Thomas Grohser

Thomas Grohser has spent most of the past 26+ years exploring the deeper inner workings of SQL Server and its features while working for entertainment, pharmaceutical, and financial services industries. His primary focus is to architect, plan, build, and operate reliable, highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructures for SQL Server. Over the years he has managed thousands of SQL Server instances, processing trillions of rows, taking up petabytes of storage. Thomas has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP for 10 years and has spoken regularly at conferences, SQL Saturdays, and user groups for 13 years.

Sessions for 2026

42 TSQL Functions

Demoing 42 TSQL functions that will make your DBA and/or developer life easier. This session is 99% demo and sharing code.

Backup and Restore / Yes it's still the most important thing

The ability to perform backups and restores is the most important task a DBA has to perform. Learn how to do an excellent job and ensure that the data you are responsible for can be recovered.

Backup and Restore / Yes it's still the most important thing Part 2

This Session discusses the available backup and restore options for SQL Server and how to use them.

Managing SQL Server Error Log

Often the only place left with information when an instance does not start, patching failed or the system crashed. Join this talk to learn how to configure the SQL Server error log so it will have the information you are looking for and how to pull it out both from SQL Server and the OS.

Scaling Clustered Column Store Indexes

Clustered Column Store Indexes are a great tool when used correctly. This session will explain on how to plan, configure, and operate Clustered Columstore indexes to handle millions, billions and trillions of rows.

Shaving off Micros Seconds

Do you want to learn how to make an already perfectly tuned transaction go even faster, this is the right session for you.

SQL Server Licensing 101

With a near infinite options to license SQL Server this session will show how to pick the right one for your environment and use case. Including how to license high availability and non-production environments.