June 2014

Speaking at CodeStock 2014

So, this announcement’s way overdue; in about 2 weeks (July 11-12,2014), I’ll be presenting a couple of sessions at CodeStock 2014 in lovely Knoxville, TN.   I haven’t been to CodeStock since 2009, so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s grown.

The Elephant in the Room; A DBA’s Guide to Hadoop & Big Data by Stuart Ainsworth

DATE & TIME

Jul 11th at 9:55 AM until 11:05 AM

TRACK

LOCATION

400b

RATING (0 VOTES)

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Speaker(s): Stuart Ainsworth
The term "Big Data" has risen to popularity in the last few years, and encompasses data platforms outside of the traditional RDBMS (like SQL Server). The purpose of this session is to introduce SQL Server DBA’s to Hadoop, and to promote understanding of how schema-less data can be collected and accessed in coordination with the traditional SQL models. We’ll cover the basic vocabulary of the Hadoop platform, Microsoft’s integration efforts, and demonstrate how to get started with "big data".

 

Managing a Technical Team: Lessons Learned by Stuart Ainsworth

DATE & TIME

Jul 12th at 11:10 AM until 12:20 PM

TRACK

LOCATION

400b

RATING (0 VOTES)

0

Speaker(s): Stuart Ainsworth
I got promoted to management a couple of years ago, and despite what I previously believed, there were no fluffy pillows and bottles of champagne awaiting me. My team liked me, but they didn’t exactly stoop and bow when I entered the room. I’ve spent the last year relearning everything I thought I knew about management, and what it means to be a manager of a technical team. This session is intended for new managers, especially if you’ve come from a database (or other technical) background.

Speaking at the #SQLPASS #Summit14

I know I’m a day late with this announcement, but I haven’t blogged in months, so what’s the rush?  I am very excited, however, about presenting a full session and a lightning talk at the PASS Summit in Seattle in November.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: A DBA’S GUIDE TO HADOOP AND BIG DATA

Speaker(s)Stuart Ainsworth

Duration: 75 minutes

Track: BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

You’re a SQL Server DBA working at Contoso and your boss calls you out of your cubicle one day and tells you that the development team is interested in implementing a Hadoop-based solution to your customers. She wants you to help plan for the implementation and ongoing administration. Where do you begin?

This session will cover the foundations of Hadoop and how it fundamentally differs from the relational approach. The goal is to provide a map between your current skill set and "big data.” Although we’ll talk about basic techniques for querying data, the focus is on basic understanding how Hadoop works, how to plan for growth, and what you need to do to start maintaining a Hadoop cluster.

You won’t walk out of this session a Hadoop administrator, but you’ll understand what questions to ask and where to start looking for answers.

 

TEN-MINUTE KANBAN

Speaker(s)Stuart Ainsworth

Duration: 10 minutes

Track: Professional Development

The goal of this Lightning Talk is to cover the basic principles of the Lean IT movement, and demonstrate how Kanban can be used by Administrators as well as developers. Speaker Stuart Ainsworth will cover the basic concepts of Kanban, where to begin, and how it works.

Kanban boards can be used to highlight bottlenecks in resource and task management, as well as identify priorities and communicate expectations. All this can be done by using some basic tools that can be purchased at an office supply store (or done for free online).