Category Archives: SQLRally

SQLRally, SQL Saturday and The Summit

“Gotta say it was a good day…”

-Ice Cube
 

On The SQL Saturday Circuit

I’ve been speaking at all the regional SQLSaturday events I can go to. I kicked off the year with SQLSaturday #57 in Houston. Then did a turn around to SQLSaturday #63 in Dallas, my second one there. I have submitted to Baton Rouge figuring I could drive it but after that I’d be tapped out on vacation time and money. Lucky for me, Idera started the A.C.E. program and chose me as part of the very first group to sponsor for this year. I’m now gearing up to submit to more SQLSaturday’s. Hopefully I’ll get picked!

Is this Thing On?

From Thomas Wanhoff via Flickr

I did my first live webinar on Idera’s Secrets of SQL Server  webcast series. It was a three part series over SQL Server and storage technologies. My first part pulled in around 900 people. Part 2 around 500 and part 3 around 350. All in all, I would call it a success. I had a great time doing them. I was terrified to do them. I have done a ton of public speaking and a short stint in radio broadcasting, but this felt completely different. It was in a way. I couldn’t just ham it up like I would on the radio and not having the feed back from a live audience made it difficult to tell if I was going off the rails.

On The National Stage

I was notified by SQLRally that I would be presenting my storage talk at the very first event in Orlando. I was stunned. First, that I made the initial cut. Secondly, that I was chosen by all of you over so many other great abstracts and speakers. I resolved to make this the best presentation I could. Later, I got the call that I had been chosen for a 90 minute deep dive session. I knew I could carry 90 minutes with the amount of material I’ve got handy so that wasn’t an issue. Not wanting to disappoint those who attended was though. Just to keep things interesting, I helped perform eScan’s first move into a real data center, got the flu oh and resigned to go to work for Dell. All of this right before SQLRally. My last day at work was on a Tuesday, I left at lunch got on the plane to Florida an gave it my all. The reaction was just overwhelming. The amount of people that kept coming up to me through the rest of the conforince to let me know how much they liked the session was just staggering. People that I’ve known for years kept telling me just how solid it was. I didn’t disagree with them but when I got the evaluations back I knew I’d knocked it out of the park.  They also just announced the top rated speakers and I came in number second, Adam Jorgensen (twitter|blog) just squeaking past me. I would have been jazzed just to be in the top 10. Again, I am humbled to be in such excellent company.

The Big Show

If all of that wasn’t enough I got the nod. For years I’ve dreamed of speaking at The Summit. I’ve been to almost every one of them. I submitted two sessions. My talk on the fundamentals of storage got the green light and my solid state storage was selected as an alternate. What do I say? I’m humbled, honored and very excited to be a speaker at the premiere SQL Server event of the year.

Now What?

I’m not sure to be honest. It is only June. I’ve got more stuff to get done for the local and regional PASS chapters, a SQL Saturday to host in Austin by the end of the year. I got to say, this is going down as one of my best years ever serving the SQL Server community.

SQLRally is A Smashing Success!

Yesterday I presented Understanding Storage Systems and SQL Server and had a fantastic time! The crowd was great and was very engaged for the entire 90 minutes and made the time fly. I can’t express how grateful I am to the SQLRally people for putting on a great show and selecting my session to be an extended talk. When Jack Corbett (blog|twitter) asked me if I could do a longer session I jumped at the opportunity. Next stop The Summit!

My Upcoming Schedule, Come Get Your Learn On!

It’s official, I’ll be speaking at SQLSaturday #63 April 2nd. It is something near and dear to my heart, solid state storage. If you have seen me speak recently at any of the other SQLSaturdays you know I love talking about I/O. This time around I’ll be focusing on one of the new technologies, flash storage. It always surprises me just how little some people understand a technology before pushing it into service! Just deciding to implement solid state disks without doing your due diligence can be a very expensive mistake. I have spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of years getting to know solid state disks and the underlying technology of NAND flash. I’ve been writing about it and I’ve been fortunate enough to have first hand experience with it as well. I’m really exited to teach about this new technology with a SQL Server slant to it.

It’s also been officially announced that I’ll be speaking at SQLRally in Orlando! I cannot tell you how exited I am about being a speaker at the very first SQLRally. To be honest with you I was a little stunned and a lot humbled by the nomination committee and your votes. Just as I was getting use to the idea of a “regular” 60 minute session, I was asked if I could expand it to 90 minutes and do a “deep dive” session instead. This will be an extended version of Understanding Storage Systems and SQL Server with more coverage on SAN’s and monitoring IO. 

What Is PASS SQLRally?

PASS’ new regional event fills the gap between our free PASS SQLSaturday 1-day training events and PASS Summit, the world’s largest conference for the SQL Server community. At SQLRally you’ll meet with industry experts, authors, Microsoft MVPs, and other people just like you to learn about best practices, effective troubleshooting, how to prevent issues, save money, and build a better SQL Server environment for your company or clients.

#SQLRally is coming, Go vote!

 

We are in the final stages of selecting the speakers for the SQLRally May 11th through the 13th in sunny Orlando FloridaSQLRally Winner[11]. The program selection is a little different than what we have done with the Summit. The committee narrowed the number of selections and is putting the rest up to a public vote. This is your opportunity to voice your opinion on what you would like to hear at this inaugural event! I’ve been fortunate enough to have two of my sessions put up for a vote. If you follow my blog you know I have a passion for moving bits of data around as fast as possible. Both my sessions focus on storage. As much as I would love to have your votes to see my sessions at SQLRally, I would like it even more if you voted on what YOU want to learn about the most. Having served on the program committee for Summit last year I know just how hard it can be choosing what I think people would like to learn about. having the opportunity to make your choice known directly is just awesome. I am very excited to see PASS expand and have training events that cover the gambit. Starting with local user groups and SQL Saturdays now growing with SQLRally and finishing it off with the Summit, there is something for every budget.

With that said, here are my abstracts so you can get a better idea of what I’m speaking on. GO VOTE!

Title:
Solid State Storage Deep Dive
Speaker:
Wesley Brown
Category:
Storage
Level:
100

Abstract:
If you have ever wanted to know how SSD’s and Flash memory works this talk is for you. We will cover the fundamentals of Flash in detail. I will also highlight some of the specific vendor implementations and what makes a particular SSD enterprise-ready vs. consumer grade. We will also cover SQL Server usage patterns what is a good fit for SSD’s and when it may be better to go with hard disks. Solid State Storage isn’t a cure-all for every situation, this presentation will give you the tools you need to make the right choice for your SQL Server environment.

Session Goals

  • Understand the fundamental building block of Flash memory.
  • Get a clear explanation of what makes some SSD’s robust enough for enterprise use.
  • Learn where SSD will and won’t make a real difference in your SQL Server environment.

Title:
Understanding Storage Systems and SQL Server
Speaker:
Wesley Brown
Category:
Storage
Level:
100

Abstract:
The most important part of your SQL Server is also the slowest, Storage. This talk will take you through the fundamentals of your server’s Disk I/O System. From how hard drives work, through RAID configurations, and how to configure the file system. This session should give you a solid foundation over storage systems and help you understand why they are slow and how to overcome some of their limitations.

Session Goals

  • Understand the physical characteristics of IO hardware.
  • Understand the fundamentals of RAID.
  • Understand how to configure the file system.