If you’ve never attended a "real" virtual conference, you’re in for a treat. I’m sure you’ve attended other webinars, other "virtual conferences" where you are surprised to find out the sessions are all about sales, all about pushing products. Not so with the SSWUG.ORG virtual conference. I guarantee it! (Literally) We have no sales in our presentations. None. These are […]

Microsoft is letting the cat out of the bag at last with specifics about the upcoming release of SQL Server. So many interesting and good things to think through and many are focused on the core engine this time around, which is exciting as well. First up – in-memory processing for OLTP type workloads. Pretty incredible. I’ve seen some nearly […]

I spent some time talking with Microsoft about the upcoming releases and one thing is very clear. The view you take of the environment will soon be quite different. Today, it’s all about on-premise vs. public cloud (yes, I realize there are options). But, the new releases here, or on the way will make it so "where" isn’t important, it’s […]

There are a whole slew of new capabilities, releases and tools coming from Microsoft. Today I’m kicking off a deeper look at some of these – with an eye toward how these will impact systems management and working with our systems. But first, I wanted to get your feedback. It used to be (I sound old whenever I start something […]

Bleeding edge has its price, there’s no doubt. I can’t help wondering if that isn’t the case right at the moment when it comes to "proper" solutions for managing your systems, for deploying solutions. The premise is that you break apart your solution and put the different parts where they are best supported. In the case of SQL Server, for […]

Yesterday this started with a "what would you do" if you had no limits – and were completely in control. What’s the perfect work environment? Several great bits of feedback came in and things are surprisingly consistent. To start, here’s Joseph’s note: "Being heard. I don’t need my managers to adopt every idea I have, but when they hear me […]

I was talking with a system admin on a recent trip and we got into what it means to have a really great work environment. It turned into a "what does it take" type discussion, as in "what does it take to have both support and a great environment that makes work that much better?" We seemed to come down […]

I’d really love to hear your opinion on this – email me at swynk@sswug.org – let me know. Are DBA roles becoming completely automated and "it just works?" I think that there are absolutely better tools now, and in many cases, the systems are in place to make sure your backups are good to go, that things are running well, […]

If you’ve not yet attended a SSWUG virtual conference, you’re in for a treat. We have top name speakers, many, many sessions (it’s just not like those from others you may have seen) – 3 days of sessions, top technical tips, ideas and presentations… you just don’t find this other places online, period. Check out the speakers, the sessions, the […]

This Ted Talk is a quick watch – but I think it misses an important item, at least from a "data guy" perspective. The talk opens talking about your Big Data legacy and immediately moves to social media and how all of those videos, all of that status update work you do, all of that online writing – it all […]