Thursday, 30 April 2020

Rainbows of the new world

I have been working at home since mid March, living in a world that doesn't seem real. The pandemic has changed the world we live in currently. We have homes full of family, or none at all, we shop for those needing to be shielded and those selfless brave NHS staff, carers, shop worker, rubbish collectors and all, still work everyday to help the people with essential services.

This is a new age where an opportunity awaits for us to improve our lives. Many of us have been enforced into a social experiment which has shown working from home is possible with new tools that exist. Also saving the planet became possible without all the car emissions created by people travelling to work and delivering children to school by car. Our local communities became more connected and peoples started walking round their local areas.

Putting the planet and our health first is crucial to our survival. The need for urban parks and gardens has increased within cities for people mental health. With the windows full of rainbows, it has given hope and activity. Open air trim trails, local heritage trails and outside museums could help keep learning fresh.

We are seeing the need for a connected world by default and the major upgrade of internet services enables a rapid transition to the cloud services for business and home life. Cyber protection is required more than ever in this diverse world. Self driving cars and robots have the potential to increase deliveries to the door. Investment in health and AI for health has never been higher.





Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Microsoft Ignite 2020

Microsoft Ignite will be back in September 2020. Microsoft Ignite will be launched as a complimentary digital event experience this September. Join them to learn innovative ways to build solutions, migrate and manage our infrastructure, and connect with Microsoft experts and other technology professionals from around the globe.

It is also possible to view all sessions from last year’s Microsoft Ignite.


Monday, 27 April 2020

Data Weekender

A Virtual Popup Microsoft Data Conference is happening on Saturday 2nd May 2020 https://www.dataweekender.com/

Data Community Weekender Europe is a new online conference hosted by various professionals from around Europe. With many events cancelled or postponed across Europe (and the world) in March, April and May, they wanted to put on an online data platform conference for the community to fill that void left by the cancelling of the in-person events on a day that hopefully, most people can attend.


This is set to be an amazing event.



Thursday, 23 April 2020

Microsoft Business Applications Summit

The Microsoft Business Applications Summit is now a digital event on May 6, 2020. Microsoft say get ready for the new digital event experience, with opportunities to hear from Microsoft executives, learn from experts, and connect with your community. Register today, at no cost to you!

The event will let you learn about the latest innovations and what is coming next in tools. Discover how Microsoft business applications work together to unify data to gain in-the-moment intelligence. In addition learn and explore the new capabilities across the Microsoft Power Platform.




Thursday, 9 April 2020

Spark AI Summit 2020

The largest data and machine learning conference, Spark and AI Summit brings together over 7,500 engineers, scientists, developers, analysts and leaders from around the world to San Francisco every year. Over four days, we shape the future of big data, analytics and AI as we share knowledge, hear from thought leaders and train on open-source technologies like Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, Koalas, TensorFlow and PyTorch. This year the virtual event for data teams has free general admission, 22-26 June.


Thursday, 2 April 2020

The Seattle Report on Data Research

I read with interest The Seattle Report on Data Research which presents the state of affairs for database systems. There are many interesting points raised about the diversity of the field and the challenges that are now apparent. These being:

  • Data Science having an emerging importance, 
  • HTAP (hybrid  transaction (OLTP) analytical processing (OLAP) creating real time operations to drive intelligent processing and reach, 
  • ethical responsibilities, 
  • scalable shareable data discovery 

This leads to the field having a bit of an identity crisis. We need to think about the end to end solutions that will provide insights whilst considering things such as data quality and data providence.

The question that we must all ask ourselves is, what is the vision for the future where data is all around us.