Build Schedule

Most people don’t realize it but the current “Best Practice” Methods are actually a leading cause of perpetual logical and physical fragmentation, totally unnecessary wasted memory, costly and continuous “Bad” page splits, unexplainable blocking, comparatively insane amounts of log file generation and, in an interesting “Catch 22”, a major part of why we have to do so much index maintenance.

This isn’t your typical presentation on Index Maintenance.

In this first of two back-to-back sessions on the subject, we’ll explore what happens to an index in the first year of its life for four different common Fill Factors along with how “Best Practice” methods executed once per week and once per day have their way with you, your indexes, your log files, wasted memory, and the performance of your code even if it’s perfect code. We'll also introduce a new way to graphically see actual index structure using a new "Black Arts" stored procedure called "sp_IndexDNA" that you have to see to believe.

Jeff Moden

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Room: 540

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Most people don’t realize it but the current “Best Practice” Methods are actually a leading cause of perpetual logical and physical fragmentation, totally unnecessary wasted memory, costly and continuous “Bad” page splits, unexplainable blocking, comparatively insane amounts of log file generation and, in an interesting “Catch 22”, a major part of why we have to do so much index maintenance.

This isn’t your typical presentation on Index Maintenance.

In this second of two back-to-back sessions, we’ll learn of several incredibly easy modifications to your Index Maintenance routines to actually prevent fragmentation for weeks rather than perpetuating it,  virtually eliminate “Bad” page splits, reduce wasted memory, make your log file & log file backups a whole lot more happy and increase the overall performance of even perfect code.

We’ll also learn that no simple method is a panacea, what to do about the horror of "expAnsive" updates, and how to make even GUID-keyed indexes work well.

Jeff Moden

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room: 138

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This session is for the absolute beginner to learn the basics of Transactions and will answer questions such as, What is a Transaction? What are the ACID properties of a Transaction? How does the Transaction Log work to provide consistency to a database? What is a checkpoint? Are dirty pages bad or good? What is a lock? The session is led by an expert Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and former Microsoft MVP who regularly teaches SQL Server certification courses.

John Deardurff

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room: 533

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Are you curious about Visual Recognition and Object Detection in Azure?  Are you wondering what the difference is between the Computer Vision API and the Custom Vision API?  Do you want a quick introduction to get you up to speed on both, so that you can quickly build and deploy a Cognitive Services model?

Join us for an introduction to the Cognitive Services Computer Vision and Custom Vision APIs on Azure.

In this session, we will look at the basics of Cognitive Services Vision.  First learn how to create your Cognitive Services model.  Then you can see how to train and improve accuracy.  Finally, we will step through python code in Azure Notebooks to call the APIs.

Alicia Moniz

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Advanced Analysis Techniques

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM

Room: 528

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This session will focus on the how to of visual design in Power BI and equip you to take your report designs to the next level! We will create and implement custom report themes, demo how to design reports for different audiences in your organization and explore how to use Power BI's out of the box formatting options to help you deliver consistent and effective reports.

Michael Hewitt

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Analytics and Visualization

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Room: 138

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Coding is always a fun but challenging job. Developers do not only have to execute the right output based on the business requirement but also need to maintain right coding standards by using the optimum use of variable sizes and keeping in view the other best practices. The session will cover the key best practices which developers can follow and get benefited.
Many of us already may have been using these steps already but for those who are new to the development process or want to brush up, the session is for you.

Sourav Mukherjee

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Room: 540

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In this session we will discuss Data Strategy around data lake ingestion and how that shapes the design of a framework to fuel Azure Data Factory. This session will take you through the development of a Metadata database designed using Data Vault modeling, the collection of the metadata, as well as building a fully automated Data Factory pipeline.

Sean Forgatch

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Room: 528

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Azure Data Studio (formerly SQL Operations Studio) is the modern, cross-platform database management tool for SQL Server, both on-premise and in the cloud.  A simple, clean approach to a UI creates an experience different from other SQL management tools today.  Fully integrated intellisense with customizable code-snippets, connection management, and dashboards, Azure Data Studio, provides the T-SQL editor experience most of us expect today.  Unlike other tools, Azure Data Studio is 100% open-source, easily extensible, and has full integration to modern source control solutions like GIT.
In this session, we introduce Azure Data Studio and interacting with SQL Server environments.  We will focus on productivity comparable to SSMS, shortcuts and time savers, as well as how to leverage source control.  Lastly, we will cover extending Azure Data Studio by setting up a development environment, and walking through the process of build and debugging a custom dashboard component, using Electron

Andrew Loree

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Cloud Application Development & Deployment

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Room: 525

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The SQL Server Analytics\BI stack is widely used and mature. Azure PaaS offerings have matured greatly well beyond just Azure SQL DB the last couple of years. This session is designed for SQL Server professionals who want to expand their knowledge set to Azure or those interested in learning more about Azure data solution options. The focus will be on SQL Server on-premise (or on Azure VM\IaaS) to Azure equivalences, complementary tools, and hybrid approaches and possible challenges. Azure SQL DB, Azure SQL DW, Azure Data Factory, Azure Analysis Services, Power BI and more will be covered.

David Mellinger

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Room: 528

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Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means? This session will walk you through the high availability options in on-premises SQL Server, the high availability options in Azure SQL Database, and how those can be combined to enable you to achieve the ambitious goals of your management. Beyond the academic knowledge, we'll discuss real world case studies covering exactly how your on-premises environments and Azure services can work together to keep your phone quiet at night.

Matt Gordon

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Room: 504

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Operating on a budget can result in some creative solutions. Recently I've come up with a creative solution for traditional on-premise client-server solutions that allows for full redundancy in the cloud, but at a budget price. This is accomplished through VMs, copying of logs to Blob Storage, automation of hydration, updates & de-allocation.  It may be a bit of a Rube Goldberg machine, but it works! The result is an extremely pro-rated and affordable DR solution that is within 1 hour or less of production in restorability. Come to this session to learn more about the hurdles faced when putting this solution together and to brainstorm together how it can even be improved.

Mindy Curnutt

Eric Blinn

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room: 537

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Power BI Dataflows bring advanced self-service data preparation capabilities to power users and business analysts. Azure Data Lake Storage offers massively scalable and performant storage solution for enterprise big data analytics. The ability to integrate Power BI Dataflows with Azure Data Lake Storage promises to open a new set of opportunities for collaboration between business analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. In this demo-rich session, we’ll take a look at an example of such collaborations and discuss the questions and limitations that you should consider as you begin working with these services.

Slava Trofimov

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Room: 540

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In today's world, technology is a pervasive part of our lives. We have "smart" appliances everywhere: from cars, thermostats, and even refrigerators contain built-in systems to collect, store, and transmit data. Small embedded devices can also be used for scientific purposes as well, offering new and exciting ways to collect data for studies or projects at home.

The High-Altitude SQL Server Project, or HASSP, is one such project.

The HASSP team has created a high-altitude balloon that uses sensors to collect various data points and store the results in an embedded version of SQL Server!

In this session, you'll hear about how this is possible: we'll discuss the hardware used, the custom device that we built, and the software used to make it all work together. Best of all, you'll see how to recreate (and hopefully improve!) the project on your own.

Drew Furgiuele

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Professional Development

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Room: 533

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Many times developers have to support users by answering the “What happened to the data?”  The task of retrieving data from a specific point in time is not an easy one.  Often this involves retrieving a backup and restoring the data in question (hopefully!).  SQL Server 2016 introduced Temporal Tables, allowing a developer to retrieve data from a specific point in time, without backups.  With a few TSQL commands a historical table can be created, automatically updated, and readily accessed.

Sam Nasr

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Room: 533

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We have more information available to us today than ever before. So much so that we run the risk of not being able to tell concise stories. There's a lot more to creating that story than just getting the correct information. Come learn not just the do's and don'ts, but the whys…

Jonathan Stewart

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Analytics and Visualization

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM

Room: 537

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There are so many topics for a DBA to focus on that it can be overwhelming, especially for a new or accidental DBA.  Without knowing what's most important, you can find yourself spending lots of time trying to figure out what's important.  This session focuses on the five topics that matter most to a DBA, whether you're an aspiring DBA, a new DBA or a seasoned professional.

Ed Wagner

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM

Room: 504

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Have you ever wanted to see what an end-to-end solution looks like with Cosmos DB? Well look no further, in this session we will be pulling back the covers and walking through a scenario (with code) which is using Cosmos DB, Databricks, and Machine Learning to create great experiences for retail customers.

Anthony Mattas

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Cloud Application Development & Deployment

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Room: 504

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SQL Server 2016 SP1 makes data compression available in all editions. Data compression can reduce storage costs, and provide a performance boost—and now compression is available without the added cost of Enterprise Edition. Whether you are a developer or a DBA, it's important to know how to use compression to save money and improve speed.

Come learn about how data compression actually works, the differences between ROW and PAGE compression, and learn how to pick the best compression level for your data. This session will cover the details of the compression algorithms, and the costs and benefits associated with each type of compression. 

By the end of this session, you'll have a better idea of how the different compression algorithms work, when compression is the right solution, as well as what type of compression to use.

Andy Mallon

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Room: 504

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Are you interested in data encryption?  Do you store sensitive data in SQL Server databases?  Does GDPR affect your company?  If you answered yes to any of these questions then this session is for you.  In this session we will introduce and implement 4 methods of encryption available in SQL Server --Backup encryption, Transparent Data Encryption, AlwaysEncrypted, and connection encryption.

Eric Blinn

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Room: 525

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Most of the time you’ll see ETL being done with a tool such as SSIS, but what if you need near-realtime reporting? You need to get the updates in your OLTP database to the Data Warehouse quickly, but with minimal impact on your application. This session will demonstrate how to keep your data warehouse updated in near real-time using Service Broker messages from your OLTP database.

Allen White

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: March 30

Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Room: 140

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