SQL Data Partners Podcast
Hosted by Carlos L Chacon, the SQL Data Partners Podcast focuses on Microsoft data platform related topics mixed with a sprinkling of professional development. Carlos and guests discuss new and familiar features and ideas and how you might apply them in your environments. Visit our website for episode show notes at marathonus.com/podcast and leave a comment if you have a topic you think we should discuss.
Episodes
Thanks for the memories
Companeros, all good things must come to an end. While the details of what is next is uncertain, my time with the podcast is coming to an end. A quick thank you and a glimpse of what is next.
Episode 286: Data Governance and Security In Microsoft Fabric
In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, host Carlos L. Chacón is joined by Kevin Feasel and Eugene Meidinger for a deep dive into data governance and security within Microsoft Fabric. As part of Season 8's focus on Fabric, the trio explores how governance tools and practices are evolving with Microsoft's platform, including the use of domains, Purview integration, and the challenges that
Episode 285: Who Is Using Microsoft Fabric
Fabric personas were originally designed to break down the various functional roles within Microsoft Fabric—such as Power BI, Data Factory, Data Activator, Data Engineering, Data Science, Data Warehouse, and Real-time Analytics—into more manageable, bite-sized sections. The goal was to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed by the platform's breadth. However, this feature has since been discontinu
Episode 284: The Four-Letter Word ETL - Data Movement
Once you have your data stored in OneLake, you'll be ready to start transforming it to improve it's usability, accuracy, and efficiency. In this episode of the podcast, Belinda Allen takes us on a delightful journey through Data Flows, Power Query, Azure Data Factory (Pipelines), and discusses the merits of shortcuts. We also learn about a handy way to manually upload a table if you have some s
Episode 283: Data Lakehouse vs Data Warehouse vs My House
Microsoft Fabric offers two enterprise-scale, open-standard format workloads for data storage: Warehouse and Lakehouse. Which service should you choose? In this episode, we dive into the technical components of OneLake, along with some of the decisions you'll be asked to make as you start to build out your data infrastructure. These are two good articles we mention in the podcast that could help i
Episode 282: OneLake - A Deep Dive
In Episode 281, we introduced Microsoft OneLake with a high-level overview. Now we're going deeper with a discussion on the Parquet format, why Microsoft went with the Delta Lake variation, and what Delta Lake format brings to the table (no pun intended). We'll also examine some "behind the scenes" aspects of file management, and why you'll still be using the GUI to create most of your objects. On
Episode 281: OneLake - The OneDrive for Data
As you start using Fabric, having a central location for your data is crucial. OneLake acts as this unified destination, offering a single, consolidated repository for all your data. In this podcast episode, we explore the core features of OneLake and its benefits with our guest, Mariano Kovo, and discuss how it efficiently handles large amounts of data from diverse sources. We'll also dive into t
Episode 280: A Focus on Microsoft Fabric
At the Microsoft Build Conference in May 2023, Microsoft announced the new Fabric, where you could slice and dice all your data harmoniously within the environment. A few months later, Kevin, Eugene, and I discussed this evolution of the Azure Data platform in episode 267, and our thoughts on the vision for it's future, our expectations, and predictions. Now, more than a year later, we decided it'
Episode 279: SQL Server Migrations Demystified
If you use SQL Server, you will eventually have to migrate that instance somewhere – to a new version, a new server, the cloud . . . somewhere. Or perhaps you'll find yourself migrating from another database into SQL Server. No matter which way you slice it, SQL Server migrations can be daunting, not to mention complex and time-consuming. While we know there are risks and many things that can go w
Episode 278: Running SQL Server on Azure VMs
Can you run SQL Server on Azure VM? Which VM is best? Is running SQL Server on a VM in Azure the right choice? Find out in this insightful episode with Anders Pedersen! With over 10 different SQL Server services now offered in Microsoft Azure, it can be difficult to know how you want to run your environment. Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways for an organization, and running SQL Server on a
Episode 277: PostgreSQL for the SQL Server Crowd
Is testing out pgAdmin on your to-do list? In this episode of the podcast, we chat with Ryan Booz, a PostgreSQL advocate at Redgate, about how a SQL Server professional might begin a dive into PostgreSQL, one of the most popular open source databases in the world. Ryan came from a career background in SQL Server, but after experiencing his accidental "jump-into-the-deep-end" PostgreSQL moment, he
Episode 276: Dynamic SQL and Testing in Isolation
Listener beware! This episode is full of danger as we tackle an interesting use case for Dynamic SQL. Dynamic SQL generally has a bad reputation in SQL Server circles, and with good reason. Dynamic SQL can open the door to many undesirable results - SQL Injection attacks being the most frightening of these. It can also be difficult to read, making maintenance problematic; however, in this episode
Episode 275: Machine Learning and Power BI
What kinds of problems are organizations solving with Machine Learning? In this episode, we explore a situation where a public works department was looking for more accurate information to predict future water levels based on rainfall to maintain water tank storage for balancing pressure and to prevent overflow flooding. Marathon data solutions consultants Brian Knox and Andy Yao, built a custom m
Episode 274: A CMM Case Study
After discussing the Capabilities Maturity Model in our last episode, it was fate when Andy Levy reached out and suggested a topic which sounds like a case study about his experience with CMM. As the only data professional in his organization at the time of his hiring, Andy went from fixing problems to slowing increasing his role in the organization and participating in the planning meetings—being
Episode 273: The Capability Maturity Model for Data Professionals
Have you ever felt stuck in a rut, repeating the same tasks, while knowing there is room for improvement? The Capability Maturity Model may be a way for you to start contributing to those improvements. In this podcast episode, Kevin Kline from SolarWinds walks us through how we might go from simply dealing with issues as they come, to being a contributor in decisions about the future of our organi
Episode 272: Performance Tuning Scripts
Do you find yourself repeating the same actions when pulling SQL Server performance metrics? Performance tuning a troublesome SQL Server can be a challenge. Luckily the community continues to produce wonderful folks like Erik Darling who contribute their knowledge to make your life a bit easier. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners podcast, we sit down with Erik and discuss the scripts he bui
Episode 271: Pass Summit 2023 Wrap-Up
This past November, Eugene and I attended the 2023 PASS Data Community Summit (aka PASS Summit) in Seattle, while Kevin headed down to Orlando for the Microsoft Live! 360 event in Orlando. Having no remote option this year was fine for us, as it was great to reconnect with our friends and colleagues in the data community, as well as get updates live and in-person from Microsoft on all the new feat
Episode 270: Medallion Architecture
Moving up the ranks in the holy technology wars is the medallion architecture, and boy are we interested in getting your thoughts. Not since the 2008 Olympics and Michael Phelps' tenth of a second win over Milorad Cavic has there been so much controversy around bronze, silver, and gold. This episode of the podcast has a genesis with Databricks and the methodology of getting data into a workable fo
Episode 269: Why Do I Need a Managed Service Provider?
In this Episode, Carlos talks about managed services and shares some of the benefits of working with an MSP, as well as potential cons. The term manage services refers to the practice of outsourcing business administration or management responsibilities to the third party. Why would you ever want to outsource these pieces? Listen in to learn more and see if hiring an MSP would be a good decision
Episode 268: AI and the Future of the Database
We love hearing from our listeners!!! In this episode, a long-time listener asked about the future of AI in the data platform space. We thought this was a very interesting topic as Microsoft has been including Artificial Intelligence or AI in more and more of its marketing material. In this episode we'll dive into the definition of AI, what features are currently available, how we can leverage tho
Episode 267: Microsoft Fabric
All your data, all your teams—in one place. What am I? If you said Microsoft Fabric, you win! When I interned with Cisco Systems in 2000, I supported a platform called Unified Messaging. At that time, we were talking about getting your email, voice mail, and faxes all in one place. My, how the times have changed. To a certain extent, the Microsoft Fabric is an extension, or wrapper, of some of the
Episode 266: Working with Containers
We're kicking off Season 7 with containers! Spinning up a VM may not be such a big deal anymore; however, most of us still have to request from another group one and wait. Even waiting on an Azure VM can be somewhat painful. Wouldn't it be nice to forget about setting up another development environment just to test something that isn't going to stick around? Our guest today is Chuck Bryan, and he
Episode 265: WHY and What's Next
Compañeros! In May, SQL Data Partners was acquired by Marathon Consulting. There were many moving parts to get this done and we are excited to finally bring this news to the podcast. In this episode we introduce the principles of Marathon Consulting, and we discuss the future of the podcast. Make sure your speakers are adjusted properly when you listen to this episode. If you have any questio
Episode 264: Verified Backups
A backup is only helpful when you can restore the backup. This should not prove to be overly shocking; however, normally we get the satisfaction of taking a backup and feel like all is well. Ideally, we should be testing our backups on some cadence—and it should be more frequent than the annual disaster recovery test. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast we talk with Chris Marshall, o
Episode 263: SQL Server This 'n That
When we couldn't confirm a guest speaker by recording time, Eugene, Kevin, Amanda, and I decided the show must go on, so we went into the ideas vault and pulled out a couple of listener questions we hadn't answered. In this episode, we talk about how to create your own documentation, SSMS installs, SOS_Scheduler_Yield and Eugene gives us an update on SQL Bits and the conference crud he picked up
Episode 262: Learning Azure Synapse Pt 1
Learning new technology can be difficult—especially when it's a technology in an area you are not familiar with. In this episode, Eugene walks us through some of the challenges he has faced getting started with Azure Synapse. We hope that this episode might be helpful to those trying to learn new features. The show notes and video for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2
Episode 261: The Data Lakehouse
It would appear Microsoft has run out of words to use for new features/products, so they are just going to recycle existing words for a bit of fun at our expense. In this episode we explore the Azure Data Lakehouse—which is not a data lake, nor a traditional data warehouse and Books Online (BOL) refers to it as Databricks Lakehouse. Luke Moloney walks us through how combining the flexibility of
Episode 260: Contained Availability Groups
We're back with another SQL Server 2022 feature—Contained Availability Groups. Have you ever failed over to a secondary node and then found a job or login missing? This new Enterprise-only feature aims to solve this problem by 'containing' all the objects—master, msdb, AND the availability database all in one group so you can manage everything you need when you have to fail over. Brandon Leach
Episode 259: T-SQL Snapshot Backups
We kick off the new year discussing a new feature in SQL Server 2022 called Transact-SQL snapshot backups. Good luck with the Google search on this feature--we know we had fun. 😊 These are not the snapshot backups you were frustrated with in 2005. We talk a little bit about who will be interested in this feature and what scenarios it will come in handy. The hardware vendors seem particularly excit
Episode 258: Leave 2022 Enter 2023
As we close out the year, we take a look back and think about all those SQL Server 2022 episodes we didn't record this year—and then make the goal to increase this count in the new year. 😊 We discuss some of the Cardinality Estimation changes in this version and the scenarios in which this may affect other features. I ask Kevin and Eugene what technologies they will be focusing on in the year ahea
Episode 257: The Business of Working for Yourself
Have you ever thought about working for yourself? It can be very enticing for some, and in this episode, we talk with John Sterrett about the pros and cons of running your own organization. We tackle some of the reasons you might get started and we share some of our experiences of working in our own organizations. Each person's journey is going to be different and as hard as it will be, you need t
Episode 256: The Community Episode
Seven years ago, I started the SQL Data Partners Podcast. We have now arrived at Episode 256, and we dedicate this episode to you, the community. Thanks to everyone who has joined us along the way, and we hope to continue providing content you can enjoy on the go while still connecting with your SQL Server community. While we originally thought we might focus on SQL Server 2022, we really found th
Episode 255: Automate Complex CRUD with sp_CRUDGen
One of the biggest challenges with developers using object-relational mapping (ORM) tools is the bad queries or procedures they create. Sure, most tools can create CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete, Upsert) procedures, but what about the extremely advanced safe dynamic Search stored procedures? My bet is they are super inefficient and could be improved. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Po
Episode 254: Code Smell Checks with sp_Develop
Would you be interested in a tool to help you do code review checks and provide developers guidance on best practices? In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we talk with Kevin Martin, the creator of sp_Develop, about how his procedure can help you review naming conventions, table conventions, data type conventions, SQL code conventions, data issues, and even configuration issues. Kevin
Episode 253: Go Mobile with Power Apps
In this episode, we dive into the Power Apps offering and discuss the pros and cons of using this latest Microsoft offering. Some definitions are given and hopefully this episode can orient folks on how to position Power Apps in their organizations. The show notes and video for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2022/09/07/episode-253-go-mobile-with-power-apps. Have fun on
Episode 252: The Cumulative Update Dilemma
Knowing your SQL Server is patched when an issue occurs is worth the effort of keeping it patched. While I don't suggest a zero-day install for most folks, setting up a regular cadence to check is a reasonable ask if you have to manage a system. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we discuss the need for patching and how you might go about it. Special shoutout to Episode 112 with the
Episode 251: Azure Cognitive Services
How can you begin to integrate AI models into your environment without spending months building everything out? As we continue our march to Episode 256, we bring back our friend Sam Nasr to talk about Azure Cognitive Services. Sam walks us through a few examples of how he was able to leverage some pre-packaged voice recognition services to assist customers get to the proper area for service. We di
Episode 250: What happens before... "COMPANEROS!"
This episode we are doing a bit of a look back and are going to air some previously buried content. Some of the bloopers are pre-video and some of them have some physical comedy, which you'll have to go to YouTube to see. While a few were cut out of the published episodes, they are mostly things you've never heard. The show notes and video for this episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.
Episode 249: Data Marts in Power BI
Data marts in Power BI have arrived and the words "data mart" mean something to data professionals. In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we introduce the latest offering in Power BI and discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly for teams looking to arrive at self-service business intelligence. The show notes and video for this episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2022/07
Episode 248: Inventory Documentation
How do you keep records of your SQL Server environments? Patching levels, security accounts, configuration options, maintenance jobs and the like are some of the pieces we have to keep organized. Are you using something besides Excel to keep up with this? Sure, we can use the Content Management Server (CMS) to query across several instances, but we still need to organize this information somewh
Episode 247: Pushing the Boundaries or Pushing Your Luck
IT workers will generally claim they like learning new technology—it is almost a required attribute. Why then is bringing in new technology so hard? In this episode, we explore how new technologies make their way into organizations and how we might either embrace them or how this becomes a major challenge. There are so many new technologies now, it is very difficult to keep up with. I would lo
Episode 246: Microsoft Build 2022 Announcements
While we continue to review the new features of the CTP preview of SQL Server 2022, we turn our attention to the recent Microsoft Build conference and talk about some of the announcements made. We try to separate the interesting technology from the marketing fluff and what pieces might trickle into the data platform space. Defining your requirements has never been more important as the number of
Episode 245: Tooling Updates
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) version 18 was introduced to support SQL Server 2019 and in this episode of the podcast, we discuss some of the new updates available in SSMS and Azure Data Studio. We talk about scenarios where we use these tools and give some feedback on the new Azure services they support. The show notes and video for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.c
Episode 244: Extended Events vs SQL Server Audit
Who made that change? It is one of those questions that can send chills down the spine of those responsible for databases. In this episode, Josephine Bush talks with us about how we can use a combination of the native tools—auditing and extended events along with some custom reporting to be prepared for questions about change when more environments are subject to regulation. What is great about
Episode 243: Choosing What Content To Focus On
Conferences are on the uptick as COVID restrictions lift and we are excited for the upcoming year. After Eugene's return from SQLBits my thoughts revolved around what I wanted to learn this year at conferences and how you and I can go about picking the content we want to know more this year. Join us for a quick discussion on deciding what to learn as conference season picks up. The show notes and
Episode 242: Upgrading Your SQL Server
SQL Server 2012 is end of life later this year. I feel too young for this to be happening—it seems like only last year SQL Server 2005 came out. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about upgrading your SQL Server. We share some concepts, gotchas, war stories, situations we want to avoid, how to access license keys in Azure, and a few other migration nuggets we've learned along the way. The
Episode 241: Replicating Data with Azure SQL Data Sync
Do you find you need to keep SQL Server tables in sync across multiple systems? After several projects involving syncing data, we return to the topic of Azure SQL Data Sync with some real world examples of why we choose this option and how it worked for us. While there are some limitations, the feature is very stable, and we have had minimal, minor issues with it. Ideal for environments where l
Episode 240: Azure Synapse Link
Azure Synapse Link is a feature coming to SQL Server in the next release. While there are few details on what the new feature will look like, we discuss how this same service is implemented in other Azure services. The show notes and video for this episode can found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2022/01/05/episode-240-azure-synapse-link. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 239: Bi-directional HA/DR to Azure SQL
SQL Server 2022 has been announced and we are excited to start unpacking the new features. For this episode, we start with a very interesting feature--Bi-directional HA/DR to Azure SQL. We have the ability to failover to the cloud now—the trick is, getting back is not as simple. Now, the on-premises version will be compatible with Azure SQL Managed Instance, and this will give move options for DR—
Episode 238: Getting Started with Power BI - Part 2
Part 2 Power BI has been described as a "self-service" BI platform. While that may bring to mind an image of easy-peasy, plug-and-play, there are a few things most organizations will want to address before turning users loose with Power BI. In this conversation, Brandon Michals helps us take a look at three areas of consideration: your company, your people, and your data. Spending the time to thin
Episode 237: Getting Started with Power BI - Part 1
Part 1 Power BI has been described as a "self-service" BI platform. While that may bring to mind an image of easy-peasy, plug-and-play, there are a few things most organizations will want to address before turning users loose with Power BI. In this conversation, Brandon Michals helps us take a look at three areas of consideration: your company, your people, and your data. Spending the time to thin
Episode 236: Database Monitoring with SQL Sentry
Building your own scripts to monitor SQL Server seems like a very reasonable thing to do. We're smart folks and SQL Server is what we do for a living—we should be able to figure this out. Upon further inspection, we found it was easier for us to focus on what we do—database administration, and let the developers focus on what they do—build software. This episode explores our choice of SolarWinds S
Episode 235: SQL Trail 2021 In-person Q&A
Live Podcast! We decided it was time to try and get together in person and reconnect. As we did, we pulled out the microphone and started recording. As a result, we break the single topic mode this week and opened it up for a Q&A session. We touch on database monitoring, memory grants, what we miss about being in an office, and even SharePoint (Gasp!). The show notes for this episode can be found
Episode 234: Communication Tips for the IT Pro
As a data pro, you are negotiating and problem-solving all the time, often without knowing it. Your success as a professional as your company evolves its Data Platform depends on how well you can communicate and influence. It's a scary thought, but your ability to negotiate with the business directly often determines if your projects get funded. Those skills are arguably as important as your T-SQL
Episode 233: ScriptDOM
Never heard of ScriptDOM? Neither had we…okay, except Kevin, who obviously knows all. Apparently, the documentation is scarce. Mala Mahadevan uses it, loves it, and graciously offered to come back to the podcast to educate us and our listeners on a product that can help us parse, process and format our SQL queries. The show notes and video can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/09/15/epi
Episode 232: Giving Technical Presentations
Public speaking is not fun for most; however, it can be very rewarding. Chris Seferlis chats with us about a few tips he has on being a speaker. Most of the tactical advice we defer to a toastmasters or public speaking group, so we give some thoughts on preparation, soliciting feedback, audience engagement, and handling criticism. I should point out that public speaking is WAY different from recor
Episode 231: Mental Health and Wellness in IT
Everyone has bad days; however, how those bad days develop are unique to each of us. In a special episode, we chat with Tracy Boggiano about her experiences with Mental Health, how she has dealt with it, how each of us can work on our own mental health, and phrases we should avoid saying to those with mental health issues. Our own Eugene Meidinger shares a story on negative thinking and how damagi
Episode 230: RTO & RPO
No one wants to lose data when disaster strikes; however, we need to plan for some data loss and putting all the pieces in place can be tricky. There are two metrics commonly used to measure data loss and availability when it comes to planning for disasters—Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective. In this episode, we touch on how you might come up with these metrics, how to consider t
Episode 229: Data Migration Assistant
The scary part of upgrading SQL Server is finding out you have a problem AFTER the fact. In this episode, Mariano Kovo joins us to discuss the Data Migration Assistant tool from Microsoft. While the name can be a bit misleading, (What? Microsoft have confusing names—that's a first), the major benefit to the tool is the assessment feature to alert you of potential issues when you upgrade. Issues ar
Episode 228: Predicting Application Problems with Database Metrics
As data practitioners, we want to get ahead of any problems that might come up and share those insights with others on our team. In this episode, Edward Pollack gives us a few scenarios we might consider as we attempt to prevent application issues. These techniques also go into the security space and could help prevent data loss. As we collect this information and make it available to others, we c
Episode 227: SSDT Methodologies for DB DevOps
Organizations look to constantly improve and offer better services and the application tooling has been built to accommodate the process. Database tooling has been a bit slower to develop; however, in this episode Eitan Blumin, a co-host at sqlserverradio.com, brings us up to speed on the latest features of SQL Server Data Tools with some thoughts on how to get started with continual deployment or
Episode 226: SQL Server IaaS Agent Extension
Let's say you have completed a lift and shift VM hosting to the cloud. Great—you now use Iaas services. While you don't have to worry about the hardware, managing the software can be problematic. The SQL Server IaaS Agent Extension can offer some PaaS-like services and make it easier to manage the database environment. In this episode we chat with Ameena Lalani from Microsoft about this featur
Episode 225: Dashboard Design Principles
Have you ever created a report in a visualization tool, spent all this time and energy creating something that looked really cool, went through more edits than you could remember only to deliver the report and have the recipient go "What am I looking at?" I don't think I am the only one and, in this episode, we explore some of the rookie mistakes IT pros make when creating visualizations. The show
Episode 224: The Standup Meeting
Carlos, Kevin, and Eugene reconnect after some time away with a new streaming time. Long form conversation on a single topic is also the place we want to get back to in our podcast. The show notes and video for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/04/28/episode-224-the-standup-meeting/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 223: Podcast Update
With both Kevin and Eugene busy this week, Carlos went solo to share a few changes to the podcast, including the Twitch livestream moving to Tuesday, how you can support the podcast, and podcast episodes going back to being published every other Wednesday. If you have a subject that you'd like to chat about on the podcast with us, we'd love to schedule a time with you…go to sqldatapartners.com/pod
Episode 222: Azure Arc-enabled Data Services
Azure Arc-enabled data services provide powerful capabilities to deploy and manage local, on-premises, and hybrid cloud data resources using the same centralized management and tooling you get from the Azure cloud. Since Eugene suggested our previous attempt at Azure Arc was insufficient, we invited Ben Weissman and Anthony Nocentino, authors of the book Azure Arc-Enabled Data Services Revealed, t
Episode 221: SQL Trail March 2021 Retrospective
Virtual conferences are just not the same as the conferences we are used to, but we're still determined to provide a good learning and networking environment for our friends. We very much miss having conferences in person and look forward to that happening again. In the meantime, we have discovered Airmeet and we had a great event: our first of the year. We are doing another data platform confere
Episode 220: Microsoft Ignite Recap
As we prepare for SQL Trail on March 18th, we peek back at Microsoft Ignite and review the announcements made there—filtering out the pieces our compañeros will enjoy hearing about. Did we miss something you think we should talk about? Let us know! The show notes and video for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/03/10/episode-220-microsoft-ignite-recap. Have fun on th
Episode 219: SQL Server Inventory
How do you document your SQL Server environments? I can remember walking through Brent Ozar's takeover script back in the day and how cumbersome it was to put all that information together. We have a few more options available to us now. In this episode, we discuss a listener question along with some options for doing server inventories. SQL Trail is coming on March 18th. Will we see you there? Th
Episode 218: File Growths
In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, Eugene and I go back to our DBA beginnings and talk about database file growth, how to manage files and how to tell when a file has grown. The show notes for today's episode (including the video with the demonstration) can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/02/17/episode-218-file-growths. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 217: A Little Something About A Few Things
The story begins with a process that has been running forever and suddenly decides to cause grief by filling up tempdb. We talk about patching, and we talk about mental health. We talk a little about various topics. The show notes for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/02/10/episode-217-a-little-something-about-a-few-things. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 216: EDI vs ETL
When working on a customer on an import process, she made the comment—if we were doing true EDI, we'd [Do X]. The comment got me thinking—Aren't we working on an EDI process? As someone who frequently has multiple roles on projects, I perhaps had lumped all the various 3 letter acronyms into the same spaghetti salad. In this episode of the podcast, Eugene and I chat about the differences—and how
Episode 215: Azure Data Factory
We have been moving data for years with technologies like DTS and SSIS; however, these were very much designed for on-premises moves in mind. As more cloud services were being offered Microsoft needed a service to help customers using those services move data around. Azure Data Factory was born with the initial premise of moving data between cloud services; however, it has added the ability to con
Episode 213: New Goals for 2021
We open this year with a few updates on the podcast, a change to SQL Trail, and we invite you to give us some feedback on writing a book for 2021. The show notes for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2021/01/13/episode-213-new-goals-for-2021/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 212: 10 Things You Need to Know About Data Security
20 years ago, the objection to implementing security on the basis of performance had validity—especially for smaller organizations. Security was a pain in the neck; however, how many of us are still hanging on to some of those old biases. Even worse, some of us IT pros seem to put up objections to doing the most basic security procedures—sending usernames and passwords in unencrypted emails for ex
Episode 211: Solorigate
Microsoft released a lengthy white paper on the SolarWinds hack affecting thousands of computers. This is scary stuff, and the details continue to come out slowly and you wonder how it all will play out. Many IT pros rely on SolarWinds for monitoring and in this episode, we discuss the exploit, how mere mortals like us might feel a bit overwhelmed at the prospect, and what our due diligence is in
Episode 210: The Elephant in the Room
It was sad news to hear PASS plans to dissolve in January of 2021. So much good has come of the community and it is sad to see it go. In this episode, we explore the why behind the collapse and what we think may emerge in the aftermath. The show notes for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2020/12/18/episode-210-the-elephant-in-the-room/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!
Episode 209: Career Ready: Advice to New Graduates
Finding your first full time job is incredibly difficult—and that was before we were in a worldwide pandemic. In this episode, we discuss some strategies and share some experiences about how we got our first jobs and hopefully give you some inspiration as you try to find your first experience. The show notes for today's episode can be found at https://sqldatapartners.com/2020/12/14/episode-209-car
Episode 208: SQL Server and Graph Data
There is a growing list of formats to store data and Graph is one of the newer trends. It is becoming so popular SQL Server has created ways to implement graph structures. Mala Mahadevan joins us in this episode, and we revisit some of the origins of Graph, what it is good at, and why you may not want to rush to move all your data to Graph storage. The show notes for today's episode can be found a
Episode 207: SQL Trail 2020 Retrospective
SQL Trail 2020 was a success! There was a time I was unconvinced this would be the case. This is not to say we didn't have issues; however, talking with others helped us avoid some common pitfalls and make our event unique. Although we were virtual, I sent all the attendees a conference t-shirt, some swag, and cookies! I wanted everyone to feel some excitement and a connection that I was not sure
