Build Schedule

In the past, High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) had many limitations. Clustering and Mirroring are great, but the mirror/secondary database is not very usable since it is not online.  Finally, AlwaysOn solves this limitation by merging both multi-node Clustering and mirroring. AlwaysOn also allows the secondary database to remain ONLINE, so we can use it for reporting purposes without resorting to a Snapshot!  Come see this lively session with extensive demos of setting up, configuring and testing AlwaysOn. We'll also test automatic fail-over using a real web app to see how well this feature works.

Jim Murphy

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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In this session we will take a look at some strategies for building Business Intelligence solutions on the Windows Azure platform. We’ll see methods for transferring on-premises data to the cloud, report deployment to Windows Azure Reporting Services and options for performing ad-hoc analysis. We’ll look at some of the challenges faced when moving BI into the cloud, such as high-performance ETL, schema management and transient fault handling.

David Liebman

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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As the number of SQL Server versions and features grow over time so does the the difficulty in maintaining a set of tools for working with all of them on your local machine. Add in that some features require multiple physical instances and suddenly a single installation isn't enough. Need to quickly switch between versions and editions of SQL Server? Want to learn how to set up clustering? Or maybe you want to try out the latest SQL 2012 release candidate...virtualization offers a convenient way to do any or all of these. In this session we'll show you how by covering the fundamentals of desktop virtualization and demonstrating how to set up a virtual playground on your own machine.

Kendal Van Dyke

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Who wouldn’t want to create unbelievable dashboards that executives can get excited about?  PerformancePoint Services is perfect tool for creating interactive dashboards viewable from inside SharePoint.  In this session Devin will talk you through getting up and running with PerformancePoint and how to create a basic Dashboard including a KPI, Scorecard and Report.

Devin Knight

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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As the most prolific inventor in American history, Thomas Edison was a master of “Best Practices!” Edison’s creations were not just novel and commercially successful, but many launched entire new industries including electric light and power, sound recording, motion pictures and industrial cement and concrete manufacture. At the heart of Edison’s remarkable record of innovation was his categorization of the innovation process into “competencies,” or bundles of skills supporting the achievement of success in a particular area of endeavor. In this session, we will look at ways that we can use many of these broad success secrets to bring powerful tools and strategies to the recurring implementation of business intelligence.

William E Pearson III

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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This dession discusses the common design pitfalls when implementing EDW and how to avoid them. This session includes the realworld example too.

Dr. Suresh Rajappa

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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More and more companies are virtualizing with VMWare, and databases are the next logical step. This presentation will explore the fundamentals of monitoring databases running in a VMWare environment because it can be much different than when running on a physical machine. You will learn business and technical benefits of virtualization, master new terms and concepts, pick up useful planning tips and tricks, and cover best practices for maintaining optimum performance in a VMWare environment. 

Janis Griffin

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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This is a wonderful session for those that don't yet grok the three types of joins available to the SQL Server engine or the scenarios for which each join type is optimal. All will be explained here with some very slick visual demonstrations of internal data flow as well as TSQL code samples.  We will also show how bad performance can be when suboptimal joins are used.

Kevin Boles

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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We all know how important it is to keep a baseline of performance metrics that allow us to know when something is wrong and help us to track it down and fix the problem.  We don't always know how to do this easily and consistently.  This session will walk you through a series of PowerShell scripts you can schedule which will capture the most important data and a set of reports to show you how to use that data to keep your server running smoothly.

Allen White

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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This presentation looks behind the scenes of how SQL Server physically organizes the data on disk. We will talk about Heaps, B+Trees, RIDs, Keys, Seeks and Scans. The materials covered will allow you to make a more informed decision about what type of index to use when.

Sebastian Meine

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Are you still ramping up on SSRS? In this session Chris will show you how to create your first SSRS report. In this session we will cover all of the basics including some best practices to get you up to speed when creating reports. This session was designed for someone with little to no experience with SSRS.

Chris Albrektson

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Ever wonder what happens when a query is processed?  Got a process that is running slow at the office and your boss in looking at you for answers?  Want to look like a hero to your boss for fixing something that no one else could figure out?  Then you might want to consider this session.  Execution plans tell you what steps were taken to generate the results sets you did.  In analyzing these plans, you can figure out what you are doing that is not efficient, so you can fix it.  This session will give you the foundation you will need to do analysis so you can write better code and help your company with their performance issues.

Nathan Heaivilin

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Businesses depend on reliable data that can be managed effectively and shared through-out the enterprise. In this session we will look at the how Master Data Services 2012 can provide a solid platform for your organization's master data management implementation. We will spend a majority of the session building a model, loading it with data and then refining it to highlight the features and capabilities that are available out-of-the-box.

Christopher Price

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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The release of PowerShell version 2 introduced a new technology for managing Windows computers remotely. Everyone from desktop support to enterprise administrators can benefit from the capabilities available with PowerShell Remoting. Learn how it works, what it can do and why you want it enabled in your environment.

Jason Hofferle

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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The IT industry is now being dominated by projects. This session is designed to present a high-level foundational knowledge of the project management process as defined by the Project Management Institute. It will also focus on the tools that data professionals can use to deliver projects ontime and on budget.

Richie Rump

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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FileTable and Statistical Semantic Search In SQL 2012
It’s like having the biggest junk drawer EVER.  That’s often what our “Document Repositories” become.  You know you have that golden nugget of information that you’re searching for, and it’s in there somewhere, but you can’t find it.  Using the new features of Statistical Semantic Search in SQL 2012 is like having a closet organizer on staff at all times.  While full-text search lets you query the words in a document, semantic search lets you query the meaning of the document. New scenarios we will explore will include automatic tag extraction, related content discovery, and hierarchical navigation across similar content.

James McAuliffe

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Often missing from many BI projects is the ability for users to quickly and effectively submit data BACK to the reporting system.  Luckily, when these reporting systems are built from a SSAS cube foundation, we have a potential answer.

Writeback is often an underused feature in SSAS cubes.  In this session, attendees will learn how to create their own writeback partitions, and create end user interfaces to submit data to them in Excel.  Also a deep-dive into the architecture of the writeback implementation in SSAS will be covered, as well as some limitations to the technology that are important to know before designing a solution.

Josh Fennessy

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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You've just been assigned a data warehouse project. Maybe you've figured out what tables you want to work with, but outside of that you don't really know how to get started. In this session you'll learn how to load a data warehouse using SSIS, as well as techniques that you can use for any platform.

Robert Biddle

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Get mobilized!  Mobile business intelligence and mobile applications are hot in 2012.  Learn how to leverage Microsoft Business Intelligence and SQL Server data platform technologies with a variety of mobile devices.  The session will cover several options, tips, tricks, best practices and field lessons learned.  

Jen Underwood

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

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Excel Services is an extremely powerful tool that you can use inside your environment to help improve workflow and collaboration. Some of the topics discussed will include the service application, associating the application with your SharePoint site, data connections and the unattended service account. We will also talk about how PowerPivot for Excel translates into the SharePoint experience including setup, deployment and what happens in the background. Most of the time will be spent talking about PowerPivot and this exciting new technology.

Session Type:
Regular Session

Track:

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 10

Time: 12:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Room: TBD

Add to Schedule