Over the years, I’ll admit, SQL Server has come a long way in making life easier for database administrators and with each version it keeps getting better and better. The installation process bakes in more best practices than ever, default settings are smarter, and cloud offerings like Azure SQL and managed instances take a lot of the heavy lifting off our plates. Backups, high availability, patching—all of these are more streamlined than they used to be. It’s tempting to think this means DBAs don’t need to know the “nuts and bolts” or “how things work under the hood” anymore. But here’s the problem: I am seeing a real gap in…
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I am very excited to be heading to PASS Summit 2019 in Seattle next week. It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year. Getting to hang out with and learn from so many data professions is priceless. I am even more excited this year because I will be giving a Pre Con and a regular session for the first time at Summit. If you have ever attended one of my sessions, you know how passionate I am about speaking and being able to share my knowledge. What is PASS Summit? According to PASS it’s “Interactive training on the latest technologies and spotlights on hot topics such as security, cloud,…
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This year will be my 6th PASS Summit that I will have attended. Some people have asked me why I still go, and what I get out of Summit that I don’t get from attending and speaking at SQL Saturdays. That’s an easy one for me to answer, but a long answer at that. Networking First and foremost, it’s for the networking. Getting to meetup with so many other like minded people is gratifying. This networking allows you to exchange ideas, war stories, and downright geek out with others that know what you are talking about and don’t have their eyes glaze over when discussing optimizer internals. On top of…
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I’m It Survival Tips for the Lone DBA – Level 100 (Not Accepted: Higher rated session selected) Track: Professional Development As others have done I also will share my feedback from my submission to speak at PASS Summit in hopes it will lend some more insight into the process. Abstract: Are you the only database person at your company? Are you both the DBA and the Developer? Being the only data professional in an environment can seem overwhelming, daunting, and darn near impossible sometimes. However, it can also be extremely rewarding and empowering. This session will cover how you can keep your sanity, get stuff done, and still love your job. We’ll…
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It’s that time again where everyone writes their post PASS Summit Blog and tells of the great time they had with SQL Family and all the exciting new things they learned. While those are both very true for me as well, I want to talk about how it felt to go to Summit as a new leader in the community. This year I became a Chapter Leader and spent Tuesday at Summit in the PASS Chapter Leader and SQL Saturday meetings. It was an honor for me to walk into those meetings and collaborate with such a phenomenal group of people. It was even more remarkable to be called out…
