SQL Saturday Atlanta Pre Cons

Speaker: Bob Ward & Anna Hoffman
Title: The Cloud Workshop for the SQL Professional
Audience: DBA, Developers, IT Pros, Admins, Architects
Abstract:
Are you thinking, exploring, migrating, or have migrated from SQL Server to Azure? This workshop will provide you with a technically led driven approach to translate your knowledge and skills from SQL Server to Azure SQL. You will experience an immersive look at Azure SQL including hands-on labs with no Azure subscription required. This includes topics such as Azure networking, deployment, configuration, security, performance, availability, management, and monitoring. This workshop is designed to teach you Azure based on your existing SQL Server knowledge all led by the engineering team at Microsoft that works on both SQL Server and Azure SQL. This workshop is not intended to "sway" you to use Azure. It is designed for those wanting to learn about Azure, those who are migrating some or all SQL Server instances to Azure, or those who have migrated to Azure and want to optimize their investment. You don't even need to be a DBA to gain benefits from this workshop. Just bring your existing SQL Server knowledge and come learn Azure SQL!
Prerequisites: Attendees must have a basic knowledge of SQL Server and bring their own laptop for hands-on labs. Instructions will be provided later for what software to install. No Azure subscription is required.

Speaker: Patrick LeBlanc & Jason Himmelstein
Audience: Data Analyst, Data Engineers, Report Developers

Title: Harnessing the Power of Microsoft Fabric: Accelerating Insights with OneLake, Power BI, and Synapse

Abstract: In this session, we will explore the incredible potential of Microsoft Fabric, a cutting-edge data platform designed to unlock the full power of your data and artificial intelligence (AI). With its robust suite of capabilities, Microsoft Fabric empowers organizations to leverage data effectively and extract actionable insights.

Join us as we dive into the key components of Microsoft Fabric, including OneLake, the revolutionary "OneDrive for data" solution that simplifies data storage, organization, and sharing. From leveraging lakehouses and notebooks, to data warehousing and data movement with Pipelines and Dataflows, we will also delve into how this empowers Power BI, Microsoft's leading business intelligence tool, which allows users to visualize data and gain valuable insights through interactive dashboards and reports.
Whether you're a data scientist, analyst, or business professional seeking to harness the potential of your data, AI and drive informed decision-making, this session will provide you with a comprehensive overview of Microsoft Fabric's capabilities. Join us to discover how to leverage OneLake, Power BI, and Synapse Data Engineering and more to accelerate your journey towards Attendees should bring a laptop to work through examples during the day.
Prerequisites: None

Speaker: Erin Dempster
Audience: Database Developers, DBAs, DevOps Pros
Title: Automating Database Deployments with Azure DevOps
Abstract: Deploying changes for a single database is easy on a team of 2 or 3. What happens when there are several databases being updated by a larger team, say five or more developers? Knowing which changes go together and which need to wait for a different release can be challenging.

With Visual Studio 2022, Azure Repos, and Azure Pipelines, code changes can be managed more easily, and deployments can be packaged and executed consistently. In this half-day talk, we'll use Visual Studio to make database changes and commit them to Azure Repos. Deployment to a test environment will be completed with Azure Pipelines. Besides deployments, there are other connections between Azure Repos and Pipelines that will be covered.

While there will NOT be hands-on lab opportunities, a PDF version of a reference guide will be provided to aid in understanding and setting up your environment after SQL Saturday.

Speaker: Allan Hirt
Title: The Secret Sauce to SQL Server Availability
Audience: DBAs and IT Pros
SQL Server needs to be up and running to meet the needs of the business whether it is 9 to 5 or 24x7. This goal is something that is easier said than done. There are so many technical and non-technical factors that influence the design, implementation, and administration of a highly available (and performing) solution. The difference between success and failure is often paper thin.

This half day session will cut right to the chase and tell you what it really takes to achieve uptime and reliability, minimize downtime during an event, and more. It will cover on premises (physical and virtual) as well as cloud-based solutions. You will learn through real world examples of what to do - and not do - as well as what may trip you up or become an obstacle. Both technical and non-technical aspects will be discussed.

It does not matter if you are already using features like Always On availability groups, Always On Failover Cluster Instances, log shipping, or something else - this session will set you straight on those as well as what other options may bring to the availability party.

Whether you are a DBA, accidental DBA, or just an IT pro looking for tips to enhance your SQL Server business continuity story, register today.

8a-12pm
Speaker: Erin Dempster
Audience: Database Developers, DBAs, DevOps Pros
Title: Automating Database Deployments with Azure DevOps
In this half-day talk, we'll use Visual Studio to make database changes and commit them to Azure Repos. Deployment to a test environment will be completed with Azure Pipelines. Besides deployments, there are other connections between Azure Repos and Pipelines that will be covered.

1p-5pm
Speaker: Allan Hirt
Title: The Secret Sauce to SQL Server Availability
This half day session will cut right to the chase and tell you what it really takes to achieve uptime and reliability, minimize downtime during an event, and more. It will cover on premises (physical and virtual) as well as cloud-based solutions. You will learn through real world examples of what to do - and not do - as well as what may trip you up or become an obstacle. Both technical and non-technical aspects will be discussed