Welcome

Passionately curious about Data, Databases and Systems Complexity. Data is ubiquitous, the database universe is dichotomous (structured and unstructured), expanding and complex. Find my Database Research at SQLToolkit.co.uk . Microsoft Data Platform MVP

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing" Einstein



Monday 21 November 2022

Alpine Coaster 2022 Schedule

 Our final event of the year. The Alpine Coaster event schedule. To find out more go to the website.



Thursday 17 November 2022

Day 2 PASS Data Community Keynote

The keynote is about Doing More with Less: The Challenges Ahead for Every Data Professional. These are challenging times for every business everywhere. So how can you ensure you get the most from your investment in IT, to meet your needs now, while also preparing you for an uncertain future? Join Jakub Lamik, Steve Jones and Kathi Kellenberger in this keynote which looks at how the world is changing for data professionals, and the areas to focus on which will bring the best return on your investment in the long term.

Speakers

Steve Jones | Advocate

Jakub Lamik | CEO

Kathi Kellenberger | Customer Success Engineer

David Bick | Head of Product Marketing

Arneh Eskandari | Solutions Engineering Manager

There were123 sessions yesterday. Make sure you take advantage of the  networking opportunities.

16.10 Steve Jones opens the keynote talking about Kalen the technical people he had met. Opportunity, to learn and be inspired. 

Redgate are expanding across multi databases with there tools. Redgate live the Devops way, build a great culture internally and community centred. SQL Saturday started to bring it to the community. Redgate gave it to PASS. Then donated PASS away after buying it last year. 

The CEO of Redgate is on the stage.  More than a conference: a homecoming. Why important to invest in the community? Database professionals answer important questions about our world.

Every business is a software business - Satya Nadella

Software means data really, how data is ubiquitous and how it enables transformation.  Change is constant.

How has the database landscape changed.

Open source is increasingly important, all sectors and all segments. A powerful tool for community.

Cross database estate is on the rise.  - From the state of the data estate report.

Fragmentation is accelerating. Developing are influencing the databases they use.

PostgreSQL and MySQL are developing the most. SQL Server in the top 6.

Multi database environments are here to stay and complexity is growing - Steve Jones

Micro Services enable agility between software and dev teams - further drives fragmentation

Complexity is mirrored in the environment and automation required with a standard set of tool and approach. This helps with the Devops environment.

David Bick is on the Stage

Just solving SQL Server problems is just not enough for our customers. A lot of postgreSQL  growing. 

Flyway is a database schema for a standard approach using more than 25 databases. From on prem to cloud. Redgate bought and support the open support project.

Gives richer automation. Design principles - should be able to work the way you want to, flexibility, Tools and approach need to be the same but the changes need to be database specific. 

Flyway Enterprise is released for SQL Server and Oracle. This will unlock devops for developers.

Migration to cloud is expanding and Redgate can deploy in hours. Cloud required collaboration. No more silos. DBAs must be database agnostic and support hybrid database estates. 

Arneh  is on the Stage. Security and monitoring is centralised, but individual business units chose different platforms. 

Scalability and being held back . Domain expertise is needed from various cloud technologies. Not enough dashboards across all of these.  Cost control is required to be kept as low as possible. 

A typical financial set up 1000+ database 50/50 split on prem and in the cloud in the UK and US. They need granular monitoring as there is no holistic monitor. 

About solutions, community and support. 

How to help you grow. There are lots of new speakers at Summit this year.  How many children want to be a DBA when they grow up. Simple talk is a great launching point for your career. Louis Davidson is the new editor of simple talk. 

Adoption, results and advocacy in customer success. They are the face of the customer internally and getting value out of there products. Customer success is who Redgate are. Also further ongoing professional development.  There are free industry learning classes which were created in the pandemic.

The debut Redgate 100 most influential in the database community 2022 was shared.

Day 1 Keynote PASS Data Community Summit

The day 1 keynote of the first in person PASS Data Community Summit was packed with exciting data platform innovations across SQL Server and the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform.

The Keynote: Transform your Data Estate with Microsoft's Intelligent Data Platform.







There are many data challenges today within operational database, analytics and intelligence and data governance. 
 


Data officers are a critical role and it is a challenge to use the data right. A lot of governance tools are not fully integrated. 

Analytics is a core part and must be front and centre not a back end tool. Data Governance is more than creating a catalogue, it is hybrid and multi cloud and the volume of data is increasing. Data Governance needs to be deeply embedded.


The big announcement : SQL Server 2022 is generally available


SQL Server 2022 with embedded data governance. All the data management through Microsoft Purview, lineage tracking is very important. 

There is a new SQL Server pay-as-you-go licensing model 


The annoucements

SQL Server 2022 - GA (Generally Available)
New SQL Server pay-as-you-go licensing model
Link feature for Azure SQL Managed Instance
Backup portability with SQL Server 2022
SQL + Apps Migration Factory offer
Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL - GA
Azure Data Factory SAP Change Data Capture Connector -GA
Azure Synapse Mapping Data Flow for M365 Graph -Public Preview
Azure Synapse Link for SQL











The keynote  then switched to data governance



Improved root cause analysis and traceability with SQL Dynamic lineage is GA

PASS in Seattle

My visit to PASS Data Community summit in Seattle involved my first flight out of the UK since Covid, 3 speaking opportunities and a visit to the Microsoft Reactor in Redmond to speak with the product teams. It is nice to be out travelling to conferences again and networking with the data community. There is so much added value to be had.

 



Monday 14 November 2022

PASS Data Community Summit Sessions

I have 2 speaking sessions at PASS Data Community Summit on Wednesday 16 November. The live Q&A from my on demand session on: 

The adoption of Data Governance is often marred with thoughts of control and security. Data Governance is about much more in the new world. It is about driving business transformation, knowing what value your data has, and how to remove those data silos, bringing with it a new data culture. In this session, we will start to explore what the new world of Data Governance is and how we help businesses understand the benefits, why it is important, and how to get started in simple agile steps. This session will help you understand why Azure Purview brings exciting features that slot into the world enabling data governance with ease.  I share more about this in a blog post building data governance into everyday processes







A panel session exploring the role of the database in today’s digital transformation and modernization initiatives. What are the experiences of transformation initiatives and why the database has to be included in these innovation drives for the benefit of increased speed, efficiency and risk management. I share more about this in a blog post The two sides of innovation: Data and DevOps











Thursday 10 November 2022

Data Toboggan - Alpine Coaster

We have a  mini conference to close the year out called Alpine Coaster on 25 November 2022.

How did Alpine Coaster get its Name

The longest toboggan run in Switzerland is the Pradaschier Rodelbahn. It has 31 curves and a difference in elevation of 480 m. The toboggan run coasts its way down to the valley with twists and turns. It is 3,060 m long. It is the most extensive alpine coaster run in Switzerland. It can move up to 40 kilometers/hour.

It takes between 7-10 minutes to ride Switzerland's longest toboggan run, the Pradaschier Rodelbahn.

Alpine Coaster Challenge

Create a Session between 7 – 10 minutes long, so bite-size sessions for hungry data professionals. This hopefully will leave everyone all excited for our full conference 28 January 2023.

Alpine Coaster Time Zones

Alpine Coaster will have 3 open sessions across 3 time zones (APAC, EMEA, AMER)
Each session lasting about 60-90 or so minutes each. This is a Friday event.

What type of Content is Expected

Share your tales of Azure Synapse Analytics in the real-world.  Deployments, proof-of-concepts, solved issues. 

This event will not be recorded. Use this to your advantage to be creative without pressure.

Register Now

Register for Alpine Coaster APAC Edition 7:30 AM GMT Friday 25 November 

Register for Alpine Coaster EMEA Edition 12:30 PM GMT Friday 25 November 

Register for Alpine Coaster AMER Edition 5:00 PM GMT Friday 25 November













Tuesday 1 November 2022

Purview changes


There have been a hole raft of changes to Microsoft Purview of late which can be found on the Microsoft Purview blog announcements can be seen on the 
Security, Compliance, and Identity Blog

Report Manual Data lineage with few clicks in Microsoft Purview https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/report-manual-data-lineage-with-few-clicks-in-microsoft-purview/ba-p/3655228

Now in Public Preview: Microsoft Purview workflows HTTP connector 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/now-in-public-preview-microsoft-purview-workflows-http-connector/ba-p/3655281

Best practices for Purview and a federated way of working

https://piethein.medium.com/best-practices-for-purview-and-a-federated-way-of-working-7a146f10b3ac

Catalog Adoption: Discover more with Data estate insights in Microsoft Purview

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/catalog-adoption-discover-more-with-data-estate-insights-in/ba-p/3656606

New machine learning classifiers in Microsoft Purview Governance

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/new-machine-learning-classifiers-in-microsoft-purview-governance/ba-p/3663629

Data curation: Discover more with data estate insights in Microsoft Purview

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/data-curation-discover-more-with-data-estate-insights-in/ba-p/3662971