Hello everybody Merry Christmas and welcome to the end of year round-up of all that's been going at gethynellis.com
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| Merry Christmas! |
2019
Its been another successful year here at gethynellis.com
We have been involved extensively with our consulting customers on the Microsoft Data Platform, some of the projects we have been involved with include:
- Helping a famous retailer move from some legacy versions of SQL Server to the latest and greatest
- We have helped a large insurer deliver a new claims handling system
- Helped a communication company with a performance tune-up
- Reviewed Microsoft data platform security for a large insurance client
- We've been helping a few other clients manage their SQL Server Estates
- We have delivered training courses on SQL Server including both onsite and virtual classes, introductory courses and more advanced TSQL courses. We also gave our first Azure Training course. No doubt more of these will follow
On top of that, we have been running a series of Webinars throughout 2019 the topics we have covered are
- Cloud Computing: Myth's Mysteries, Vampires and Vultures
- SQL Server R2 (D2)...The Sequel
- Driven by the 9 - SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery
If you missed these webinars and would like to catch up, please don't fret as they are recorded and available to our mailing list subscribers. You can watch any of these webinars only by signup for the mailing list. I'll leave a link below, and we'll email you a link so you can watch them at your leisure. Also, by signing up, you will be able to download a copy of David's ebook - an introduction to cloud computing and Azure which you can read at your leisure.
We also spoke at SQL Saturday in Bulgaria; I delivered my driven by the 9s talk in Sofia back in October.
In 2019 Sabrina completed a Masters Degree in Occupational Psychology, she graduated with merit this week. So I'd like to congratulate her for her achievement, I know how hard she has worked on it and thoroughly deserves her success. She was also nominated for Business Mum of the Year at the Women’s Business Club awards and made the final. Sabrina has had quite the year too.
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| Sabrina's graduation |
Here at gethynellis.com, we are pleased to have sponsored Cwmbran Under 11s football team - I do like the tops! We were also very proud to sponsor and get involved with the Women’s Business Club - Women in STEM award. And we got to choose the winner. Congratulation’s to all the Women in STEM finalists and well done to Sally Hodgson at Izzytea Ltd on winning the award!
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| The Women in STEM winner |
There were some big SQL Server announcements and events in 2019
- SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 went out of support - so if you're running these old versions you are no longer getting patches and security updates, maybe 2020 you'll look to upgrade or migrate?
- SQL Server 2019 was released - Data is the new gold, or I prefer to call it Oil. There can be vast amounts of Value in properly refined data. SQL Server 2019 allows you to improve and work with both your structured and unstructured data in the form of Big Data Clusters. If digital transformation is on your agenda and road map for 2020, you'll be interested in the new features of SQL Server 2019.
- Changes to the Software Assurance Benefits were announced - potentially reducing the cost of ownership for SQL Server.
The first two bullets above mean that there are many drivers for SQL Server modernisation projects - if you need help with that you know where we are. The last one can potentially have a significant impact on reducing your licensing footprint. For more details on that, come to the SQL Server Licensing Webinar I'll be running in January; where I'll explain what you can do to save money on your licenses potentially.
2020
What does 2020 have in store for gethynellis.com, well the turn of a decade is often a big deal. The roaring 20s will soon be upon us. We have plans to expand and refine our service and product offering. You'll still be able to make use of our consulting services
• SQL Server Upgrades and Migrations
• Performance tune-up
• Security reviews
• High availability and disaster recovery design
• Data Analytics
I know for sure that the Microsoft data platform will see continuous change and evolve and I'm looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings
We're also expanding in other areas,
• All the technological change brings changes for people, and this requires sensitive handling, we will be able to help you with that.
• If you work in technology and would like some career counselling to get the best out of your skills or would like to develop yourself in a particularly personal and professional area to help you progress your career, then we can help with that too.
• If you need to find suitably skilled team members and more importantly, an appropriate team fit, we can help out. Keep an eye on the website for more details or contact us we'll happily chat with you about how we can help.
I'll be delivering a webinar for Northdoor all about SQL Server Licensing and how if you get it right you can save a considerable amount of money - you can sign up here.
I have a new talk planned on the Top 5 Skills a DBA will need in 2020 - this is still a work in progress. I plan to deliver this in a webinar early in 2020, and I'll submit to a few SQL Saturdays too.
We are planning on submitting to a few SQL Saturdays around Europe and maybe further afield in 2020.
Sabrina will be speaking at the Women in Business: Championing Equality & Diversity conference being held at the University of Wolverhampton on Thursday 23rd January 2020. Her talk is titled “My story in the industry and the future for inspiring women in business.”
The conference is an in-person event an if you would like to attend, please do reserve your place using the following Eventbrite page link http://wlvwib2020.eventbrite.co.uk
Sabrina will be disseminating her latest research project titled “The work experiences of autistic IT professionals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis”. If you would like to know more or arrange for Sabrina to be a guest speaker in your organisation we would be happy to speak with you.
We'll continue to partner with Microsoft to offer top class training - if you have a training requirement, get in touch.
That's about it for 2019 work-wise for us at gethynellis.com we'll be back in 2020 raring to go in what promises to be another good year. So we will wish you a very merry Christmas and happy new year from the team and me, and maybe we'll catch up in 2020?
