Come to SQLintersection - We Have Disney!

In April, SQL Sentry will be at SQLintersection at the Walt Disney World Swan in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. I think this is a great location, giving people - especially those with kids at the right age - the opportunity to combine a work/training trip with a family getaway. And for those coming from colder climates, April is probably a great time to be a little warmer in Florida, without needing to hide from the sun.

I've always like the intersection event because it's a good cross-section of people from different disciplines, not typically found at most of the other events I attend. I get to rub shoulders with folks like Scott Hanselman, talk to .NET developers, and get advice from security experts. It always feels a little more laid-back to me than the other big shows (though they all have their strengths of course).

This year, you can save $50 on attending by using my last name (BERTRAND) as the promo code, and if you register by January 31st, you may be eligible for free hardware as well - a Microsoft Band 2, a Surface 3, or an XBox One.

You can visit the site to see the full lineup of sessions and workshops. I'm scheduled to present two 200-level sessions on SQL Server 2016:

NEW T-SQL CAPABILITIES IN SQL SERVER 2016 AND AZURE SQL DB

Discover the ins and outs of some of the newest capabilities of our favorite data language. From JSON to COMPRESS / DECOMPRESS, from AT TIME ZONE to DATEDIFF_BIG(), and from SESSION_CONTEXT() to new query hints like NO_PERFORMANCE_SPOOL and MIN / MAX_GRANT_PERCENT, as well as some other surprises, you’ll walk away with a long list of reasons to consider upgrading to the latest version or finally trying out Azure SQL Database.

NEW SECURITY FEATURES IN SQL SERVER 2016 AND AZURE SQL DB

In this session, you will learn about three new security-related features that help protect your data: Dynamic Data Masking, Row-Level Security, and Always Encrypted. With plenty of live demos, you will see how the features work, when to choose each one, and potential issues that could prove to be very important to your implementation.

You can also be pretty confident you'll see me in our keynote:

SQL SENTRY TOOLS FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE

Whether you are hosting in your office, in a data center, or in the cloud, SQL Sentry covers monitoring, alerting, and tuning to help you get the most out of your servers – including servers that aren’t running SQL Server. In this session, your hosts will guide you through time saving strategies for managing performance across hybrid environments - whether you are running physical or virtual servers, SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, APS, or Azure SQL Data Warehouse. You will see demonstrations of SQL Sentry software highlighting configuration and performance pitfalls, and leave with a better understanding of performance problems you may be currently missing.

Hope to see you there!