Gianluca Sartori

Gianluca Sartori is a Data Platform MVP, independent consultant and performance tuning specialist. He has been working in the software industry since 1999 and has been working with SQL Server ever since. He also works as a SQL Server trainer and in his spare time he writes technical articles and participates the SQL Server forums. Gianluca enjoys presenting SQL Server topics at conferences in Europe and US. He is currently working as lead DBA at a famous Formula 1 team.

Proposed Sessions for 2026

Babelfish: The SQL Server Killer?

Babelfish for PostgreSQL promises a SQL Server drop-in replacement. We install it and run a SQL Server app on Postgres, ready to cut licensing costs. Can this bold claim reshape SQL Server’s future?

Questioning My SQL Server Faith… So You Don’t Have To

With PostgreSQL rising and even SQL Server veterans backing alternatives, is SQL Server still the right choice? This session revisits its strengths—performance, scale, tooling—and compares them to open source to guide your next project.

Previous Sessions

Time Series with SQL Server 2022

SQL Server 2022 introduces new time series capabilities, that will allow us to to work with time series data in the same database that we use for all the rest of the data. Join me to see what SQL Server 2022 brings to the table for time series data, how to use the new features and what are the opportunities and the limitations.

3 things you don’t want to store in a database (but sometimes have to)

Some types of data are a very bad fit for a database. Join me to see how to survive with a database full of data that should not be stored there. I will demonstrate how to deal with billions of rows of logs without trashing the database, how to store millions of pictures effectively and how to deal with dynamic attributes in a sensible way.

Using WorkloadTools to analyze your workload

In this session I will show you how to use WorkloadTools to connect to a SQL Server database, on-premises or in the cloud, and analyze all the queries that are run against it.

Baking Extended Events recipes without breaking a sweat

In this demo intensive session I will show you how to tackle the most challenging tasks with Extended Events without writing a single line of code.

Benchmarking in the Cloud

Join me in this session and learn how to capture a production workload, replay it to your cloud database and compare the performance. I will introduce you to the methodology and the tools to bring your database to the cloud without breaking a sweat.

SQL Server Infernals - A Beginner’s Guide to Worst Practices

When you're in a rush, following best practices is a luxury you may not be able to afford. What about just avoiding worst practices instead? Join me for this session and learn from my mistakes!

Simplifying XEvents Management with dbatools

Bye #TeamProfiler and hi #TeamXEvents with the power of dbatools