Sql Data Partners Podcast

I found myself in Columbus Ohio at the SQLSaturday event and thought I'd do a live panel discussion about our Favorite SQL Server 2016 Features--what we are most excited about.   We also discuss the "Microsoft paradigm shift" and how the hybrid model is likely to stick around for a long time.  Oh, and Scott Klein from Channel 9 shows up and gives us his two cents.  You just never know what is going to come out of the wood work.

SQL Server reporting services hasn't changed in what seems like 10 years.  The rest of the reporting environment at Microsoft has seen some MEGA changes and it seems like we could use a few updates to the environment.  Our guest this episode is Jessica Moss, a data architect and Microsoft MVP.  She gets us up to speed on what we can expect in the new version and how this ties into the other changes Microsoft is making.  The show notes for today's show can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/jessica and we'll see you on the SQL trail.

What is the leadership of your company thinking about the future of data and the role you will play?  To help give some insight into that question we have and executive pane on episode 54.  Andrew Rose is the CEO of compare.com and Jim McCullen is the VP of IT for Century Distribution. We ask them about what they're looking for in IT staff, how they go about hiring, what they think of social media, and moving to the cloud.  They give their thoughts on what makes a great member of the team and so I hope you will give today's episode a listen. You can check out more about them and get the show notes for today's episodes at http://sqldatapartners.com/executive.

In Episode 53 Steve Stedman and I chat with THE Argenis Fernandez, storage guru and PASS Director-at-Large about what else? Storage.  Steve and I learn something new from Argenis every time we talk to him and this time is no exception. We are talking  LUNs, IOPs, and why he thinks we all need to approach storage a lot differently.   Check out the show notes at http://sqldatapartners.com/argenis

Since Microsoft purchases the R language they have been baking it into their products and SQL Server is on the list.  SQL Server 2016 now has support for R and I know I have had people approach me about this and I thought it might be interesting to get Ginger Grant on the show and talk about the implications and what we poor database administrators need to do to get ready or at least be armed with questions when approached about the subject. Are you using R? What is your experience like?  Let us know on our show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/r

I am always amazed at how people can use technology to solve different problems and in today's episode, my friend Jana shares with us a problem he solved with PowerShell.  The setup of this is different from previous episodes and I am interested to know if you like this format.  While we do talk about some uses of PowerShell, the interesting part is how Jana learned PowerShell, got comfortable with it, and then used it to solve a difficult problem.  Steve and I also share some thoughts about when, if ever, you should shrink a database and the impact it can have on your system.  Show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/jana

As database administrators, we want to get as much performance as we can out of our SQL Servers.  Microsoft has provided a few knobs for us to tweak in the Operating System, the local security policy, and in the engine itself and in episode 50 of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, we review some of these SQL Server settings and how you might take advantage of some and avoid others. Join me as I chat with Justin Randall about some of these settings and get introduced to my new co-host Steve Stedman! Show notes for today are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/justin

When you code and you need to use a temporary object what do you use in SQL Server--temp tables or a table variable?  There is plenty of conventional wisdom out there and my guest Wayne Sheffield and I talk about the differences between these two objects.  Whether it around performance or coding standards, it seems everyone has an opinion about these objects.  Check out the show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/06/21/sql-server-temp-tables/ and I will see you on the SQL Trail compañeros!

Over the last few years we have seen an explosion of new technologies and processes to manage data.  Episode 48 asks the question--Is the Data Warehouse dead?  I chat with MVP Tim Mitchell about the subject and how things are changing . . . and how they are staying the same. 

The expansion of data sets and increased expectations of businesses for analysis and modeling of data has led developers to create a number of database products to meet those needs. As data professionals, it is incumbent upon us to understand how these tools work and put them to their best use--before somebody else puts them to sub-optimal use.  I am joined by Kevin Feasel who walks us through some of the technologies available and sorts out under what circumstances we want to consider using each one.

Have you ever looked at some tsql code and thought--How does even run? I know I have and it can be daunting to take a piece of code and review it for performance or to make a change to it.  I enlist the help of Jen McCown from the MidnightDBA team to discuss approaches to unraveling code.  We tackle the issues of nested views, documentation, formatting, Hungarian Notation, and visualizing how all the code pieces fit together. At the end of the day, we just want our code to be understandable and usable for the next person who has to review it, because that next person just might be you.  :) Get the show notes for today's episode at  http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/31/unraveling-code/ and I'll see you on the SQL trail!

Compañeros, we are going to get back into the engine this episode and go back to a feature that has been available since 2005--Service Broker.  I chat with Wolf about how he uses it, the major components, and scenarios that might work for you.   Are you using service broker?  Let us know on the website sqldatapartners.com/podcast

Episode 44 takes us into a new service in the Microsoft cloud--Azure SQL Data Warehouse.  While still in preview, the Azure SQL Data Warehouse looks to help level the playing field for organizations that want to analyze their data without the expense of creating a data warehouse.  Sound a bit counter intuitive?  Check out this episode to find what the service is all about and what the future of data processing might look like. Show notes for today's episode are at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/17/azuresqldatawarehouse/.  Have fun on the SQL trail, compañeros!

Why is ETL so hard?  All we want to do is move data from system A to system B.  Perhaps that is the problem, says my guest Rafael Salas, and more time should be given to thinking about the architecture of the system.  With our thoughts turned to SSIS, we discuss this idea in today's episode.  The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/10/etl/ and I'll see you on the SQL trail!

How did that get changed--do you ever get that question?  In this episode I talk with Brad McKuhen about how you would answer that and how you might need more than just enabling the auditing feature in SQL Server.  If you are willing to be a bit proactive and do some testing, you might be able to give an answer to that question instead of the same old shoulder shrug. Check out the shownotes for today's episode at  http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/05/03/auditing/.  See you on the SQL trail!

Compañeros, you know good care and feeding of your indexes is VITAL to a healthy database.  In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, I talk to Sean McCown about the best practices for index maintenance and how those guidelines are now part of his Minionware software. The show notes for today's episode are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/26/indexmaintenance

In this episode of the SQL Data Partners Podcast I chat with Jason Brimhall, about SQL Server compression and his experience with it. He also answers your compression questions: Why is it a bad idea to compress everything in your database and how does compression work? You can check out the show notes for today's episode at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/20/compression/. Have a good week and I'll see you on the SQL trail.

 Today on the SQL Trail I talk with Richie Rump, the podcaster, blogger, and now new hire at Brent Ozar. He and I discuss measuring query performance, using SET STATISTICS, and the story behind his Statistics Parser application.  He also talks about navigating the space between developer and DBA. The show notes for today's episode are at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/02/statisticsparser/

Compañeros! You heard rumblings about how awesome SQL Server 2016 is, right?  I talk with Rick Heiges about the wins he's seen for his clients using SQL Server 2016, including how one client's move from a large Oracle rack to SQL Server garnered them huge improvements in query performance. Show notes for today's episode are available at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/04/02/sqlserver2016/

In this episode of the SQL Data Partners podcast I sit with Patrick LeBlanc during SQL Saturday RVA. We chat about Microsoft PowerBI. PowerBI is a business intelligence tool that easily connects disparate data sources to create dashboards and I was interested to get his thoughts on how this would affect the data professional. Patrick answers my questions about the application and also explains why he thinks that PowerBI has grown in popularity so quickly. The shownotes for today's episode are found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2016/03/29/powerbi/