Episode 36: SQL Server Virtual Machines in Azure

For only 10 bucks a month you can start visualizing your data and finally get the dashboard your executives have been waiting for!! What's that? You need to refresh the data--perhaps even multiple times a day? Oh, well it's still $10 a month, but you are also going to install a gateway. What's that you say? Well, in this episode we begin our discussion on Power BI with one of the first components you will need outside of the Power BI Desktop for your users to start interacting with updated data. We discuss what it is, some of the requirements, and our experiences setting one up. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/01/23/episode-158-gateways. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

24 Jan 201935min

I can still remember working in high school when you had to 'dial in' to the internet and Microsoft bought the rights to the Rolling Stones song 'Start Me Up' for the release of their highly anticipated software Windows 95. It was a complete game changer for me and shaped my professional life with the releases of the Windows Server Operating System. While you could never just wing it, the GUI provided a rich interface and the ability to explore features without having to know all the syntax to execute the functionality. You can image the surprise I felt when Microsoft came out with Windows Core--an operating system with no GUI. While you may not have adopted Windows Core yet, our guest, Frank Henninger, suggests you should reconsider. We chat with him about the benefits, some of the challenges, and how we can better take advantage of using Windows Core. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/01/10/episode-157-windows-server-core. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

10 Jan 201933min

How well do you connect with others? We generally think pretty good of ourselves and at first glance you may give yourself a pretty high score.  While there is no test you can take to compare your results to mine, the way you connect with others can have a profound influence in the workplace and we are each judged by the people we come in contact with.  Our guest in this episode, Linda Groszyk, talks with us about some of the ways social intelligence can impact us, how we can get better at it and who we can reach out to if we need help. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2019/01/02/episode-156-social-intelligence. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

2 Jan 201946min

Do you want to be a data scientist? Do you even know what data science is? In this episode, we tackle the idea of being a data scientist and discuss the criteria and what it may take to get the job description of data scientist. So not everyone feels out in the cold, our guest Brad Llewellyn, talks about how this field has developed out of data analysis and how we may have much more in common than differences between us. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/12/12/episode-155-data-science/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

13 Dec 201840min

Who hasn't had a deployment go a bit sideways?  For all the talk of DevOps these days, the ability to push out code can still be challenging.  When I heard David Moore, our guest today, talk about the increased confidence they have in pushing out database changes in very short cycles, I was interested.  While we have talked about tSQLt in the past, David's experience of trying to implement test driven development and the results they experienced are worth considering.  While the results can be impressive, the cultural shift required to introduce and use the framework is also a point of discussion in this episode.  I also asked David why the examples we see are so simple that it almost seems pointless to get started. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/11/28/episode-154-test-driven-development. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

21 Nov 201841min

Year Two of our beautiful idea--gather together with a group of podcast listeners in a conference type format and find ways for us to connect and help each other grow.  I am influenced by what I see in other events; however, I want to add my own flavor to what is currently offered.  I want SQL Trail to be different--learning should be attendee-driven rather than event planned.  The focus should be on the networking--the hallway track.  Everyone should make a new friend.  In this episode of the podcast, we have our SQL Trail retrospective and give some thoughts on what next year might entail. We try to give our honest feedback about what we did well, what could have been improved, and what the attendees reported.  I can’t say enough about the help I got from our speakers–Jonathan Stewart, Kevin Feasel, Angela Henry, Monica Rathbun, Megan Longoria and Melissa Coates.  They were awesome and the event was much simpler because of them and their commitment.  They are truly my compañeros on the SQL Trail. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/11/07/episode-153-sql-trail-2018-retrospective. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

7 Nov 201820min

Those trained in SSAS may cringe a bit, but a curious thought entered my mind.  Many organizations start using data warehouse structure with fact and dimension tables, but never make it to the 'cube' state--actually using analysis services.  Admittedly, I don't use SSAS and the occasional reprocessing of a cube or dimension is about my only experience.  When Trey Johnson, our guest for this episode, wanted to chat about SSAS, I thought this would be interesting to get his perspective on using SSAS, the future of the service, and how PowerBI just might make it much more accessible. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/11/1/episode-152-do-you-use-analysis-services. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

1 Nov 201844min

Platform as a service has finally arrived to Microsoft's Azure offering.  With the release of Azure SQL Database Managed Instances--quite the mouthful--there is now an option to explore database services without missing all the functionality we didn't have with Azure SQL Database.  We are joined by Javier Villegas to discuss his experiences with Managed Instances and why we think this will be one service more organizations will want to start adopting. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/10/24/episode-151-azure-sql-database-managed-instance. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

24 Okt 201838min