so again.
First up, an all-day training session with my exceptional co-worker Monica Rathbun:
Mastering SQL Server Performance & Optimization Strategies (Training day)
In the pursuit of excellence, speed is the engine, and performance is the destination.
Everyone wants their database to go faster, whether it’s shaving hours off your ETL process, taking minutes off the runtime for reports, or trimming milliseconds off a critical OLTP query. Every database professional must know where to look and how to tune, whether you have one SQL environment or thousands.
In this full-day session, you’ll learn how to take your performance tuning skills to the next level. How to best configure SQL Server as well as how to decipher all metrics it collects can be daunting. Identifying how to distill the data down to actionable information is an integral part of a DBA’s job. After this session, you will understand what to look for, how to analyze the data, and you will know how to use an array of tools including query store, performance monitor, and various scripts to get the critical performance information you need. Beyond tools and scripts, you’ll become versed in the art and science of reading query plans to help you improve individual query performance. Finally, you’ll learn about the newest performance enhancements within SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL.
You’ll leave this knowledge packed session with a clearer understanding of which items to evaluate and how to resolve many issues that plague SQL Server performance.
Thwarting Disaster for SQL Server on Azure VM (100-minute session)
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Azure offers a robust ecosystem where you can run SQL Server pretty effortlessly. Yet, disasters affect data centers, even ones belonging to Microsoft. Natural events, like tornadoes or hurricanes, can cause entire data centers to be lost. Even human error, like a heavy equipment operator cutting the power to a data center by mistake, can only cause an entire outage if you do not take steps to protect it.
Several options are available to ensure disaster recovery when running SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine. Sometimes it can be challenging to determine which option is the best for your use case and fit into your organization’s grand scheme. In this session, we’ll walk through some available options so that you can see first-hand the benefits and pitfalls of each one.
You will –
• Learn about the various options available for your Azure VM running SQL Server
• See where shortcomings may exist in each solution
• Leave with a solid idea of what would work best for your environment
Disaster recovery is vital in Azure. Let’s ensure you’ve everything in place to recover successfully, regardless of what comes your way.
Soaring to New Heights with Accelerated Database Recovery (50-minute Session)
In the realm of database management, traditional rollback processes often resemble a slow, turbulent journey, causing disruptions and delays in critical operations. However, advancements in SQL Server have introduced a revolutionary concept known as Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR). Much like the sophisticated instruments and systems that keep aircraft flying smoothly, ADR introduces new mechanisms that improve database recovery performance, reducing downtime and minimizing the impact of database failures.
In this session you will –
• See what makes accelerated database recovery soar
• Examine internal structures of ADR
• Learn about the improvements that SQL Server 2022 brings to the table
ADR offers a paradigm shift in SQL Server database recovery, allowing databases to soar to new heights of reliability and resilience while minimizing the turbulence of traditional recovery methods.
Azure Infrastructure – What Not To Do (20-minute session)
In a quick 20 minutes, we will talk about what not to do when configure your infrastructure in an Azure cloud environment. Learn from my experience as a consultant and all the things I’ve seen go wrong. Join me as we walk through a few “what not to do” things related to security, storage, and manageability, and more just to name few!
Summary
SQLBits is an amazing conference and if you can find a way to attend, it is definitely one that is in my list of top 5 conferences to attend. If you are able to make it, please stop by one of my sessions and say Hi!
See you in London!
© 2024, John Morehouse. All rights reserved.