Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • Securing Test and Dev Environments at the SQL Privacy Summit

    Redgate Software is putting on a one day SQL Privacy  Summit on May 18 in London at the Grange Tower Bridge. This is a chance to see how you can ensure compliance with the GDPR while keeping up the modern pace of DevOps software development. Our goal is to educate you one the ways of protecting data and minimizing impact to business processes.

    Use the code “Steve” when you register to save 25% off the standard rate tickets. I’ll be there, along with some of the sharp minds from Redgate and some local consultancies to talk about the topics of data privacy and protection.

    We’ve designed the Summit to be for both technical and managerial staff that are working to ensure compliance with the GDPR. Our schedule is designed to help ensure that you lean from our research and experience to implement three key principles:

    • Map and maintain a living data catalogue of your data estate
    • Reduce your surface attack area by protecting data in dev and test environments
    • Implement ongoing monitoring to ensure your data is protected.

    It’s a great schedule of sessions delivered by some experienced speakers and a panel that will cover these topics and more. We even have a couple workshops to help you discuss concepts and best practices with peers.

    Register today (use the code “Steve”) and I’ll see you in London next month.

  • Webinar: 6 Principles of the GDPR and SQL Provision

    On April 24, I’ll be hosting a webinar that talks about the GDPR and how you can help ensure compliance in your development environments. I’ll talk about some of the issues and show how SQL Provision can help.

    6-principals-of-gdpr-webinar

    The GDPR is complex, but it certainly does ask us to protect and prevent issues with data from development environments. There are many ways you can try and ensure you don’t have any issues, and I’ll show one with Redgate tools.

    Register today and I look forward to talking with you next week.

  • The 700 Milestone for SQL Saturday

    This past weekend was SQL Saturday #700. Another milestone in the franchise of events, and I was glad to attend. This is my fifth or sixth Colorado Springs event, and everything ran great. The leadership has changed over the years, as has the structure and format, but attendance continues to be strong and reliable.

    This year I was late, coming down after coaching youth volleyball. I arrived just as people were outside at the food trucks. That was a great idea, one that I think they took from our “no lunch”, bare-bones SQL Saturday in Denver. A few trucks pulled up and attendees could go outside and choose during a long break for lunch.

    IMG_20180324_154235

    This is a smaller event, but consistently draws over 100. Many of them were still around for the end of day raffles, as you can see above.

    I’m glad to see the changing of leadership over the years hasn’t prevented this event from continuing. I always worry about sustainability as organizers grow through life and become busy or change careers. As many of us age, retirement is also an issue, and it’s important that we continue to find ways to hand off responsibilities and knowledge, as well as enthusiasm to others.

    I was only around for a couple sessions, including my own, but I did get a chance to hang out and chat with friends, even getting a selfie with a few.

    IMG_20180324_154246

    I’d love to see more of you at the next Colorado Springs, but really more of you make an effort to attend, speak, volunteer, or organize for future SQL Saturdays. Fingers crossed we’ll meet at 800 (which should be coming soon).

  • The 700 Milestone

    I’ve watched various SQL Saturday milestones go by. I missed 100 in Brazil, but did manage to get to 200 in Philadelphia and 300 in Kansas City. 400 was in Torino, and I am sad about not making the effort to get there. 500 was Boston, but I had a conflict. 600 Chicago, but again, other plans.

    Colorado Springs was awarded 700, and I had to submit ASAP to that one. I’ve got a morning commitment for volleyball, but I’ll be racing down to get to the event and attend the after party.

    I’ve got a repeat presentation, Branding Yourself for a Dream Job, but there are some other great talks. PowerBI from TJay Belt and Meagan Longoria, Optimizer secrets from Brian Hansen, Data Science from Reeves Smith and more.

    Plus there are two great pre-cons on Friday. The Midnight DBAs talking Enterprise Maintenance and Kevin Kline giving you 50 things you need to know.

    If you’re nearby, get a free day of training and say hi in the afternoon. If you can convince the boss, I’d say you should take advantage of one of these pre-cons as well.