Colorado Springs SQL Server Chapter

Date:  October 17 at 5:30 pm

Location:  Hyatt Place - Garden of the Gods, 503 West Garden of the Gods Road, Colorado Springs, CO  80909

Main Session:  "The Accidental Programmer"

Presenter:  Jason Kassay

Program Summary:  Most people in the database world have heard of the term, "The Accidental DBA", those programmers who have to work with databases.  How about the other side of the coin?  What about DBA's and Dev's who have to write code or have to work closely with programmers?  This presentation is a best practices guide for working with SQL Server in a .Net environment.  You will learn how to recognize when bad code is written that interacts with the database, how to track it down, and most importantly how to fix it.  On top of that you will also receive an introduction to object oriented programming concepts such as data abstraction, encapsulation, tier architecture, and class objects so that you can better communicate with your programmers.

Presenter Bio:  Jason has been a software developer for over 10 years and currently works at EZFacility, providing scheduling, management, full-service billing, and membership solutions for the sports, health, and fitness industries.  He has worked primarily with .Net (C# and VB) and SQL Server as well as HTML, CSS, and Javascript.  When he is not coding or spending time with his awesome family, you will find him either running (to train for the zombie apocalypse) or stopping hockey pucks as a goaltender.

COLORADO SPRINGS SQL

September 19, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.

This month Kevin Kline will be presenting "End to End Troubleshooting" at the Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver SQL Meetings

Summary:  Learning how to detect, diagnose and resolve performance problems in SQL Server is tough.  It often takes years of on-the-job experience to learn how to use the tools and techniques that help you detect when a problem is occurring, diagnose the root-cause of the problem, and then resolve the problem.  So strap yourself in to a time machine, because you'll learn in less than two hours what it took Kevin years to figure out through hands-on troubleshooting and problem solving.

Bio:  Kevin Kline is the Director of Engineering Services at SQL Sentry.  Kevin is a renowned database expert, software industry veteran, Microsoft SQL Server MVP, and long-time blogger.  As a noted leader in the IT industry, Kevin's blog covers Microsoft SQL Server features and best practices, third-party software, trends in the IT industry, and professional development for IT professionals.

Boulder SQL

Date:  Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Time:  5:30 p.m.

Location:  Level 3 Communications, Room 4LA-07, 1025 Eldorado Boulevard, Broomfield, CO  80021

Colorado Springs SQL

Date:  Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Time:  5:30 p.m.

Location:  Hyatt Place - Garden of the Gods, 503 West Garden of the Gods Road, Colorado Springs, CO  80919

Denver SQL

Date:  Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.

Location:  Microsoft, 7595 Technology Way, Suite 400, Denver, CO  80207

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments.  There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker . . . or two.  These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other SQL Server Professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday (June 19)

Market Force

248 Centennial Parkway, Suite 150

Louisville, CO  80027

Presentation 1:

Title:  Training a Busy SQL Agent

You have a busy server with 50 or more jobs defined, and roughly 40 of them are enabled.  You need to bring the server down for some important maintenance (say add a new disk, add memory, reboot due to software install, etc.)  You notice that a good half of th ejobs are executing and others are being kicked off every few minutes.  Whenever you wait for a job to finish, others have started.  How do you bring this server down without killing any of the running jobs?

​Presenter​:  Paul Paiva (blog), Chief Architect, CoCreative Solutions

Paul has 17 years experience with Microsoft SQL Server.  He has worked in the roles of production DBA, database developer, database architect, applications developer, business intelligence and data warehouse developer, and instructor for students aspiring for MCDBA certification.  He has performed numerous data migrations and supported large databases (3 Terabyte, 1+ billion rows) with high transactions.  Presently he is an independent SQL Server consultant with CoCreative Solutions.  He is a member of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), blogs about lessons learned form a developer's approach to SQL Server administration, and has been the president of the BoulderSQL Server Users' Group for 3+ years.

​Presentation 2:

Title:  Top 12 Performance Enhancements in 2012

This presentation will go over the Top 10 enhancements and/or new features in SQL Server 2012 to increase the performance of your database.  You will get a good overview on which options may be a good fit for you and which will not work in every environment as well as some key things to be on the lookout for when using these.

​Presenter:  Kathy Gibbs, Senior Database Administrator, Confio Software

Kathy has over 19 years of IT work experience and over 13 years of DBA experience including architecting, design, development, implementation, monitoring and disaster recovery of databases.  Before starting with Confio, Kathy worked in the critical OLTP and OLAP databases.  Kathy excels as being a liaison between technical and end-users management teams to provide solutions.

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday (June 20)

Hyatt Place - Garden of the Gods

503 West Garden of the Gods Road

Colorado Springs, CO  80919

​Presentation 1: 

​Title:  What Your Developer Friends Already Know About Windows 8

Windows 8 is a big deal.  The changes for the user interface are significant, but the impact on software development might be bigger.  Microsoft developers are working hard to grab onto the new paradigm of app development.  For non-developers, what are you missing out on learning?  Here's your chance to catch up.

​Presenter:  Jerry Nixon (blog / twitter)

Jerry Nixon is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist in Colorado.  He has been developing and designing on the Microsoft platform for 15 years.  He speaks at universities, events and groups on Kinect, XAML, Windows Phone, and Windows 8.  Most of Jerry's days are spent teaching his three daughters Star Trek character backstories and episode plots.

DenverSQL

Third Thursday (June 21)

Microsoft

7595 Technology Way, Suite 400

Denver, CO  80207

Presentation 1:

​Title:  Lockdown!  Securing Your Services

HOST/SQLServer2005MSSQLUser$HOST$MSSQLSERVER???  It's ok, you aren't the only one that's tried to make sense out of all these.  In this talk, we will discuss what options are available for your SQL Server services and security best practices that might be worth implementing in your organization.  This presentation follows past experiences, epiphanies . . . maybe even some frustrations . . . in switching to minimally privileged service accounts.

​Presenter:  Brandon Tucker 

Over the past six years, Brandon has explored SQL Server as a developer, administrator, and consultant.  After graduation school, he has translated his academic knowledge base into real-world scenarios in the financial, health insurance, education, and transportation industries.  Brandon has presented at Code Camps/User Groups in multiple states and was elected as VP of Events for DSSUG in 2010.  When not pounding away on a keyboard, Brandon can be found wandering the globe in search of great music, beers, views, and experiences.

Presentation 2:

​Title:  SQL Server on VMware???

Many of our customers are either virtualizing databases or planning to do so soon.  I hear from many groups that attempted running their database on VMware but went back to physical hardware because of performance issues.  There are many reasons this may have happened, but quite often the decision to go back to physical was not based on hard facts.  This presentation will explore the fundamentals of monitoring databases running in a VMware environment.  If you are using classic O/S monitoring tools, you may be getting misleading data.  Understand what metrics are important and how to get the data.

​Presenter:  Kathy Gibbs, Senior DBA, Confio Software

Kathy has over 19 years of IT work experience and over 13 years of DBA experience, including architecting, design, development, implementation, monitoring, and disaster recovery of databases.  Before starting with Confio, Kathy worked in the critical OLTP and OLAP databases.  Kathy excels as being a liaison between technical and the end-users management teams to provide solutions.

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday

Market Force

248 Centennial Parkway
Louisville, CO 80027

Presentation 1:

Title: The SQL Family Connection 

Using social media to get technical support, and also to promote your career.

Presenter: Mike Fal ( blog )

Mike Fal is a musician turned SQL Server DBA, with 10+ years of experience as a database administrator. He has worked for several different industries, including healthcare, software development, marketing, and manufacturing and has experience supporting databases from 1 GB to 4 TB in size. Mike received his a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1996 and has been caught playing trombone in public on more than one occasion.

Presentation 2:

Title: Introduction to Data Warehousing

Just starting or thinking of starting a data warehousing project but not sure where to begin. Or still not sure if your organization needs a data warehouse. This discussion is geared towards answering the what and why (or why not) of data warehousing.

Presenter: Marc Beacom ( blog | twitter )  & Jeff Renz ( twitter )

Marc Beacom, MCTS - SQL Server 2008 BI and Development, has over 15 years of technical and business experience. He is currently Principal Architect and Owner of DawaBI focusing on Making Data-Driven Decisions Possible by delivering user friendly and scalable data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. Marc is an active volunteer within the community and currently co-organizer of the Colorado GiveCamp and Advisory Board Member for Camp To Belong Colorado.  Marc has also volunteered for other organizations such as the Denver SQL Server UG, Colorado Springs SQL Server UG and spent a year as a regional mentor for PASS.

Jeff Renz: Currently working for Abound Solar as the lead architect implementing a solar panel field performance data warehouse.
Developed global manufacturing and supply chain data collection and reporting solutions since 1999.  Bachelors degree in computer science and a masters degree in operations research from the Colorado School of Mines.  Certified by the Genesee Academy as a Certified Data Vault Data Modeler.

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday

Hyatt Place – Garden of the Gods

503 West Garden of the Gods Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Presentation 1:

Title:

What’s new in T-SQL for SQL Server 2012 – Part 1

SQL Server 2012 has many new T-SQL enhancements that will simplify your code…and life.  We’ll roll up our sleeves and dive in.

Presenter: Marc Beacom ( blog | twitter )

Marc Beacom, MCTS - SQL Server 2008 BI and Development, has over 15 years of technical and business experience. He is currently Principal Architect and Owner of DawaBI focusing on Making Data-Driven Decisions Possible by delivering user friendly and scalable data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. Marc is an active volunteer within the community and currently co-organizer of the Colorado GiveCamp and Advisory Board Member for Camp To Belong Colorado.  Marc has also volunteered for other organizations such as the Denver SQL Server UG, Colorado Springs SQL Server UG and spent a year as a regional mentor for PASS.

Presentation 2:

Title: Develop a Quick and Dirty Web Interface to your Database: for the DBA and other non-developers

So you want to develop to your database? Do you have your own tools to check performance? Does Chris Shaw's Utility Database sound like a tool you have and want a web interface, but don’t want to write a lot of code? I will demonstrate how a simple ASP.Net MVC site can be developed and deployed against your database. See firsthand how easy we can use Shaw's utility database and access across the web over a mobile device so you may manage performance online whilst zipping your drink of choice.

Presenter: Gabe Villa ( blog | twitter )

Bio: Originally from El Paso, Texas, Gabriel has over 10 years’ professional developer experience using Microsoft technologies. Gabriel is an MCPD, ASP.NET Developer and an MCTS in SQL Server 2008 Database Development. He has developed desktop, web and database systems for the medical, retail, imports distributors, and automotive industries. Gabriel recently moved with his wife and three kids to Colorado Springs, where he works for a small ISV developing software for the big-ticket retail industry.

DenverSQL

Third Thursday

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Presentation 1:

Title: Exposing the Core: Intro to SQL Server 2012 on Server Core

Everything that's old is new again. With SQL 2012, we can now run our SQL Servers on Server Core, a version of the Windows OS that is smaller and more secure. This presentation will introduce you to Server Core, how to prepare it for a SQL installation, and how to actually install SQL 2012 on to it.

Presenter: Mike Fal ( blog )

Mike Fal is a musician turned SQL Server DBA, with 10+ years of experience as a database administrator. He has worked for several different industries, including healthcare, software development, marketing, and manufacturing and has experience supporting databases from 1 GB to 4 TB in size. Mike received his a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1996 and has been caught playing trombone in public on more than one occasion.

Presentation 2:

Title: ETL as Master Data Management

The worst customer service I have ever personally experienced was directly tied to a company’s failure to have an effective Master Data Management (MDM) system.
Most companies have multiple data sources that track the exact same data. Retail operations have multiple point of sale systems (internet, phone, bricks and mortar); health care providers have multiple applications for specialties (Radiology, oncology, etc.); finance companies have multiple systems based on products (mortgages, other loans, checking and savings accounts). These systems track the same or similar data (e.g. all systems track customers) and can maintain completely different information about the same thing. This arises from human data entries and failure to manage the critical nouns for the company and a lack of effective MDM solutions in the market.
ETL solutions in the BI stack are perfectly positioned to manage this data, reconcile the differences and maintain consistency across an enterprise. I will speak about what I consider to be the four main jobs of any MDM system and how to incorporate these into an ETL system:

• Identify data inconsistencies
• Reconcile those differences (programmatically if possible)
• Synchronize reconciled data with source systems
• Send any un-reconciled data to humans for resolution

Presenter: Mike Sexton ( blog | twitter )

Stunningly handsome yet surprisingly humble, Mike Sexton spent the first ten years of his career as a public defender in New York. Realizing he could make far more money as a junior programmer than as a lawyer with 10 years’ experience, he had a revelation, the words of which that are not appropriate for a family publication. Since then Mike has traveled the lands taming errant database applications, publishing and blogging at www.sqlmountain.com. He recently published Applied Architecture Patterns on the Microsoft Platform, which may be found at finer bookstores. Mike can be found living the high life in Colorado with a hot blonde on his arm.

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday

(Location has moved – please see website at www.BoulderSQL.org for more info)

Presentation 1:

Title: Smart Coding for Addressing Index Fragmentation

Rather than simply running pre-formed maintenance plans that may have unexpected results, learn to write “smart code” – code that assess which tables have indexes that need to be rebuilt, then judiciously decide which ones to target, and optionally automate this process.

Level: Beginner to Intermediate, for both DBAs and Developers

Presentation will include.

– What tables are indexed?

– What columns does table X have indexed?

– Are there any “included columns” in the indexes?

- Write scripts for judiciously rebuilding indexes based on your criteria of table size (rows or bytes) and fragmentation level.

Presenter: Paul Paiva ( blog )

Paul Paiva has 16 years’ experience with Microsoft SQL Server. He has worked in the roles of production DBA, database developer, database architect, applications developer, business intelligence and data warehouse developer, and instructor for students aspiring for MCDBA certification. He has performed numerous data migrations and supported large databases (3 Terabyte, 1+ billion rows) with high transactions. Presently he is an independent SQL Server consultant with CoCreative Solutions. He is a member of the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), blogs about lessons learned from a developer’s approach to SQL Server administration, and has been the co-president of the Boulder SQL Server Users’ Group for the past three years.

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday

Hyatt Place – Garden of the Gods

503 West Garden of the Gods Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Presentation 1:

Title: Oracle for the SQL Server DBA

Are you curious about Oracle, but afraid to admit it? It is common for many DBA's to be biased to one database platform, but it has become more and more demanding of the database administrator to manage and have a firm knowledge of more than one in many environments. This session will introduce the SQL Server DBA to Oracle in a way that will meet their day to day challenges in a multi-platform database environment. Come learn about how Oracle and SQL Server are very similar, different and how to translate common concepts in SQL Server to Oracle database administration. No prior experience in Oracle is required and important features and concepts will be covered to assist the SQL Server DBA in incorporating Oracle into their database skill set.

Presenter: Kellyn Pot’vin

Kellyn Pot'vin, (pronounced Poet-Vaughn) has been a database administrator for over eleven years, a new Oracle ACE, specializing in large database performance tuning. In the last year, she's been working with large SSD databases and Exadata, taking advantage of the newest technology and performance tuning features. Kellyn is known for her technical blog, dbakevlar.com, and is a member of the board of directors for Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group, (RMOUG). She's performed numerous presentations on performance tuning and written articles for various technical newsletters and Web sites, starting out as an active participant on the Oracle-L list. She currently contributes to several technical sites and publications, including ITNewsCast and OraDBPedia. Kellyn lives with her three children in Broomfield, CO, and currently is honing her technical skills at I-behavior, a marketing firm in Louisville, CO.

Presentation 2:

Title: What is the Best Disaster Recovery Solution

Case Study – Get ready to work through a real world problem, we are going to spend this session reviewing a company and the challenges they faced when it comes to Disaster Recovery. Once we have a good handle on the challenges they have, we will talk through what the solution for them would be. Consider this a follow up to last month’s meeting. Take a few minutes to download and review some of the specifics on this company.

Presenter: Chris Shaw ( blog | twitter )

DenverSQL

Third Thursday

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Presentation 1:

Title: Big Data

Why is Big Data such a hot topic these days? Is there anything different at the conceptual level than what we are doing with data today? What is Microsoft's offering in the Big Data space? Why is a guy from the SQL Server product team talking to us about noSql concepts and open source products?

Presenter: Kevin Cox ( web | twitter )

Kevin Cox has been working with databases for over 35 years and with SQL Server for more than 25 years. He is an author, lecturer and mentor in database subjects. Kevin is currently with the Microsoft SQL Server product group in the Customer Advisory Team and feels fortunate to be able to work on the largest projects around the world.

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Meeting canceled this month

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday

Hyatt Place – Garden of the Gods

Presentation 1:

Title: What is the Best Disaster Recovery Solution?

It depends, every situation is different. The question is often asked of DBA's to provide a solution to very open ended requirements.  However, the best solution can only be provided if the database professional is getting all the answers.  This session is a case study into many of Disaster Recovery options that we as database professionals have.  Understand the answers to the important questions that  we should be asking to provide the best solution not only for the database but for the business as well.  As an attendee you will learn how to change an answer from it depends into a solid solution that can be built upon. We will take examples from experiences and as a group determine what the best situation is, and then compare it to the actual solution implemented.

i.   At the end of this session, the attendees will be able to describe the differences between all the disaster recovery solutions and when to use them.
ii.  Walk away knowing the right questions to ask when presented with a disaster recovery project and why the answers change the disaster recovery options that could be presented.
iii. Learn from real life examples the stumbling points that you won’t read in books on line.

Presenter: Chris Shaw ( blog | twitter )

Chris started his database career while in the Marine Corps somewhere in 1993.  From there he went on to companies such as Wells Fargo, Pulte Mortgage and Yellow Pages Inc., and later consulted with insurance companies including Anthem Blue Shield.  Chris has enjoyed writing and speaking about SQL Server over the last 10 years at events such as SQL Connections, Pass and SSWUG Ultimate conferences where Chris was the Conference Chair. Chris received the Microsoft MVP award.  He is the founding member of the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group and is currently blogging on chrisshaw.wordpress.com, sswug.org and writing his book,  How to Find Your Next DBA Job.

DenverSQL

Third Thursday

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Presentation 1:

Title: What is SQL Server AlwaysOn?

SQL Server AlwaysOn is the new comprehensive high availability (HA) and disaster recovery solution for SQL Server 2012. Using AlwaysOn, businesses can now achieve increased application availability and get better return on their hardware investments through a simplified HA deployment and management experience.

AlwaysOn comes with new and enhanced capabilities that can provide availability for specific application database(s) and also the entire instance which provides the flexibility to support various high availability configurations:

• AlwaysOn Availability Group is the new capability that helps protect application databases from both planned and unplanned downtime.
• AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instance provides protection for the entire instance and is an enhancement to the existing SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance.

Both AlwaysOn Availability Group and AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instance rely on Windows Server Failover Clustering infrastructure which provides a robust and reliable high availability platform.

Presenter: Mike Wilmont ( blog | twitter )

Mike Wilmot is an SQL Server Technology Specialist working in the Communications and Media & Entertainment sectors at Microsoft. He has been working with Microsoft Database and Development tools since the early-1990s and has been at Microsoft since 1997 and took a 3 year hiatus to run his own Microsoft-based consulting firm before returning back to Microsoft. Mike has a Masters in Computer Science from University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Mike’s technical strengths are Microsoft SQL Server OLTP and OLAP technologies and .NET development.  He also worked for Lucent Technologies where he worked on  multi-threaded, kernel-mode VOIP devices drivers.

Mike’s interests outside of work are trying to keep up with his 3 kids, playing online chess and running triathlons in Colorado. His undergrad was from the US Naval Academy and he spent 6 years in the Marine Corps and was in Desert Storm.

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday

Level 3 Communications

Room 4LA-07

1025 Eldorado Blvd
Broomfield, CO 80021

Presentation 1:

Title: Eating the Elephant: SQL Server Table Partitioning

Is your table fat? Do you need to manage a table that has billions of rows within it and are overwhelmed by index rebuilds that take more than 12 hours? SQL Server's table partitioning gives the DBA the tools to manage this beast and support very large tables in a way where index management and data retrieval does not become unwieldy. This presentation will take you step by step through choosing an appropriate partitioning key, setting up the partitioning on the table, and finally maintaining the partitions.

Presenter: Mike Fal ( blog | twitter )

Mike Fal is a musician turned SQL Server DBA, with 10+ years of experience along with some brief excursions into Oracle and Netezza. He has worked for several different industries, including healthcare, software development, marketing, and manufacturing and has experience supporting databases from 1 GB to 4 TB in size. Mike received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1996 and has been caught playing trombone in public on more than one occasion.

SpringsSQL

No meeting as they hosted SQL Saturday #104

DenverSQL

Third Thursday

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Presentation 1:

Title: TDE, oh what fun! Auditing, no!!

I have this database which must meet all of these governmental regulations. Just like the government to make life a lot harder but wait, now they say I most also meet International regulations. Can this be true? Why me? Let's look at what we can do to help us pass audits and comply with the laws around us. We will explore the features in SQL Server 2008 which help us.
I need to install TDE, what do I do? Move the database to other server, can I do that? I used certificates, can I change them. I don’t like governments making me do all this stuff, it complicates my database. What does TDE do to my backups? Can I remove it? Auditing, no, let’s run for the hills. Let’s see how Sql Server can help us with these issues.

Presenter: Tom Norman

Tom has been working with SQL Server since 1998. He has worked internationally with SQL Server. His current responsibilities include Replication, Performance and Server Compliance of all Production databases in the US and UK. Tom and his team has just finished upgrading several products to Sql Server 2008 R2 on VMware while putting them on a new SAN and bringing them into PCI compliance. Tom is the past President of the Denver SQL Server User Group and actively speaks at SQL Saturday events and local events.

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday (September 20)

Level 3 Communications

Room 4LA-07

1025 Eldorado Blvd
Broomfield, CO 80021

Presentation 1:

Title: SQL Programming: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Presenter: Victor Kushdilian

An insight into some common poor SQL development practices that can severely impact the performance of the database server. I will bring to light my experiences from 4 production SQL environments including some real examples with a focus on how to detect and avoid these practices.

Victor Kushdilian has over 20 years experience developing database applications starting with PL1/CICS/DB2 as an employee at IBM. Founded SportsWare, Inc in 1994 - a company developing and marketing desktop software for the fledgling fantasy sports market. As one of the founding businesses in the industry, designed, developed and sold The Commissioner series of fantasy sports software products using various database platforms including Foxpro, VB, Delphi.

Developed and launched one of the first commercially available web sites supporting fantasy leagues in 2001 using SQL Server 2000. Converted to a contract BI Developer in 2008 and have worked in 4 production SQL Server environments with the responsibilities that include design and development of complete database systems including functions/procs/jobs/schema, various SSIS packages, and complete SSRS reporting systems. I have successfully revamped 2 database systems to create highly scalable, high performance reporting solutions.

Currently working at Ball Manufacturing in Broomfield as a BI Developer and Analyst designing and developing a new data warehouse (SSAS) which will collect manufacturing metrics from 19 remote SQL Servers.

Presentation 2:

Title: "So You Are a New DBA - Now What?"

Presenter: Todd Kleinhans ( twitter )  

In this presentation Todd will go over a recent client experience of being a new dba in an existing environment. It will be a mix of screenshots, some code, and audience participation.

Topics will include:

• Professional Conduct
• Responsibilities
• Immediate Concerns and Projects
• Getting Access to Systems
• Escalation Procedures
• Documentation - We Don't Need No Stinkin' Documentation!
• What Maintenance?
• Scheduling Changes and Maintenance
• Routines and Monitoring
• Optimization and Tuning
• Free Tools

Todd Kleinhans has been working with SQL Server since 1999. He has worked as a dba, developer, data architect, manager, and consultant. His current job is as a Senior SQL Server DBA consultant at Datavail.

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday (September 21)

Mr. Biggs

5825 Mark Dabling Boulevard
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Presentation 1:

Title: “This is SQL Jeopardy!”

Presenter: Rebecca Mitchell ( blog | twitter )

The category is “Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group”. The clue is “A thrilling, mettle-proving battleground of fun in which knowledge of SQL is proven amongst peers in 20 glorious minutes!” If you said “What is SQL Jeopardy?” you are absolutely right!  Join our very own T-“Do Not Call Me Alex” SQL Princess in our first ever SQL Jeopardy as we set our members against one another to determine who will be crowned the SQL Jeopardy Champion!

Rebecca is currently a database administrator with six fun-filled years of experience in SQL Server administration and development. With a background in a variety of technologies, she possesses over twelve years of notable success in providing and implementing technology solutions in an assortment of industries including aerospace manufacturing, container shipping, and local government. Sometimes referred to as the “T-SQL Princess,” she is also the Vice President of Marketing for the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group and an overall goofball.

Presentation 2:

Title: Devs are from Mars, Report Servers are from Venus

Presenter: Doug Lane ( blog | twitter )

Do you remember what it was like to fall in love? Wasn't it wonderful? Lately it just hasn't been the same. You've been stuck in the same old routine, doing the same old charts and tables. Maybe Reporting Services doesn’t tell you what’s wrong. Maybe you're even thinking about seeing other reporting products (!) In this session, Doug will re-ignite your passion for RS by showing you how to design for better performance, explaining what RS has been trying to tell you through logs (but you haven't been listening), and demonstrating some new -- and easy -- tricks you may not have known RS can do. After this session, you'll want to spend some time alone with your new old flame.

Doug (MCTS) is a business intelligence, database, and sometimes ASP.NET/C# developer with ten years experience using Microsoft web and database products in the agriculture, insurance, taxonomy, and healthcare industries. He currently works for University Physicians, Inc. as a BI developer.Contact URL: http://www.douglane.net

DenverSQL

Third Thursday (September 15)

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Title: PASS Summit 2011 Debrief

Presenter: DenverSQL Board Members (and more!) ( twitter )

Ever wonder what it's like to attend the PASS Summit? Did you want to attend but just couldn't get the boss to approve it? Do you attend the User Groups for free pizza? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, you will love this month's meeting!
This year's PASS Summit has come and gone, growing by over 20% since last year. In order to shake up the traditional style, some of the DenverSQL Board Members (Marc Beacom ( blog | twitter ), Jason Horner ( blog | twitter ), Steve Wake ( blog | twitter ), Brandon Tucker), first-time PASS attendee Mike Fal ( blog | twitter ), and possibly more will be giving short, informal talks on their experience this year. Topics will include:

• Business Intelligence track
• DBA track
• The social side of PASS
• Networking
• What it's like to attend PASS for the first time
• ...and more!

Please join us for these talks as well as an open forum/panel afterwards to discuss anything not covered. Have your questions ready...this will be your chance to get a feel for everything the PASS Summit has to offer!

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

BoulderSQL

Third Tuesday (September 20)

Level 3 Communications

Room 4LA-07

1025 Eldorado Blvd
Broomfield, CO 80021

Title: SQL Server on VMware?

Presenter: Janis Griffin ( twitter ) of Confio

More and more companies are virtualizing with VMWare, and databases are the next logical step. This presentation will explore the fundamentals of monitoring databases running in a VMWare environment because it can be much different than when running on a physical machine. You will learn business and technical benefits of virtualization, master new terms and concepts, pick up useful planning tips and tricks, and cover best practices for maintaining optimum performance in a VMWare environment.

Janis Griffin has over 25 years of DBA experience including design, development and implementation of many critical database applications. Before coming to Confio Software, Janis held may DBA positions working with both real-time routing databases and OLTP business to business applications. As a Principal Architect and Senior Manager, Janis has mentored many other DBAs on best practices in database performance tuning.

SpringsSQL

Third Wednesday (September 21)

Mr. Biggs

5825 Mark Dabling Boulevard
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Presentation 1:

Title: 10 Things I wish I Knew Then

Presenter: Chris Shaw ( blog | twitter )

Have you ever looked back at your life or decisions you have made and said…. I wish I would have known that 10 years ago. In this short but quick session I will share with you the 10 things I wish I had known then, that I know now.

Chris Shaw started his database career while in the Marine Corps working with Lotus Ami Pro databases somewhere in 1993. From there he went on to companies such as Wells Fargo, Pulte Mortgage and Yellow Pages Inc., and later consulted with insurance companies including Anthem Blue Shield. Chris has enjoyed writing and speaking about SQL Server over the last 10 years at events such as SQL Connections, Pass and SSWUG Ultimate conferences. Chris received the Microsoft MVP award.

Presentation 2:

Title: Detecting and Correcting Database Design Anomalies

Presenter: Troy Ketsdever ( blog | twitter )

It's nice when, as database developers, we have a clean slate to work with. Most of the time, however, we inherit and must support existing designs and implementations (or, perhaps even worse - revisit a design we deployed long ago before we "knew the ropes"). To add to the challenge, more often than not documentation of the database doesn't exist or is out-of-date with respect to the production system.In this session, we'll look at some tools, techniques, and scripts that will accelerate your understanding of that beast you're now in charge of supporting and extending, with a focus on identifying and correcting design and implementation anomalies.

Troy Ketsdever is a data architect with over 15 years of commercial software development experience, and has maintained a love/hate relationship with SQL Server since version 4.2. In addition to his "day job", Troy enjoys writing articles and presenting at user groups on a variety of database design and implementation topics.His main objective and vision is “making the right information available to the right people at the right time”.

When not attempting to wrangle logical conundrums (aka, constraint-less dbs), he enjoys empirical testing via field trials of various aspects of fluid dynamics, particularly with respect to gravitational interactions on deformable dynamic structures in gaseous mediums.

DenverSQL

Third Thursday (September 15)

Microsoft DTC Office

7579 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Title: See the Future with Visual Predictive Analytics

Presenter: Carlos Bossy ( blog | twitter )

Expand the value of your Business Intelligence infrastructure by delivering powerful forecasts and predictions using SQL Server Reporting Services visual capabilities. Using proven predictive models that forecast future buying patterns, foster care placement success, or customer income and net worth, you will see how to create appealing charts, graphs and maps that allow business users to include predictive analytics in their decision making process. In this session, Carlos Bossy will show you how to combine the visual features of SQL Server Reporting Services with the power of Data Mining and Analysis Services to take your organization’s BI competency to the next level.

Carlos Bossy is a MCTS SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer and Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP) with 25 years of experience in software and database development. Carlos is a consultant for his own company and focuses on developing Business Intelligence solutions including data warehouses, predictive analytics, data integration and reporting. He has been working with SQL Server for 10 years and is very enthusiastic about its powerful features, and enjoys speaking at events such as SQL Saturday conferences, local users groups and IASA. He has developed data warehouses and business intelligence solutions for several industries and state agencies, including solar energy, manufacturing, education and social services.