This past weekend I was a presenter in two sessions at the SQL Saturday in Tampa.  First, I just want to say what an event.  The lunch that was served set a new precedence for all of the upcoming SQL Lunches.  We had a sit down meal with silverware and plates.  Well over and beyond the sandwich, chips and cookie you will get when attending SQL Saturday in Baton Rouge, but I digress.  Thanks to everyone that helped to put on such a successful event. 

My first session was IRON Chef America SQL.  I acted as the chairman or MC of the presentation.  I provided the color commentary and kept the show going.  In most cases I acted as an instigator between the two competitors, Brian Knight and Adam Jorgensen.  The session was great and so far I have only received great comments.  I can’t wait to do it again.

My second session was SQL Server Compression 101, which was an introductory session to Backup and Data compression.  I had a couple of technical difficulties, but overall I think the presentation was well received.  One of the attendees asked about compressed data and its state on disk and in-memory, which was a great question.  Simply put, she wanted to know if the data was compressed or decompressed in-memory.  Ironically, part of my research addressed this specific question.  Data in-memory is compressed. Since decompressing data consumes CPU, data is only decompressed when it is updated or queried as a result (joining, filtering, etc…).  Even further, only the data requested is decompressed not the entire page.  You can read about this and more about data compression in a great White Paper titled, Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices.  The paper was written by Sanjay Mishra of the SQLCat team.

Thanks to everyone that attended my sessions.  If you have any questions about either please feel free to email me at pleblanc@pragmaticworks.com.  My next stop is Richmond, VA for SQL Saturday #30. 

Talk to you soon

Patrick LeBlanc, founder SQLLunch.com and TSQLScripts.com

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