We all have been to various training courses throughout our professional career.  Many follow a similar standard curriculum or course outline, such as in Microsoft Training for SQL Server.  The instructors are knowledgeable and well-versed in their Microsoft guided curriculum, and a lot of these courses are either designed for the beginner, such as someone changing fields or IT discipline, or those going for the overview to prepare for MS Certifications.  However, that’s where it usually ends!

If you’re looking for something different, something much more advanced, and something you’ll never forget, take a look at this dynamic training company that specializes in courses targeting DBAs, developers, and business intelligence professionals.  It sounds like you need your Data Education!

The company, by the same name, Data Education, that is, was founded in early 2009 by Adam Machanic (Blog | Twitter), Microsoft SQL Server MVP, author, consultant, and trainer (originally as Boston SQL Training). They create SQL Server training events in the greater northeast and feature some of the top SQL Server experts in the world.  Realizing the need for quality database training at a higher, more advanced level than was currently being offered, Data Education evolved to fill that void,  bringing database industry experts to its students, from bestselling SQL Server authors to the nation’s premier business intelligence consultants.  

Rather than by-the-book (boring?) training, they definitely take it to the next level by trainers who use their real-world experience to prepare you to take what you learn in the classroom and apply it immediately to your everyday business environment.

Back in summer of July, (wow, can’t believe next week is officially fall!), I was lucky enough to attend Adam’s awesome 2-day class in NYC, and blogged about it here: Taking It to the Extreme: SQLCLR and Parallelism.

This training course was intended for the SQL Server professional who wanted to take performance tuning to the next level, and interested in how to optimize your SQL Server Performance beyond typical tuning methods.  (Although the event has passed, you can see the full agenda here: Extreme Agenda)

Another interesting take on this cool company, is that they are engaging us in the SQL Server Community, keeping tabs on trends, news, articles, and latest gossip of what’s going on in our ‘hood.  You can sign up for their mailing list to be alerted on new course offerings, as well as follow them on Twitter|DataEducation. 

They also have these neat little feature items, such as “What the Experts are Saying”, “Question of the Week” where you can win prizes, and “Data Heads”, a series of profiles of some of the most intriguing database professionals out there.

By the way, I’m honored to be their first ever Data Head, and thank them kindly for the profile. There, I share a little bit about my company, background, and thoughts on SQL Server Denali.

I like their slogan, “Learn from the experts. Then become one!”

Here’s a more common phrase that sums up Data Education’s mission statement: You’ve learned from the rest, now learn from the best! 

Don’t forget to check out some of the unique upcoming courses by leading experts like Julie Lerman, Allen White, and Itzik Ben-Gan.  Julie will be giving her Entity Framework Boot Camp, and Allen will be talking about Getting to Know PowerShell.  Itzak will no doubt please with his Advanced T-SQL Querying, Programming, and Tuning for SQL Server 2005 & 2008.