The need for User Groups

Michael Wall September 25, 2022 2 Comments
I remember Paul Turley saying a few years ago at a Speaker Dinner, "We're literally aging out". I am almost done with my European Tour, and it is obvious that a number of things are the same across the pond: The need for cloud migration. Like it or not the cloud is here to stay in all of its weird and wonderful permutations. Whether you choose Azure or AWS or other competitors, the migration...

The Power of Networking

Michael Wall September 18, 2022 0 Comments
Here I am, finally fulfilling a dream started back when I was 14 to see Europe. In my Freshman German class, I paid a small amount of money to have some penpals around the world. I remember I had a German girl, a French girl, and an Australian girl that lived in Adelaide. She and I kept in touch through college and I still have a cassette tape she sent me. I've described this trip as being a...

The Azure “secret”

Michael Wall July 12, 2021 0 Comments
I'm a big believer in doing research and practicing processes and procedures until they don't break anymore. In my job, breaking things means downtimes and unhappy customers. Because of this, I like to put a lot of time in documentation, trials, practice, etc to make sure everything works the way it should be. I might even say I'm a little bit obsessive. Human beings change, systems rarely do....

Taking Count

Michael Wall July 08, 2021 0 Comments
I'm not sure, but maybe the pandemic has finally caught up with me, but when I go to bed at night, I'm tired! At the beginning of the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to have been hired on by Pragmatic Works, and then my department was sold to 3Cloud! All of the excitement of working for two great companies plus normal life activities really insulated me from dealing with the pandemic. Sure,...

Coming together

Michael Wall January 11, 2021 0 Comments
PASS, the organization we all know and love (and sometimes not love so much) has come to an end. I am not going to say anymore that has not already been said other than that I treasure all of my friends and experiences I have gained through PASS and look forward to the next chapter. Ironically enough, the day before the announcement was made, my co-president for Oregon Data Community, Jessica...

Being a Speaker – PASS Summit 2020

admin November 30, 2020 0 Comments
As I mentioned in an earlier post (I know, way earlier), I was honored to speak again at PASS Summit, the first virtual one. First of all, the PASS team worked their collective tails off to make sure everything went smoothly. I KNOW there were technical difficulties. I felt them myself. I KNOW my demos were a little hard (more than a little) to see on the darned window that wouldn't expand. For...

Sponsorship and giving back

Michael Wall August 06, 2020 0 Comments
I'm lucky to be in a good area with a lot of data professionals merely a drive away. I've made some good friends and really improved my knowledge just by having them available. Sadly, a number have also moved away like Alicia Moniz and Brandon Leach, but they still left their mark upon me (in a good way). But, Kellyn Pot'vin-Gorman just moved into the area, literally a bike ride away (a long...

Speaking at PASS Summit 2020

Michael Wall August 03, 2020 0 Comments
First of all, thank you for picking me to speak at PASS Summit again. I am honored and grateful and very appreciative of the chance to pass on knowledge to all my many peers out there in the world. And this time, it really will be out there in the world with the event going virtual!! I will be speaking on Polybase, which is a really fascinating tool for SQL Server that could use a little more...

Happy DBA Day!

Michael Wall July 03, 2020 0 Comments
Today is International DBA Appreciation Day! Go hug your local DBA (if they'll let you!) There have been many articles about the death of the DBA, the evolution of the DBA, how to feed a DBA, etc. Rob Sewell has posted on the many meanings of the DBA acronym, and let us not forget that it also means "Doing Business As" to the greater population! So what kind of a business are we doing? In my...

Polybase – It’s what’s for dinner

Michael Wall July 01, 2020 0 Comments
Polybase is a pretty cool technology that was debuted in SQL Server 2016 as part of the Big Data (Clusters) initiative. It got a bit of a facelift in SQL Server 2019 and now is really cool. I've been testing and breaking it in the past few months just for fun, but it got kind of exciting when I applied the SQL Server 2019 CU5 patch on my test cluster. I'll post about these findings as I am able...