Mar-2011 ~ Leveraging TSQL to solve business problems ~ John Miner

 

Presenter: John Miner of Sensata Technologies
Topic: Leveraging Transaction SQL 2008 to solve business problems

 

This presentation will review how to build a database solution from the ground up using SQL commands. What if you were a SQL Server developer at a local consulting company tasked with creating a database for a local Boy Scout of America (BSA) Troop, where would you begin?

The following topics will be reviewed to make sure you have a successful data storage solution.

Defining the Database: Defining file groups for the database, Creating schemas to separate tables by functionality, Creating normalized tables to hold the BSA data, Adding data integrity to the design with constraints/triggers, Adding referential integrity to the design with primary/foreign keys, Adding logins/users and granting rights Loading initial Data:

Loading data into staging area with BULK INSERT, OPENROWSET or BCP, Quick review of TSQL statements for TRANSACTIONS, CONTROL FLOW, and ERROR HANDLING, Writing Stored Procedures to move staging data to production, Schedule Procedures using SQL Server Agent Giving Developers Access: Using stored procedures to lock down CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations, Using functions and views to look at the data differently.

In my next presentation, I will be going over advance topics such as PARTITIONING – for keeping track of all those Christmas Trees they sell each year, FILESTREAM – for showing images of the merit badges they might earn, SPATIAL – for keeping track of GPS latitude and longitude coordinates when hiking, and XML for interacting with other systems via messages.

In my next presentation, I will be going over advance topics such as PARTITIONING – for keeping track of all those Christmas Trees they sell each year, FILESTREAM – for showing images of the merit badges they might earn, SPATIAL – for keeping track of GPS latitude and longitude coordinates when hiking, and XML for interacting with other systems via messages.

Biography:

John Miner (craftydba.com) has twenty years of data processing and proven project management experience, specializing in the banking, health care, and government areas. His architecture expertise encompasses all phases of the project life cycle, including design, development, implementation, and maintenance.

His credentials include a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island with concentrations in database technologies and programming languages. He has Microsoft Certificates for Database Administration (MCDBA) and System Administration (MCSA).

Feb-2011 ~ Microsoft Dynamics CRM ~ Anne Stanton

 

Presenter: Anne Stanton – Principal CRM Business Analyst, FM Global
Topic: Microsoft Dynamics CRM, The Product

 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is both a Customer Relationship Management application and a development platform. It is utilized by over a million users worldwide and is available in both an On Premise and Online bundle. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is packed with all that you would expect in a CRM application including integration to Outlook, Service Tracking, basic marketing and complex relationship management. Gartner ranks it right up there with SAP, Siebel and Oracle CRM, but it also does so much more.

Developing with and Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a standard practice for many of the Microsoft partners who specialize in the solution. In fact leveraging the Microsoft Dynamics xRM platform for custom software solutions that are relationship oriented is an entire niche that is growing in leaps and bounds; for instance tracking projects, parts, services or events and training and the list continues. For a great glance at some of the xRM solutions check out the xRM Showcase

Biography:

Anne Stanton has a combination of business and technical expertise. She started her career in the 80s as a programmer working with ancient languages like Fortran 77, Basic, Turbo Pascal and Cobol and then built out her expertise as a master of software applications. Mid stride in 2005, she summarized her mix of computer science and business experience by going back to school. She completed her MBA with a sub specialty in Accounting.

Anne has spent twenty six years working with technology and is still very passionate about all that it can do to help businesses excel. Her recent focus has been working with the Microsoft Dynamics xRM platform and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software. She was awarded as the 7th Microsoft MVP for CRM and has a long running blog, (www.crmlady.com) and twitter feed (crmlady) on the subject. She has worked with Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a customer, partner practice leader and consultant starting with version 1.2 which was released in 2004. Anne is currently a Principal Business Analyst for FM Global in Johnston, RI.

Dec-2010 ~ Gathering and Interpreting Server Metrics ~ Grant Fritchey

 

Presenter: Grant Fritchey – SQL Server MVP
Topic: Gathering and Interpreting Server Metrics

 

Before you can start tuning SQL queries, it’s vital that you know how your server itself is behaving. You need to know what the memory, IO and CPU on the machine look like while the system is at rest and under load. You need to establish this baseline in order to better interpret the results of your later query tuning efforts.

There are a number of inherent methods built into SQL Server and the Windows operating system that can supply you with this vital information. There are even third party tools that can take a lot of guess work and manual labor out of the process of establishing these vital measures. This session will cover all the tools necessary to generate a baseline measurement for performance of your SQL Server system. The session is a small part of and serves as an introduction to the one day pre-conference seminar on query performance tuning being offered at SQLRally in May.

Biography:

Grant Fritchey has twenty years experience in IT. That time was spent in technical support, development and database administration. For the last seven years he has been working at a major insurance company as a DBA. He writes articles for publication at SQL Server Central, Simple-Talk, PASS Book Reviews and SQL Server Standard. He also published two books, ”Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans” and “SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled.” He is one of the founding officers of the this Users Group and currently serving as the president. In April 2009 he was awarded as a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. You can also find him tweeting as @GFritchey and blogging at Home of the Scary DBA.

Oct-2010 ~ DMV’s as a Shortcut to Procedure Tuning ~ Grant Fritchney

 

Presenter: Grant Fritchey – SQL Server MVP
Topic: DMV’s as a Shortcut to Procedure Tuning

 

Dynamic Management Views (DMV) expose a wealth of information to the database administrator. However, they also expose information that is vital to the database developer. More often than not people gather performance metrics through server side traces. This session will show how to gather information from the DMVs for currently executing, and recently executed queries.

The session will demonstrate combining this information with other DMVs to get more intersting information such as the query plan and query text. I’ll show where you can get aggregate information for the queries in cache to determine which queries are being frequently accessed or using the most resources. I’ll show how to determine which indexes are being used in your system and which are not. All of this will be focused, not on the DBA, but on the query writer, the developer or database developer that needs information to tune and troubleshoot data access.

Biography:

Grant Fritchey has twenty years experience in IT. That time was spent in technical support, development and database administration. For the last seven years he has been working at a major insurance company as a DBA. He writes articles for publication at SQL Server Central, Simple-Talk, PASS Book Reviews and SQL Server Standard. He also published two books, ”Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans” and “SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled.” He is one of the founding officers of the this Users Group and currently serving as the president. In April 2009 he was awarded as a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. You can also find him tweeting as @GFritchey and blogging at Home of the Scary DBA.

Sep-2010 ~ Accelerated MDM with SQL Server 2008 ~ Brian Berry

 

Presenter: Brian Berry of Blum Shapiro Consulting
Topic: Accelerated MDM with SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services

 

Data architects have struggled for several years with issues of Enterprise Master Data Management (MDM). The technology, tools, and processes required to create and maintain consistent and accurate lists of master data are of keen interest to rapidly growing organizations.

In this session, Brian Berry will discuss what master data is, why managing it matters, and some key concepts related to architecting an MDM solution. SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) is Microsoft’s first product offering to the MDM market. Brian will discuss MDS as an example of MDM Hub Architecture, demonstrating how to leverage MDS for rapid development of Master Data Models, Hierarchies, Business Rules, and integration scenarios via WCF and SharePoint 2010 Workflow

Biography:

Brian Berry is the Director of Technology Consulting at Blum Shapiro Consulting in West Hartford, CT. He has over 10 years of consulting experience with Microsoft Information Worker and Business Intelligence technologies: SharePoint Server 2010, PerformancePoint Services, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Master Data Services. He blogs on these topics (and others) at http://blogs.blumshapiro.com/bcbblog and tweets from @BrianChBerry.

Note:

NEIT needs to use the Hall of Fame on the same day as our meeting (Wednesday, 8th September 2010 6PM-9PM), so they have assigned us a different venue in the same building: #CT232.

Aug-2010 ~ What Are You Waiting For? ~ Thomas LaRock

 

Presenter: Thomas LaRock; Senior DBA, SQL Server MVP, PASS Director
Topic: What Are You Waiting For?

 

It’s a simple question, right? But how often do you have the answer, especially for your SQL statements? Thomas LaRock from Confio Software will teach you how proper response time analysis plays a key part in the overall performance tuning process. You will learn how to define, measure, and analyze performance issues as well as implementing changes and how to make sure those changes continue to have the desired effects.

Biography:

Thomas LaRock is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of technical and management experience. Currently serving as a Senior DBA for Confio Software, Thomas has progressed through several roles in his career including programmer, analyst, and DBA. Thomas holds a MS degree in Mathematics from Washington State University and is a member of the Usability Professional’s Association. Thomas currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), and is also a SQL Server MVP. Thomas can also be found blogging at http://thomaslarock.com and is the author of DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA (http://dbasurvivor.com).

Jul-2010 ~ SQL Azure: Relational Database in the Cloud ~ Andrew Novick

 

Presenter: Andrew Novick of Novick Software
Topic: SQL Azure: Relational Database in the Cloud

 

SQL Azure is Microsoft’s relational database offering in the cloud. While it’s similar to SQL Server 2008 there are enough differences that it’s important to understand what you can and cannot do with SQL Azure. This presentation gets you comfortable with SQL Azure and understand how it can best be used. A glance at the topics that will be covered: Signing up for SQL Azure; Creating a database, users and tables; Differences from other SQL Server 2008 editions; Configuring the firewall; Moving schema and data up and down from the cloud; Getting the right connection string from the Azure UI; Checking Usage and Billing information; Connecting to SQL Azure; Approaches to scaling with SQL Azure; Data Access with OData; Deploying Data-Tier Applications to SQL Azure;

Biography:

Andy Novick is a SQL Server MVP and consultant who builds business applications on SQL Server and the .Net technologies from Microsoft. Andy’s writing includes the books Transact-SQL User Defined Functions and SQL Server 2000 XML Distilled as well as numerous web articles and web videos. You connect to is writing at his web site www.NovickSoftware.com. In addition to SQL Andy enjoys coaching Youth Baseball and the occasional movie with his wife, Ulli.