This will be year #9 of sql saturdays in Louisville. Every year (starting with 3rd or 4th), it has been a tradition to do ‘precons’ on Fridays. For those who don’t know – Precons are day long paid trainings by an expert in the subject, held on the friday before the event. We have heard repeatedly from many attendees that precons are their best bet at attending any solid training – they are local, priced low and given by the best of the teachers there is. Quite a number of attendees come to precons on their own dime to learn more. In short it is impossible to overstate the value add of a precon to community.
We try to have 2 or 3 different precons on different subject areas. This year, we have a precon on Query Tuning by Grant Fritchey, SSIS/BIML by Andy Leonard and Building modern data architecture by Joshua Luedemann. Karla Landrum, the queen of sql saturdays – has been doing a blog interview with each presenter for the precons she has at SQL saturday, Pensacola. I thought this is a great way to publicize the event as well as the presenter and am doing it for our events too. This post is an interview with Andy Leonard.
If you are a serious BI/SSIS professional – it is impossible to not know Andy. He is a highly respected person in the BI community – a technical guru and a former MVP who voluntarily gave up his title to enable more new people to get it. I am really glad to have him do a precon for us this year. Below is a short interview with him.
I started working with SQL Server in the late 1990’s. I was building electrical control systems and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) for manufacturing back then. To stress-test an HMI, I set the data-acquisition frequency to one second for every tag (data-collection point) and left for a 3-day weekend. When I returned I tried to open a 3GB Access file and… nothing happened. The stress test succeeded in letting me I’d need a bigger database engine. I found SQL Server 6.5 and it passed that same test. Problem solved.
Automation is happening all around us. The days of being paid to copy, paste, and edit repetitive SSIS packages are fading fast; as are the days of manually building and deploying configurations scripts between SSIS Catalogs. Attendees will learn:
1) How to use Business Intelligence Markup Language (Biml) to automate the development of repetitive SSIS solutions;
2) How to leverage SSIS Design Patterns to improve SSIS package performance; and
3) How to combine SSIS Design Patterns and Biml to manage enterprise data integration. I’ll even throw in some demos of the free tools and utilities available at DILM Suite – no extra charge!
3. We are going through a lot of changes in database world. There are lot of skills required to sustain ourselves as data/BI professionals. Why do you think SSIS/BIML are among them, why is it so important to add to our skills as BI professionals?
All of the changes in data/BI are driven by economies of scale. Automation is driving down the costs of data integration and management. The net result is data integration developers can now deliver more in less time, with improved quality. There is benefit in spotting a trend and getting in early (ask me how I know!). Data integration automation with Biml is new-enough that one may still get in “early.”
SQL Saturdays are awesome for so many reasons! My #1 reason for supporting SQL Saturdays is the networking opportunities they represent. I love the local-ness of the event. I love that SQL Saturdays offer so many in our community the opportunity to present their ideas and solutions to an audience for the very first time. And I love that SQL Saturdays introduce so many to our community. As I tell my lovely bride, Christy, attending a SQL Saturday is just like hanging out with family, except I don’t have to explain acronyms!
5. What do you like to do for fun/relaxation?
I like to read for relaxation. I read science fiction series – some old, others new. I really enjoyed The Expanse novels and I think the television series is doing a good job capturing the story line. I read business books (and listen to business audio books) because I’m interested in becoming a better businessperson and leader. I read (and listen to) books about theology and Christianity because I want to be a better husband, father, grandfather, and person.
I hope you enjoyed reading and hope it helps you sign up for his precon!! Thank you.
