Ask the Expert - Group B (Thu 10:10 to 11:00)

Assessing and Optimize Enterprise SQL Server Environments

To equip DBAs with a comprehensive and enterprise-centric approach to optimizing SQL Server environments. This session aims to shift the focus from isolated server-specific optimizations to a broader, holistic strategy that maximizes overall system health, performance, and efficiency. Attendees will learn how to assess, prioritize, and implement optimization strategies at the enterprise level, understand key metrics that showcase the benefits of their actions, and effectively communicate and secure management buy-in for their recommendations.

Scaling SQL for your Peak Database Load

Scaling SQL Servers is complex and is more relevant today as the transactional and data growth rates continue to grow. In this session, we will talk about what it takes to scale SQL Server to meet the peak workload.

Better ETL with Managed Airflow in ADF

Building complex data workflows using Azure Data Factory can get a little clunky, especially as you orchestration needs get more complex. Recently another option become available, Managed Airflow in ADF. Managed Airflow brings Apace Airflow to Azure as a PaaS service. In this session we discover what Airflow is, why we might want to use it for ETL orchestration, and see how it works with lots of demos.

Introduction to Databricks Delta Live Tables

Delta Live Tables is a new framework available in Databricks that aims to accelerate building data pipelines by providing out of the box scheduling, dependency resolution, data validation and logging. We'll cover the basics, and then get into the demo's to show how we can: - Setup a notebook to hold our code and queries - Ingest quickly and easily into bronze tables using Auto Loader - Create views and tables on top of the ingested data using SQL and/or python to build our silver and gold layers - Create a pipeline to run the notebook - See how we can run the pipeline as either a batch job, or as a continuous job for low latency updates - Use APPLY CHANGES INTO to upsert changed data into a live table - Apply data validation rules to our live table definition queries, and get detailed logging info on how many records caused problems on each execution. By the end of the session you should have a good view of whether this can help you build our your next data project faster, and make it more reliable.

Slowly Changing Dimensions made Easy with Durable Keys

In this session we look at a simple way to implement Kimball durable keys on a SCD2 dimension. This provides an easy, performant, way to support reporting on data using historical and current hierarchies.

SQL Server Encryption for the Layman

With GDPR and the number of data breaches we see in the news, encrypting sensitive data is incredibly important. In this talk we start with the basics of encryption, moving on to look at the ways we can encrypt data in SQL Server and Azure SQL DB.

Navigating the Skies of Open AI: Perfect Your Grounding for a Smooth Landing

Explore the evolution of knowledge consumption with ChatGPT in this insightful session. We'll dive into the importance of "grounding" in Large Language Model (LLM) applications and introduce you to the emerging world of vector databases. While delving into OpenAI's technology, participants will gain an understanding of vector embeddings, scalability challenges, and efficient data retrieval methods. Designed for data scientists, engineers, and decision-makers, this Level 300 session offers a balanced overview for both technical and non-technical attendees.