It’s that time again, when the SQL Server® community gathers for SQL PASS Summit to learn, share and visit with friends. We, too, are excited to participate again. We’ve been busy working with partners helping unleash the power of SQL Server and Storage Spaces Direct, have great content to share, and great presenters doing the sharing!
Here’s an overview of what you need to know:
Always On Availability Groups – Powerful New Capabilities
Microsoft® made some big improvements in SQL Server 2016, and the Data Propulsion Lab team has put the improved Always On AGs through its paces. We learned a lot, and you’ll hear about it from Jimmy May @aspiringgeek. The third release is the charm, right? You’ll be blown away by the capabilities of Always On AGs with SQL Server 2016, so you won’t want to miss what Jimmy has to share.
Also make sure to join Jimmy’s session, Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server: Flipping the DW Faster Bit, on Friday Oct. 28th at 8:00am in rooms 606-609. Jimmy’s been working on his hand-stand, and you won’t want to miss it!
Storage Spaces Direct – Why You Should Get Excited
The SQL team blogged that “SQL Server 2016 now supports Windows Server 2016 Storage Spaces Direct”. What does that mean, and how will it affect you? Brian Walters @darksql will provide a quick tour of Storage Spaced Direct – abbreviated S2D, because SSD was already taken, right? – and how it performs.
You may have read about software-defined storage, or you may have deployed Storage Spaces with Windows Server 2012 R2. S2D inherits from the Azure Storage architecture, it will power the on-premises Microsoft Azure Stack private cloud infrastructure coming next year, and you can deploy S2D in your data center today using Windows Server 2016. Come by our booth to learn more about S2D and why the DPL team is so excited about combining S2D with SQL Server 2016.
SQL Workload Consolidation = Saving a Lot of Money (And a chance to win a Surface Pro 4)
SQL workload consolidation is so 2012, right? But how many SQL Server workloads can your Hyper-V hosts support? We’ll show how you can deploy 3X more workloads on each Hyper-V host, give them a 2X performance boost, and save a lot of money. Our good friends at DB Best did a performance study and will share what they observed. “Magic beans” has something to do with this.
Come by our booth to see a 10-minute presentation that shares the full story, and you’ll be entered in our daily drawing for a Surface Pro 4! Magic beans, save lots of money, a chance at a Surface 4 Pro – you can’t go wrong with this one.
The SQL Query Challenge
We did this at SQLBits in the UK last May and it was a hit. So by popular demand, we’re doing it again at SQL PASS Summit. With prizes, of course! It’s very simple, really – the individuals and teams that reduce the query execution time the most win very nice SanDisk® SSDs. There’s just one catch – you cannot change the query itself. Whaaaat? Stay tuned for Niall MacLeod @HoldfastSQL who will share more details soon.
Data Warehousing – Getting the Perfect Balance
It’s been an exciting year for data warehouse solutions, and we’re especially proud that for 8 out of the last 10 TPC-H world-record benchmarks, our OEM partners have all chosen SanDisk flash storage.
We’ve also published a multitude of SQL Server Data Warehouse Fast Track Reference Architectures (DWFT RAs), for both SQL 2014 and SQL 2016. What are those, you ask? DWFT RAs are a great way to ensure you deploy a balanced data warehouse system. Not too much CPU, not too little system memory – everything just right to meet your DW needs. We have DWFT RAs with HPE, Lenovo and Cisco, ranging from 5TB to 145TB. Come learn how you can these RAs as-is, or as a starting point for spec’ing your DW system.
Join Us in Seattle
Last but hardly least, we will offer a variety of presentations and demo stations at our booth throughout the expo hours. Take a few minutes to sit down and use the opportunity to learn a little, and enter the daily drawing for a chance to win the Surface Pro 4! You’ll be refreshed, entertained, and a little smarter. Isn’t that what PASS Summit is all about?
I’ll see you there!
Get a head start by streaming our free webinar: Modern Day Magic Beans: SQL Server® Consolidation using Hyper-V