PASS Summit 2016 – Announcements

There have been different announcements for new and upcoming features in the Microsoft Data Technology ecosystem. The one today I am hearing about is Data Migration Assistant (DMA) tool v2.0 GA and Tech Preview of DEA – Data Experimentation Assistant. James Serra blogged about it here - http://www.jamesserra.com/archive/2016/10/pass-summit-announcements-dmadea/. The DEA helps you with understanding the performance improvements by upgrading.

The next one the Tech Preview of building PowerBI reports in SQL Service Reporting Services. For more info go to the PowerBI Community Blog - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2016/10/28/create-power-bi-reports-in-the-sql-server-reporting-services-technical-preview/

The most exciting one for me is the Azure Analysis Services. It is only Tabular Models, right now, but OLAP is said to be in the works. This is interesting because it once was in the Cloud and then that cloud disappeared. It will be nice to see creating a DW in the Azure DWU, then connect to that data in Analysis Services and reporting in PowerBI, all in Azure. Never though I would say that

 

 

Go read about Azure SSAS here - http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/microsoft-announces-azure-analysis-services-preview-pass-summit-2016 and https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-analysis-services-preview/

Chris Webb has already wrote his first thoughts about Azure Analysis Services - https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2016/10/25/first-thoughts-on-azure-analysis-services/

PASS New Logo

Devin Knight presenting Advanced PowerBI

Community Zone

PASS Summit 2016-Thursday Part II

The second half of the day was spent talking with various speakers and attendees. I got into a great conversation about trying to mentor developers at work places about how to write good T-SQL. It was interesting to here how some developers (or DBAs) are not open to new ways to write T-SQL like using CTEs or proper join syntax.

I meet Lance from the program committee and discussed the difficultly of having 800+ submissions and only about 140 slots for those submissions. To make sure you get a wide range of topics and not covering too little or too many of the same topic is not always easy. They do a great job with the volunteers to make sure Summit is a great learning opportunity for all.

I also saw a new posting on SQLServerCentral.Com about learning SQL Server 2016. Try this Link - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQL+Server+2016/127518/.

The only session I attended was on learning how to price and scale an Azure SQL Server Data Warehouse. So, now I understand DWUs and pricing is 3 fold: DWUs, Storage and GEO DR. It can be expensive, but you get Massive Parallel Processing in the cloud and easier scaling up or down the usage.

The last 2 session time slots was spent co-presenting with Bill Anton on Performance Tuning Analysis Services. It was well attended but in a large room. There was about 2/3 of the people returning after the break for the 3 hour session. Bill did a great job getting people started with Profiler, PerfMon and some free tools and scripts. Lots of questions and even a Microsoft developer helping us answer questions. Thanks Microsoft.

Last stop of the day was dinner with some great guys from Atlanta at Rock Bottom. They went to a BIML party, I went to bed.

PASS Summit 2016-Thursday Part 1

Today’s keynote was by David Dewitt. He did an excellent job explaining the architecture behind various Cloud Data Warehouse offerings. It was nice to get an explanation of the behind the scenes node and disk usage.

  

One announcement that caught me off guard was next year’s Summit is Oct 31 thru Nov 3. That is Halloween and my kids come first on that day. Not sure that was a good idea. Better information shared was an increase in revenue of 10%, plus 100%+ increase in Global membership in some areas. There is a new logo and the updated website will be released early next year. Denise provided some slides on what the website will look like including mobile friendly.

Next, I am going to meet up with Bill and attend a session on Azure DW.

PASS Summit 2016-Wednesday

As all Summits, the first Regular Session day in Seattle started with the Keynote. Well, really it starts with a great breakfast at the Seattle Convention Center, but I digressed. Microsoft released information about new features for its Microsoft Data Platforms. The Keynote provided Customer specific examples of some of the newer features being used plus Program Managers demoing great examples of what is to come. For a summary, go to watch the PASStv Recap. A feature I am looking forward to seeing in action is Analysis Services in the cloud.

Congratulations to Malathi Mahadevan as PASS Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. She is a great representative of the PASS community and people love her service and passion.

The Summit is an amazing trip.Wednesday, I spent time with Bill Anton rehearsing a 3 hour Analysis Service Performance Tuning session for Thursday he has put together. His knowledge of this subject is top tier so I learned a lot. I spent time in the Speaker Ready talking and practicing for a session on Excel Tips & Tricks With SSAS Cubes. This session takes all the technical work we IT people put together in a Cube and start to have some fun with it. What amazed me was half the people in the session (there was at least 100 attendees) were Cube builders. They were in the session to find out how people use cubes in Excel to develop better cubes. That is a lot of people still building cubes.

Before the Vendor Reception, I spent time after the Excel session talking to an attendee. He was very unique to me because he was not an IT person, but hired as a Financial/Accounting analyst. He was using data feeds from their hosted applications in PowerBI. It was difficult to explain to him the difference between a Cube, the Tabular Model, PowerPivot AND the modeling in PowerBI. Dimensional Modeling might be to advanced for him, he just wanted basic table design hints.

He was also concerned that there were not enough beginner T-SQL and database design sessions available for him at the Summit, so I spent time with him going through all the remaining session that were a fit for him plus vendors he should visit. He has never heard of Pluralsite or other online training like from PragmaticWorks. We exchanged business cards and wished each other a pleasant week as we walked past the Community Zone and into the Vender Reception.

PASS Summit 2016–Tuesday

For the first day at the Summit this year, I spent half my time in a Pre-Conference session with Idera as an outgoing Idera Ace. The session include a 45 minute presentation for me on a Customer Use-Case. The second half of the day was spent in #SQLPASS Community sessions.

The Customer Use-Case included screen captures of real-world diagnosis using Idera products. Diagnosis Manager provided most of the screens. I was able to show the forecasting reports for data file and table usage/growth. We were able to show a large table that indexes were occupying lots of space and investigated the Index Usage through Glenn Berry scripts on a historical level. Removing some large include indexes help alleviate the table growth in storage size.

The other slides were about Alerts/EMails, User T-SQL History, BI Manager and Free Tools like SQL Check and SQL Fragmentation Analyzer.

The Community sessions were for #SQLSaturday and User Group/Virtual Chapters. The SQLSaturday session was a full house with many comments and questions. Money and Sponsorship was the hot topic. Growth is still being encouraged, but overall the session had a lot of good points with many thanks to such a great community event system. At the end, an emotional Karla talked about the end to her five reign as PASS Community leader for PASS. What a wonderful ending to the session!!! I won’t show any pictures of her crying (or Grant crying).

The User Group and Virtual Chapter session were a lot about speakers than money or sponsorship.

Truly amazed at the turn out and range of areas represented. I wonder how many User Groups use remote speakers and how often? Interesting discussion about getting a Microsoft TAM or related MS employee to help sponsor or host monthly meeting. You do not pay them but it helps them in their reviews/bonuses.

Ryan Adam announces new features in SQLPass hosted user group pages. There will be an option to send out event notifications for email, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Matchup and other social media at one place, not manually doing many. Cheers from the crowd!!!

The evening end with a bite to eat at Welcome Reception and visiting with new and old friends, too many to list.

VOTE!!! PASS Board of Director Elections

It is voting season again, and there is a great group of individuals running for the Board of Directors of PASS. You can go to the Elections Page of the SQLPass.org site and review all the information about the elections. Logging into the site will enable you to vote.

As part of the Nomination Committee this year, I got to be apart of the process to help PASS Connect, Share and Learn. Hearing the candidates talk about PASS and the future is very encouraging. Also, watching Headquarters (HQ) put everything together and keep the process rolling was something I never thought about before being on the NomCom. HQ does more than I ever imagined.

To find out more about the candidates, you can go to this page - http://www.sqlpass.org/Elections/Candidates.aspx. There is also still time to go look at the twitter chats that happened in the last 24 hours. Just search in twitter for #SQLPass hash tag. You can also send them question and I am sure they will find time to answer you.

Also, remember the PASS Summit is in less than 3 weeks and I am execited to share with others about NomCom and what I have learned about the PASS organization.