You know you want to go on the SQL Cruise. You can. You just have to convince the boss that it’s worth doing. It is. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it as necessary, SQL Cruise changes peoples lives. I’ve watched people go on the cruise with a job and come back with a career. People don’t just learn on the Cruise. They get energized. They get engaged with the data professional community.

How do I profit by promoting SQL Cruise?

I don’t.

Tim Ford is a friend and I’m supporting him. My company, Redgate Software, is a sponsor of the cruise, so I’m supporting them. I could just be doing the bare minimum in support of these parties. However, I’m not getting paid anything special by anyone for doing more. Instead, for me, personally, SQL Cruise is all about the ability to share.

Understand, I love my job. I spend a lot of time teaching about the Microsoft Data Platform, Azure SQL Database, SQL Server, deployments, development, automation, performance tuning and all of it from the perspective of Redgate Software. I get to share. A lot. However, I only get to share the way I do on SQL Cruise, on SQL Cruise. It’s intimate. It’s direct. It’s personal. I’m not standing in front of a group of 75 people with another 200-5000 waiting outside the door. It’s just 25-30 people, all the time. We get close. We talk. It’s the lowest level, most fundamental kind of interactions. I benefit from it personally, and I get the opportunity to share. This is why I love and support SQL Cruise.

And yeah, there’s classroom time. I’m really looking forward to learning from David Klee, Tim Ford, Jason Hall and Jes Borland. These are some of the most amazing people you’re ever going to meet and learn from.

I’m putting on a couple of classes too:

The Query Store and Query Tuning in SQL vNext

For the most part, query tuning in version of SQL Server is pretty much like query tuning in the next. SQL Server 2016 introduces a number of new functions and methods that directly impact how you’re going to do query tuning in the future. The most important change is the introduction of the Query Store. This session will explore how the Query Store works and how it’s going to change how you tune and troubleshoot performance. With the information in this session, not only will you understand how the Query Store works, but you’ll know everything you need to apply it to your own SQL Server 2016 tuning efforts as well as your Azure SQL Databases.

Azure SQL Database for the Earthed DBA

Everyone knows that Azure SQL Database only supports a small subset of SQL Server functionality, small databases, and has really bad performance. Except, everyone is wrong. In fact, Azure SQL Server Database is ready to support many, if not most, databases within your enterprise. This session reintroduces Azure SQL Database and shows the high degree of functionality and improved performance that is now available. You’ll leave this session with a more thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Azure SQL Database so that you can make a more informed choice over when or if you should use it within your environment.

Go and have that chat with your boss. You won’t regret it. I promise, this experience will change your life.

And there’s rum.

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