SQL Data Partners Podcast

What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by Any Other Name would smell as sweet. We could say the same for analytics -- there are plenty of similar or related words we use to describe the role or process of working with data. In this episode, we talk with Nicki Tinson about her journey into analytics, how others, like you, might break into the fields, and what has remained the same even when the names change. I am joined by Kevin Feasel and Eugene Meidinger, so you know we keep the conversation lively. Be sure to check out Nicki's Facebook page if you are interested in making the transition into analytics. Tell her Carlos sent you. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/05/30/episode-137-you-want-to-work-with-analytics. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Everybody does things a little differently and this is one of the things I LOVE about the podcast--chatting with others about how they get work done. In this episode I chat with Tom Norman about how he uses Visual Studio for source control, deployments, and keeping his sanity. We explore the setup process and how we have a reverse 80/20 rule when it comes to importing databases with Visual Studio. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/05/23/episode-136-devops-with-visual-studio. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Normally we have one specific topic we focus on each episode. This episode is a little different. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/05/16/episode-135-seinfeld-episode/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

It is not very often the internal codename is used when a product is launched; however, when you think about a database designed with global distribution in mind, CosmosDB makes sense. I was a bit shocked to hear Microsoft was releasing another database technology in 2017; however, the team leading the charge was very impressive and it looked like it was solving problems other database engines could not. In this episode, we talk with Sidney Andrews about the Cosmos platform, what we can expect from the product and how it differs from SQL Server. I think you will find the conversation very interesting. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/05/09/episode-134-cosmosdb. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

While the ability to shrink data files is available in SSMS, the conventional wisdom is don't do it. I was extremely curious when I read an email from our guest suggesting the opposite. In this episode we explain the 'real world' and discuss why you might consider shrinking files and the how it will affect you. Nigel has a great sense of humor and I know you will enjoy today's episode. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/05/02/episode-133-shrinking-files/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Bang! Pow! Crash! Besides just awesome fighting techniques, are there things we can learn from superheroes? My guest, Will Fehringer, gave that very question some thought and came up with some very interesting ideas I thought were worth passing along. Wonder Woman and the Amazonians give us something to thing about preparing for our ultimate goal. Drax, from the Guardians of the Galaxy, gives a great example of the Fool's Choice in conversation. Every good superhero has a value system. What is your value system and how do you enforce it? One of the biggest challenges to technologies is the Superhero Syndrome. Sure, it feels safe to save the day, but the danger is we might get to the question Mr. Incredible posed "Can you keep this place in order without me? Didn't I just save you people?" The ability to be the superhero all the time is not sustainable, so we won't be able to work alone all the time. The ability to work in teams and trust the process is becoming a bigger and bigger part of what is determining a great IT resource from everyone else. This episode explores some of these topics and gives some thoughts about how we can apply the lessons super heroes have to battle on a regular basis. What are your thoughts? What can you learn from a superhero? The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/04/19/episode-132-what-can-technologists-learn-from-superheroes. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Big Data. Do you have big data? What does that even mean? In this episode I explore some of the concepts of how organizations can manage their data and what questions you might need to ask before you implement the latest and greatest tool. I am joined by James Serra, Microsoft Cloud Architect, to get his thoughts on implementing cloud solutions, where they can contribute, and why you might not be able to go all cloud. I am interested to see if more traditional DBAs move toward architecture roles and help their organizations manage the various types of data. What types of issues are giving you troubles as you adopt a more diverse data ecosystem? The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/04/11/episode-131-big-data-solutions-in-the-cloud. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Heroes in a half shell, PowerShell! Well, maybe that wasn't the original line, but you know from this program and other places on the internet, PowerShell is all the rage. In this episode, we wanted to chat about other ways people are using PowerShell and we are happy to have Warren Estes talk with us about some of his experiences. Warren shares some ways he has used PowerShell to push the easy button and how it lead to a contribution on the Microsoft SSRS toolkit. We are joined this week by special guest panelist Eugene Meidinger. If you know the source of the original line, let me know on social media! The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/04/04/episode-130-use-case-for-powershell. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Books online state: "There is nothing a graph database can achieve, which cannot be achieved using a relational database." Why then are we putting graph technology in SQL Server? To help me answer this question, I invite my friend AZ to chat about the Graph feature in SQL Server 2017 and introduce how graph differs from a relational model. If you have every tried to implement complicated hierarchies in SQL Server, you know what a pain this can be. I, for one, am hopeful this new feature will allow us to tackle the various relationships even though it may be lacking certain features compared with other graph databases. Are you using graph technology in SQL Server or even another platform? I would be very interested to getting your thoughts on what you like and what you still find painful. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/03/28/episode-129-graph-databases. Have fun on the SQL Trail.

To Devops or not to Devops, that is the question. We've talked before about how the developers have all the cool new tools, but this is slowly changing. For those in development or dare I say agile (gasp!) environments there is more need for automation, but getting there can be a real challenge. In this episode, we chat with John Morehouse about how he actually put into practice automated deployments for the database, some of his challenges, and how long it took to get there. Are you trying to implement continuous delivery for the database? Let me know. I am very interested to hear your experiences. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/03/21/episode-128-database-doing-devops. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

There has been a remarkable shift introduced in the new features of SQL Server--programming languages have been embedded into the database. This has led to a few "What are you thinking" questions from myself and others. It also opens new opportunities for those working with SQL Server and in this episode, I chat with Andy Roberts and Chris Hyde and discuss the new features of R and Python--why they are included, how data teams are changing, and what this means for the rest of us. As someone who does not and has not ever considered themselves a programmer, I don't try to tackle any of the technical challenges of the language. We stay safe on the side of ideas, process, with a sprinkle of installation and setup. One of the most compelling ideas from this conversation is the democratizing of data. Sure, this is not a new concept; however, now with a programming language in the database it will force a thinking realignment for those that traditionally called themselves gatekeepers. Where CLR couldn't quite do the trick, I think the introduction of these languages is going to require increased collaboration with teams and force administrators to up their game as they tackle challenges of data distribution and data consumption. I am interested to see what lies ahead and how consumers will use these new features. We already have some insights into R and while I won't call it a smashing success—it is certainly useful to those who know how to take advantage of it and those numbers appear to be growing. With Python, I think we are increasing the breadth of those who can take advantage of analytics in the database, which I think only bodes well for those who enjoy working with SQL Server. What about you? Is your team trying to implement R or Python? What new skills have you had to learn because of these changes? Hit me up on social media. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/03/15/episode-127-developing-in-the-database. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Have you attended a SQLSaturday? They are great events and in this episode we chat with a few organizers about what goes into putting on an event and what they think the future of these events looks like. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/03/08/episode-126-sqlsaturday-edition. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Have you ever found it difficult to explain how something works to a co-worker? What about reading documentation? We have all been there before and in this episode we chat with Ray Kim about his thoughts on how we can be better at communicating technically. What is interesting is the number of tools that are now available to help us with communicating ideas; however, we all still struggle with communication. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/02/21/episode-125-you-must-be-an-engineer. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Perhaps you have heard about a runbook--the documented instructions you should follow in the event of a disaster or some situation where an outage occurs. Instructions are great for IT folks as they give a reference to follow--and they don't freak out even if we might. They don't, however, include instructions for everyone--what about the folks that aren't tapping away on the keyboard? In this episode, we chat with Greg Moore about his experience in emergency situations outside of IT and how we might apply these principles in our environment. Whether you are directly in the line of fire or support those that do, we think you will find this conversation interesting. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/02/13/episode-124-beyond-the-runbook-dr-organization. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Listener Eduardo Cervantes wanted to get our take on what developers should do when they get admin access to a database. We take on this challenge and I give 5 points you might consider if you are a developer with admin access to the SQL Server. As Uncle Ben in Spiderman quotes, "With great power comes great responsibility." We hope you use yours wisely. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2018/02/14/episode-123-top-5-things-to-know-when-getting-admin-access. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Does not play well with others. Is this description appropriate for some of the queries in your database? In this episode, we explore the role behind isolation levels--why they are important, what they help prevent, and why so many people try to get around the rules they try to enforce. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/12/20/episode-122-isolation-levels. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

I have heard it said "People don't quit jobs--they quit managers". At a recent event, I decided to ask people what they thought the qualities of a good manager are. Perhaps you aren't thinking of getting into management; however, at some point in your career you will have the opportunity to lead. We share your thoughts and comment on the challenges of having the qualities of a good manager. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/12/14/episode-121-what-makes-a-good-manager. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Shouldn't they have fixed that instead of putting out all these new features? That might be what you are thought when you saw the title for today's episode. SQL Injection is still a big deal in today's databases and we are pleased to have Bert Wagner on the program to talk with us about how it can affect you and the applications you protect. One of the most difficult aspects to deal with SQL Injection is to decide who is responsible for dealing with it? Bert does a great job giving us some insights on what he has seen work and we invite you to give us your comments about how you have gone about trying to evade a SQL Injection attack. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/12/06/episode-120-sql-injection. Have fun on the SQL trail!

At first glance you might think our podcast topic is from way out in left field; however, as you think about it there are a number of reasons we should be talking about GitHub. Even if you don't need a public source control repository for creating code, GitHub is becoming the preferred place for creators to publish their content and the ability to interact with other is extremely value. In this episode we give some of our thoughts around getting started with GitHub and how it might differ from some of the other options out there. Don't forget to leave your 'Tips and Tricks' on the podcast page. If we get enough submissions, we will start that new segment in January. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/11/29/episode-119-should-i-get-involved-with-github. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

After having attended PASS Summit and seeing all the new features coming it out, it can be very easy to overlook the basics--they are boring. These features have been around forever. This may be true, but they still play an important role and ignoring them won't help get you those fancy new features any time soon. In this episode, our topic is index maintenance, with an emphasis on what has changed or what might change. Is the query store feature going to impact the way we maintain our indexes? We invite one our favorite guests, Sean McCown back to talk with us and give some of his thoughts. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/11/24/index-maintenance. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

Have you ever had a week without a Wednesday? Me neither, so for this episode, we recap our experience at PASS Summit and talk about all the amazing compañeros we met and give some thoughts around our very first meetup. It was so much fun to meet everyone and both Steve and I gave sessions, which was a great experience--and a first for me. One, we both realized after the fact is, we are not good at social media or taking pictures! We apologize we don't have a bit more to share on that front, but hey--we do have faces for radio. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/11/15/episode-117-pass-summit-retrospective/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

If you have ever worked with Microsoft support, you probably came across the PssDiag tool they use to collect information about your environment. My experience with the tool is it always seemed, well--a bit clunky. Now, it does collect lots of information and seemed to be a bit overwhelming when I was first a DBA. Fast forward a few years and PssDiag was not a tool I use anymore and was not sure if anyone outside of Microsoft was using it. I run into Jared Poche in Raleigh and he mentions he really likes the tool and mentions some of the improvements they have made over the years. Well, you can guess where this is heading. We talk with Jared about his experience with the tool and cover some of the basics about how you might go about using this tool in your environment. There are two pieces to this tool, the first is the utility that collects the data and the second is the reporting piece SQL Nexus. Are you using PssDiag? Let us know if the comments below. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/11/07/episode-116-are-people-still-using-pssdiag. Have fun on the SQL trail!

It was a beautiful idea. Gather together with a group of our podcast listeners in a conference type format and find ways for us to connect and help each grow. I had seen it down in other events; however, I wanted to add my own flavor. I wanted this to be different. While the event turned out great and we got good marks from the attendees, we didn't have the response we were hoping for. In this episode of the podcast, we have our companero conference retrospective. We try to give our honest feedback about what we did well, what could have been improved, and what the attendees reported. I can't say enough about the help I got from our speakers--Jonathan Stewart, Kevin Feasel, Randolph West, Tracy Boggiano, and Doug Purnell. They were awesome and the event was much simpler because of them and their commitment. They are truly my companeros on the SQL trail. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/31/episode-115-the-companero-conference-retrospective. Have fun on the SQL trail!

One of the advantages to a small conference is the ability to take attendee feedback and put it in place during the conference. We actually made time for the attendees to pick topics they wanted to discuss and this episodes comes from one of our attendees Aaron Hayes. It can be very tempting to think of the good life of consulting. I almost liken it to playing the lottery--what am I going to do with all that time and money? While the odds on successful consulting are a bit higher than the lottery, just saying you are a consultant won't automatically bring in the clients. The reasons data professionals get into consulting are varied and in this episode we are joined by Randolph West and Jonathan Stewart, former podcast guests, to talk about the reasons we started consulting and some of the challenges along with our decision. From my own personal experience, working for yourself--whether you consider yourself a contractor or a consultant--is very rewarding but demanding work. There is no one to tell you want to do, but there are very few security nets as well. One of the most important ideas I can suggest for those who want to own their own business is--forget the technology, how are you going to help other people? If you are ok with the idea of focusing on others, then there are great opportunities in store. Do you have thoughts about jumping into technology? Let us know in the comments below. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/20/episode-114-how-do-you-start-consulting. Have fun on the SQL trail!

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Those words are attributed to Issac Newton and they are fitting for the way I was feeling recently as I thought back to those who have helped me in my career. While we might always want things to be better, as technologies we have it pretty good. There are unnumbered people who have dedicated untold amounts of time so we can have the tech available to us. We take a moment to think about those who have paved the way for us to be where we are now. Whose shoulders are you standing on? Let us know in the comments below. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/11/giants/. Have fun on the SQL trail!

When listener Mel Vargas first suggested the topic of patching, I was not sure this would work as a topic; however, the Equifax story had just developed and there are many other security related issues that could be prevented with patching. Match that with our guest, Robert Davis, who just happened to publish some articles on patching and I decided we needed to do this episode. I should never have doubted this as topic. While we are a bit more protected in SQL Server than others, the security threat is still real and this is something everyone has to go through. Robert presents us with some interesting details on how he goes about patching and we think you will find the episode compelling. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/04/episode-112-keeping-up-with-patching/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Sometimes just getting approval to attend a conference is a challenge, but getting the green light isn't the only thing you should plan for. Sure, you want to learn some things--but a google search can teach you too. In fact this week we are hearing about new features and functionality from the Ignite event--and I am catching all of it in my bunny slippers. Why attend a conference then? Conference season is upon us and Steve and I share some thoughts on why we attend conferences and some of the strategies we have used in the past. The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/09/28/episode-111-how-do-you-prepare-for-conferences/. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

As you work with other people, you will experience resistance when you suggest changes and want to implement something new. Why is this? One podcast listener shared an experience where a problem was occurring. The suggested a solution. The idea was rejected. No solution presented itself and the idea was submitted various times. When nothing else was working, the idea was finally implemented. The suggested change successfully helped the situation. Victory! Later, another issue arose and a similar suggestion was made. The expectation was the suggestion would be well received; however, this was not the case. The idea was still met with hostile resistance. Have you faced a situation like this before? Why wasn't there an trust built because of the first recommendation? Our conversation for today's episode centers around the idea of building trust on the teams you work with. As most our listeners are in the data platform space, we thought it would be a good idea to reach outside our community to folks we might receive the most pushback from--developers. We are happy to have Richard Campbell on the show with us today. Richard is the co-host of the .NET rocks podcast and you might recognize him from one of his many Channel9 videos. We chat with Richard about how we can build trust and some common ways we attempt to show authority can backfire on us and actually cause more problems. We talk about some of the ways those we trust have gone about earning our trust. I know you enjoy this episode. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/09/20/episode-110-how-do-i-build-trust-with-my-team/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

In episode 64 we interviewed Patrick Thomas, the program manager for the MCP program which includes certifications. There continues to be quite a bit of discussion around certifications, so it only makes sense that we give our take on the matter. Both Steve and I are certified, so this may give away some of our thoughts. Certification is a tricky thing. Much of the value you get out of a certification is dependent on where you on in your career and what your next step is going to be. This is going to be different for every person, so this decision is one that only you can make. This can make a decision on which certification to get and even when to get it a challenge. Our conversation really revolves around what a certification will get you and what it won't help you with. Do you agree with our list? Let us know!

After a brief hiatus, we are back on the air to continue the conversation and let me tell you--we have a great conversation lined up for this episode. The discussion around what will happen to the relational database, and by extension us as administrators continues to get quite a bit of traction. Even within SQL Server, we are starting to see more features that don't fit the traditional relational mode and a podcast listener inquired about getting our thoughts. As I thought about a guest for this episode, I didn't want to get someone tied to a product. They, like me, would be biased and I wanted to get someone a bit removed from the situation. Our guest today is Andrew Snodgrass, the research vice president at Directions and we chat about the future of the relational database and what the future of the data environment we manage might look like. I hope you will find his insights valuable as an outsider. While we don't get into the specifics of what databases are mostly like to be around, Andrew does give us administrator some idea's on what technologies we should start exploring. What are your thoughts around the future of the relational database? Join the conversation and let us know!

Data analytics is all anyone seems to talk about anymore. We've even caught the bug at SQL Data Partners and have started working with data platform MVP César Oviedo from Costa Rica. César has been helping us on some projects and we thought it was time we introduced him to everyone. On the Spanish front, he has been very busy putting out YouTube videos and publishing content for BI LATAM (Latin America). We invite him on the show to introduce himself and our conversation turns to the idea of BI for the little guy--smaller organizations that need to take advantage of analytics and how the ecosystem is changing to support them. We are happy to introduce César to you and know you will enjoy hearing from in this episode and future episodes. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/08/02/bi-for-the-little-guy/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

User: What was that record before it was updated? Me: I don't know. Maybe I could restore a backup? User: Really? You have to do all that? It is just one record. Me: (under my breath) Yes, a record YOU updated. If you have ever had a conversation like this you know how difficult it can be to implement auditing of records as they change. With temporal tables, a new feature, we have the ability to track point in time information about a record without the huge expense of setting up auditing and tracking. While you won't want to use this on every table, when there are tables with sensitive data you want to audit from time to time, this feature will come in handy. We are happy to have Randolph back on the program with us to talk about this new feature. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/25/episode-106-temporal-tables/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

How can you tell when a change is enough of a change? How do you know you didn't make too big of a change? Steve and I discuss some thoughts around what you might look for when you make certain changes. Some of the components we cover include Max degree of parallelism, cxpackets, virtual log files, the number of log files for a database, backup retention and memory. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/18/enough/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Do you have any experience with [Insert random technology]? Your heart starts to race and your palms get a little sweaty. You don't want to say no–we're tech folks–we know stuff, but there are so many new things to learn! How are you supposed to keep up with it all? In this episode, we chat with Eugene Meidinger about his thoughts on keeping up and his ideas on the most important learning components. The show notes for today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/07/keeping-up-with-technology/ and we hope to see you on the SQL trail.

When we write our queries to the database, SQL Server has to go and figure out the best way to go and bring back the data you asked for. A query plan is created to help SQL Server remember how to get the data for this query. It takes time to make these queries, so the database wants to limit the number of times it has to create the plans so it will try to reuse the plan as much as possible. Our topic for today's episode is query plan reuse and the pros and cons with this concept. We will also touch on the concept of parameter sniffing--a technique SQL Server uses to try and figure out the best values to use for the execution plan with the hopes the plan will help the most queries. Special thanks to James Youkhanis for the suggestion. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/07/04/episode-103-plan-reuse/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

One of the newer features in SQL Server is availability groups, which can help solve a number of business problems. As administrators, availability groups introduce some complexity as we are tasked to make sure the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) can be meet for these servers. The complexity comes because we have different instances that must work together, but they don't always see eye to eye. In this episode, we chat with Tracy Boggiano of channeladvisor about how they go about monitoring their availability groups and the pros and cons of the out of the box tools. Our discussion touches on process of the availability group process and Tracy has posted her scripts on her bog for you use as you look at reviewing your environments. I think you will enjoy this discussion. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/06/29/episode-102-monitoring-availability-groups/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Listener Cody Ford wrote in and asked if we could share some thoughts on getting familiar with an unfamiliar database. While we have done episodes in the past on best practices, this episode takes the approach of what we should look for on a server that is new to us--the components we should document and then review for potential updates. Do you agree with our list? Let us know on by leaving a comment on the show notes page. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/06/07/inspect-new-database/ ‎and have fun on the SQL trail.

Something a bit strange happened in episode 100--almost like something out of the twilight zone, but don't take our word for it. Check out our latest episode as tell some of the stories that led up today. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/06/14/episode-100-listener-qa-c144/ ‎and have fun on the SQL trail

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome) is a term coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a "fraud". In this episode of the SQL Data Partners podcast, we take on a topic that is not technical; however, might play a very important role in some of the opportunities we take--or miss out on. Today's guest is Mindy Curnutt, a 3x MVP and a real chance taker as she recently decided to become independently employed. In this episode we talk through the idea of imposter syndrome and give some examples of how it affects us, but we also try and tackle ways we can identify it and steps to help us overcome. I think you are going to find this episode very interesting and we hope you enjoy it. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/06/07/episode-99-imposter-syndrome/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

In a recent SQLSaturday conference, I walked into the speakers room and asked the question--What is the first thing you change after you install SQL Server? It was interesting to get their take on the server setup and I think you will enjoy the conversation. There are various answers on this one but some of the speakers have mentioned stuffs like set auto grow files, SQL Prompt, SQL parameter class and max memory among others. I would like to thank Kevin Feasel, Jonathan Stewart, Eugene Meidinger, Raymond Kim, Tracy Boggiano, Mindy Curnutt, Thomas Grohser, and Vladimir Oselsky for their suggestions. The shownotes can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/06/01/episode-98-the-first-change/

If you have ever been responsible for a replication environment, you know what a pain that can be. Many of the guests of the show will point out their frustration with replication and many are loathe to use it--myself included; however, there are a few brave souls out in the world who do use replication regularly--and even use it well. Chuck Lathrope is our guest today and he talks us through some of the components of replication and why we might not need to be so skittish about this long time feature. We cover all the basics including an overview of Transactional Replication, Merge Replication, Peer-to-Peer replication and Snapshot Replication, the concept of publisher, distributor and subscriber in relation to replication. The most important piece is Chuck gives us some good business cases for why we might use replication and I think you will find the discussion interesting. Thanks for joining us on the SQL trail! The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/05/24/episode-97-sql-server-replication/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Have you ever created something and wanted to share it with others with the hope they will contribute and make it better? Sites like the new defunct codeplex and GitHub are full of functionality people want to share and work with others on; however, many projects remain dormant. What are the characteristics that create an environment where people want to contribute to your project? Steve and I discuss a few ideas and we interview two very successful community project leaders in Brent Ozar and Chrissy LeMarie about how they got started and what it takes to put together a good community project. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/05/10/community-tools/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Big data is term we have been hearing frequently as of late and this might cause some concern for us in the SQL Server space. Micrsoft has introduced some new functionality to help connect different data stores with PolyBase. We are happy to have Kevin Feasel from ChannelAdvisor back with us and Kevin will discuss some of the basics around what PolyBase does. We'll be discussing a lot about integrations using PolyBase specifically on Hadoop and Azure SQL Blob Storage. We also touch on some of the technologies that will be supported in the future. For those looking at implementing both structured and unstructured data stores, PolyBase will be a way to help bring these environments together. Kevin gives us a great overview and we think you will enjoy this episode. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/05/03/episode-95-polybase/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

There are lots of reporting options and I watch SQL Server move up the Gartner magic quantrant, I saw another reporting tool moving up as well--Qlik. In this episode we will start by sharing information about Qlik, what it is and some background in the event it gets adopted at your company. Today we are delighted to have Michael Armentrout as our guest. Michael is a Microsoft SQL Server DBA as well as the developer of QlikView and we discuss the fundamentals of QlikView such as the associative model, in-memory, compression and sharing among others. Also we will hear from Michael the difference between QlikView and QlikSense, and some of the "competitors". Michael share some of his thoughts on using the technology and how it is different from the traditional Microsoft stack. We think you will find it interesting. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/04/27/qlik/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

We all make them and sometimes it can be painful. Making and sharing mistakes is one of the most powerful tools for learning; However, most of us do all they can to avoid and hide those mistakes. In this episode, Steve and I talk about making mistakes and share some thoughts around how we might improve how to respond when we don't do something quite right. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/04/25/episode-93-making-mistakes/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

At one time there were two different products named SSDT and that was confusing for lots of folks. and we're pleased to have Kevin Cunnane, the program manager for SSDT, as our guest. We wanted to ask him about some of the new database features in Visual Studio and what kind of problems they are looking to solve. We think it is awesome the Microsoft folks will take some time our there their schedules to talk with us and we think you will this episode an interesting discussion on the future of database tooling. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/04/18/episode-92-ssdt/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

We all want an easy button. It is human nature. We heard quite a bit about how easy PowerShell will make everything, but for those of us who aren't programmers, it can be a bit intimidating to get started. Luckily for us, we have what is shaping up to be the closest thing to an easy button for DBAs I have found for PowerShell tools from the folks at dbatools.io. We invite some of the team to chat with us about their tool, how they got started and the types of problems they are looking to solve. In this episode, Chrissy will be talking about how DBA Tools started from just being a simple migration tool until it became a useful tool solving various SQL related issues. The team will discuss the other various situations where DBA Tools can really be helpful and how they manage contributions from over 30 people which leads us to talk about GitHub, the open source community, and their experiences in updating versions of DBA Tools and how they encourage contributors in the project. Chrissy, Rob, Constantine, and Aaron were super excited to talk with us and we loved their energy and think you will enjoy this episode. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/04/12/episode-91-dba-tools/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

DBCC CheckDB. It is a simple command, but one that can cause database contention, dba stress, confusing results, dba elation, and everything in between. At one time we will all have to face the results of having a corruption issue and we're delighted to have Sean McCown with us again to discuss the ins and outs of the issues of this command. If you can remember, Sean was our guest in Episode 41. He is an SQL Server MVP with more than 15 years experience. We talk with Sean about how frequent issues we have with maintenance like we often we should run CheckDB on our databases or what happens when I can only check one database during my window. While we don't end up discussing the command as much, we definitely review all aspects of making sure it can run in ALL environments. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/04/05/dbcc-checkdb/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

One of the neat benefits of putting the podcast together is talking to a wide spectrum of folks with varied backgrounds. As we get more feedback from listeners, the idea of the Lone DBA emerged. The Lone DBA is someone who is the only person responsible for database administration at their company. These tasks may have been assigned or they may have simply been required to help support an application. Steve and I thought we should explore this a bit and to help give us some context, we invited Monica Rathbun to chat with us about some of the challenges she's faced. Besides the challenges, Monica shares tactics and techniques to juggle many tasks while being a lone DBA. This includes using social media as a way of building connections with different experts, getting the right tools for the organization's needs and making your boss your supporter. Have your own perspective on this? Let us know in the show notes for the episode. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/03/28/episode-89-lone-dba/ and have fun on the SQL trail.

Why can't we just get along? There can be a real love/hate relationship between those of us with data responsibilities and those who are responsible for SharePoint environments.  We want to provide good service to those environments, but there are SO MANY things we can't do on a SharePoint database.  To see how the other half lives, we invited Todd Klindt onto the program to give us his thoughts on how we can all get along a bit better. Because Todd suggests the "SQL and SharePoint communities should understand each other a little better", we will try to tackle some of the obstacles the teams face so you can be better armed to support your SharePoint team. The shownotes for today's episode is found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/02/08/episode-88-sharepoint/ and have fun on the SQL trail.