Pre-Conference Seminars

SQL Azure was one of the first cloud services in Azure in 2009. The database service was limited in features and scale. The world has changed tremendously since then, and Azure SQL Database offers a world class platform that offers all of the features of SQL Server and more. In this full day session, you will learn how to architect applications to take advantages of the features of SQL Database, how to optimize cost management versus performance, and how to design cloud architectures to optimize performance and uptime.

• Introduction to Azure SQL Database
• Building Secure Application in SQL Database
• Performance Tuning in SQL Database
• Managing SQL Database
• Designing cloud applications using SQL Database

• Understanding the differences between SQL Server and SQL Database
• The tenants of cloud application design
• How to build secure applications in Azure

• Building a SQL Database
• Using the Query Store and Query Performance Insight
• Building a scale out solution in Azure SQL Database

• Familiarity with SQL Server
• Understanding of cloud principals

• Level 300-400, exclusive content from Joesph D’Antoni
• Gain real-world knowledge, get real-world exposure packed with real-world demos and examples
• Get your own copy of course material developed by Joesph D’Antoni
• 8 hours of interaction with the Master
• Lunch, Snacks, Tea/Coffee & loads of fun!
• And may be some surprise goodies 🙂

PS: Additional 3% service charge is only applicable for online payments
PS: Prices might change without any prior notice

When the Columnstore Index technology, based on the xVelocity In-Memory engine, came with SQL Server 2012 in the form of Nonclustered Columnstore, and SQL Server 2014 brought us updatable Clustered Columnstore Indexes plus a completely new In-Memory OLTP Engine, “XTP”, for memory optimized table & indexes, those features were still new and because of their limitations used only rarely.

SQL Server 2016 takes both technology onto a whole new level:

Columnstore indexes among other things now support snapshot isolation and hence fully support readable secondaries. Batch execution is not exclusively for parallel threaded queries anymore. They can be combined with other B-tree indexes and even be filtered and support referential integrity with primary and foreign key constraints. Also so-called In-Memory Operational Analytics is supported by the ability to create Columnstore Indexes on memory optimized tables.

On the other hand the In-Memory engine has been extensively improved in terms of both scalability and T-SQL language support, taking away many of the relevant limitations for adaption of version 1 in a similar way than the Columnstore technology. For example altering of pre-compiled objects is now possible, bucket-counts can be adjusted, natively compiled stored procedures can be recompiled and foreign keys are supported as well as encryption with TDE.

All those improvements will make In-Memory technologies a viable option in many projects. For Datawarehouses many (including me) say, that Columnstore will become the default storage type for all objects. And it can be foreseen that over the years the same will happen for OLTP-tables that have to support highly concurrent workloads will be based on memory optimized tables.

It’s time to extend our skills to those technologies to be able implement and support the new types of storage that are coming to our databases to address the fact of ever more data being stored and queried and performance demands and (real time) analytic requirements going up.

At this full-day training day, Microsoft Certified Master for the Data Platform Andreas Wolter, familiar with SQL Servers In-Memory technologies from the early bits on, will give a complete picture on the current state of technology. Attendees will learn how and where to use either In-Memory OLTP or Columnstore or even both for efficient queries and data storing and the important bits both from developers and administrators perspective.

• Columnstore Storage Engine and compressioninternals
• What is the benefit for OLAP performance
• When to use Clustered or Nonclustered Columnstore Indexes
• XTP Engine internals for In-Memory OLTP performance benefits
• Memory optimized Tables, indexes and Variables
• Natively compiled stored procedures& triggers
• Combination of Row-Store, Columnstore/xVelocity and XTP engine for operational analytics

• How the new storage engines Columnstore& XTP work behind the covers
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of these alternate storage engines and how can they be played out best
• How to get a quick start with In-Memory optimized objects in almost any environment
• What are the typical performance patterns that these technologies address
• How to build highly performing Datawarehouse tables
• How to improve OLTP hotspot tables with In-Memory technologies
• How to enable real-time analytics of operational data
• What’s important from file management perspective for administrators
• How can Columnstore and In-Memory Hash- & Range-indexes be maintained
• What hotspots can you expect for those technologies – or is there any?

• Performance-Improvements for OLAP workloads with Nonclustered Columnstore indexes…
• … Clustered Columnstore indexes
• Performance-Improvements for OLTP workloads with memory optimized tables, indexes and code
• Operational analytics on row store vs operational analytics on In-Memory
• Operational analytics on row store vs operational analytics on In-Memory
• How do Columnstore indexes handle updates to data under the covers
• How In-Memory optimized objects look like on disk

• Basic T-SQL knowledgefor code-reading
• Clustered vs Nonclustered indexes basics

• Level 300-400, exclusive content from Andreas Wolter
• Gain real-world knowledge, get real-world exposure packed with real-world demos and examples
• Get your own copy of course material developed by Andreas Wolter
• 8 hours of interaction with the Master
• Lunch, Snacks, Tea/Coffee & loads of fun!
• And may be some surprise goodies 🙂

PS: Additional 3% service charge is only applicable for online payments
PS: Prices might change without any prior notice

In this day long pre-con session we will explore the various high availability options within SQL Server including how to configure these various options. We will be looking into Windows and SQL Server Clustering (including what is needed for a geographically dispersed cluster), Database Mirroring, The AlwaysOn features, and SQL Server Log Shipping.

In addition to working through these high availability options, we will be discussing the most important part of high availability configuration, making sure that you know how to select the correct high availability solution. After completing this high availability pre-con session you’ll be able to make the correct decision about which high availability decision to deploy, as well as how to correctly deploy the selected solution.

• Database Mirroring
• Failover Clustering
• AlwaysOn Availability Groups
• Log Shipping
• Geographically Distributed Options

• Knowing when to use each of the various technological solutions which are available.
• Knowing how to use all the various technological solutions which are available.
• Understanding the differences between the various solutions which are available.

• Setting up and working with a Failover Cluster
• Setting up and working with an AlwaysOn Availability Group
• Setting up and working with Database Mirroring

• None

• Level 300-400, exclusive content from Denny Cherry
• Gain real-world knowledge, get real-world exposure packed with real-world demos and examples
• Get your own copy of course material developed by Denny Cherry
• 8 hours of interaction with the Master
• Lunch, Snacks, Tea/Coffee & loads of fun!
• And may be some surprise goodies 🙂

PS: Additional 3% service charge is only applicable for online payments
PS: Prices might change without any prior notice

At least 80% of all database performance problems can be related directly to your T-SQL code and your data structures. This full-day workshop gets right to the heart of that issue and shows you how to identify common performance problems using the tools available to you within SQL Server. With the problems identified, we then proceed to figure out how to address those problems using execution plans to understand the choices made by the query optimizer. You’ll learn multiple ways to capture execution plans, how to interpret them, and how to query them directly. All the examples and scripts will be immediately applicable to your systems. You can address your performance problems in order to make your T-SQL code run faster.

1. Introduction to Execution Plans
   1. How execution plans are created
   2. How you can get execution plans
   3. Steps to query tuning
   4. The basics of reading an execution plan
2. Common T-SQL Code Smells
   1. Functions and commands on predicates
   2. Data conversion (implicit & explicit)
   3. Cursors
   4. Nested views
   5. IF logic
   6. Multi-statement table-valued user-defined functions
3. Worked Examples
   1. A series of different examples illustrating concepts learned so far in the session
4. Querying the Plan Cache
   1. Using DMVs to query the plan cache
   2. Using XPath to query the execution plan
5. More Worked Examples
   1. More examples adding to the concepts covered
6. Parameter Sniffing
   1. Defining parameter sniffing
   2. Explaining what bad parameter sniffing is
   3. Show how to detect a possible bad parameter sniffing situation
   4. Show various mechanisms for fixing bad parameter sniffing including the strengths and weaknesses of each solution
7. Additional Tools
   1. Supratimas
   2. SQL Sentry Plan Explorer
   3. Query Store

• Understand where, how and why performance issues appear within execution plans in order to better understand how to use execution plans to troubleshoot SQL Server query performance

• Functions on predicates
• Data conversions (implicit & explicit)
• Cursors
• Nested views
• IF logic
• Multi-statement table-valued user-defined functions
• Misc. worked examples
• Mechanisms for querying plan cache
• Various methods for addressing bad parameter sniffing

• Fundamentals of SQL Server are assumed
• T-SQL fundamentals are also assumed
• General knowledge of databases and relational data structures are assumed

• Level 300-400, exclusive content from Grant Fritchey
• Gain real-world knowledge, get real-world exposure packed with real-world demos and examples
• Get your own copy of course material developed by Grant Fritchey
• 8 hours of interaction with the Master
• Lunch, Snacks, Tea/Coffee & loads of fun!
• And may be some surprise goodies 🙂

PS: Additional 3% service charge is only applicable for online payments
PS: Prices might change without any prior notice

SQL Server Business Intelligence makes it easier to craft meaningful information and knowledge from your raw data. It delivers a comprehensive platform empowering organizations to build and deploy secure, scalable and manageable BI solutions. Bring the Power of Data to every user in your organization! This Masterclass is for organizations who want to make the most of using their data, using the Microsoft SQL Server product suite. Join this one day SQL Server Masterclass to get the latest on SQL Server 2016 for the Business Intelligence and Data Visualization professional. Learn today through hands-on experience, and put it into practice tomorrow!

Join Jen Stirrup, Business Intelligence and Data Visualization industry veteran to learn more about what’s in SQL Server for the Business Intelligence specialist. You’ll get takeaway notes and experience hands-on demos that focus on integration with

• Power BI
• Excel
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
  • Datazen

There will be an emphasis on practical applications that mean you can make a difference in your organization, fast. Throughout the day, we will weave best practice data visualization theory so that, regardless of the technology, you will be able to apply the theory to make your data more meaningful and actionable.
You’ll get takeaway notes and experience hands-on labs to maximize your learning.

• Overview of Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence
• ETL for SQL Server Integration Services and Power Query
• Data Modelling with SQL Server Analysis Services
• Data Modelling with SQL Server Tabular Modelling and Power Pivot
• Reporting with SQL Server Reporting Services
• Enterprise Performance Management with Datazen
• Self Service Business Intelligence Power BI
• Self Service Analytics with R for the Business Intelligence Professional

• Self Service Business Intelligence for the Enterprise with SQL Server
• Enterprise Data Storytelling using Visualization for effective decision making
• Cleansing and Integrating your Data for Robust Business Intelligence
• Self-Service Analytics with R

• SSIS and Power Query Demos
• Analysis Services cube demos
• Tabular Modelling demos
• PowerPivot demos
• SSRS Reporting Demos
• Power BI demos
• Datazen demo
• R demos for analytics

• None, but if the users have a laptop with SQL Server on it, they can follow along with the demos.

• Level 300-400, exclusive content from Jen Stirrup
• Gain real-world knowledge, get real-world exposure packed with real-world demos and examples
• Get your own copy of course material developed by Jen Stirrup
• 8 hours of interaction with the Master
• Lunch, Snacks, Tea/Coffee & loads of fun!
• And may be some surprise goodies 🙂

PS: Additional 3% service charge is only applicable for online payments
PS: Prices might change without any prior notice