Des FitzGerald

Planning to migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL and not sure where to start? Join this Ask Me Anything session with Microsoft SQL experts for open, candid discussion and direct answers to your migration questions. This interactive panel creates space to discuss real-world migration projects, operational challenges, and product feedback, including unfiltered input shared directly with the people shaping the platform. The session also helps you understand the major pillars of Microsoft’s investment in Azure SQL, so you can provide feedback and make more informed decisions aligned with your migration needs. Whether you are just starting your migration or modernizing a complex SQL estate, this session is designed to deliver practical, actionable guidance tailored to your scenarios

The first part of this two-part session will deliver an in-depth introduction to Azure SQL as it relates to broader real-world modernization scenarios. We will start with a concise overview of Azure SQL, underscoring various Azure SQL service features and the rationale behind customers' selection of specific Microsoft SQL services for their workloads. Attendees will also acquire valuable perspectives regarding the factors that drive organizations to transition to Azure, including considerations of cost and performance. The first part of our session will finish with an overview of migration tools, including practical demonstrations, emphasizing how to identify the optimal solution for database migrations. The second part of the session, after a brief break, will cover individual customer case studies, illustrating how various workloads were efficiently modernized and migrated to Azure SQL.

This session covers optimizing performance from a Service and Database perspective for Azure SQL

This session covers how to optimize performance on Azure SQL from a Service and Database point of view.

Following on from the first part of this session and the initial overview of Azure SQL’s features and migration tools, this second part of our session dives into real customer modernization projects in greater detail. We’ll explore how various organizations successfully migrated critical workloads to Azure SQL, including the motivations that drove their decisions and the practical steps they took to ensure a smooth transition to Azure. By examining these concrete real-world examples, you’ll discover the tangible benefits these organizations are now experiencing, such as improved performance, scalability, and cost efficiency. Additionally, you’ll gain actionable insights and best practices that can help guide your own cloud modernization efforts, making your journey to Azure SQL both effective and rewarding.