When AI Talks to Your Data: Security Risks and Hidden Access

AI agents that interact with enterprise environments often run using the permissions of the user or service account that invokes them. While this improves productivity, it can also expose risks that many teams underestimate.

With AI it becomes easy to run many commands, explore configurations, and inspect resources far faster than a human normally would. This can reveal credentials, connections, or access paths that were never intended to be visible.

In this session we explore how things can go wrong in environments built on Microsoft Azure using services such as Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Storage, Azure Key Vault, and Azure SQL Database.

This session is demo heavy and focuses on real scenarios. We will show how AI can help identify common misconfigurations and security gaps, and how those discoveries can lead users to systems or data they did not even realize they had access to.

Through live demonstrations we will explore:

Discovering credentials or secrets stored in unexpected places

Exploring storage and configuration files at scale

Revealing hidden connections to databases or services

Identifying access paths that expose higher privileged accounts

The goal is to understand how these situations happen and how to design safer environments using least privilege, proper secret management, and stronger boundaries around AI-driven automation.

Is This Just Real-Time… or Is It Just Fabric?

Everyone wants real-time data, but what does that actually mean? When your business users say real-time, are they talking about a few seconds, a few minutes, or just “faster than yesterday”?

In this session, we’ll pull back the curtain on the buzzword and explore what “real-time” really means from near-real-time micro-batching to true event-driven streaming and how you can build these patterns directly within Microsoft Fabric.

You’ll see practical examples of how to:

Ingest and process streaming data in real time using Fabric

Compare performance between small batch pipelines and traditional data warehouse ingestion

Choose the right architecture for your organization’s definition of “real-time”

Through live demos and relatable use cases, you’ll walk away knowing how to design a Real-Time Intelligence Fabric that fits your needs and how to stop chasing fantasy real-time.

Mastering Data Migration: Essential Standards and Protocols for Any Scale

With years of experience managing successful data migrations, I invite you to explore the essential standards and protocols that ensure smooth transitions, whether dealing with small databases or vast systems. This session outlines best practices for planning, executing, and validating migrations to maintain data integrity and security with minimal downtime. Drawing from my extensive track record of successful migrations, I’ll share insights into overcoming common challenges and highlight strategies to tailor your approach for projects of any size. Equip yourself with the expertise needed for flawless migrations every time.

Seamless Cross-Tenant Azure SQL Migrations with Geo-Replication

Discover how to perform seamless, no-downtime migrations of Azure SQL databases across tenants using geo-replication and the Microsoft backbone. This session will delve into the technical steps to set up secure cross-tenant geo-replication without exposing public endpoints. Learn how to maintain read-only replicas in the current tenant to keep applications running during the migration process, ensuring business continuity. Whether you’re planning a tenant-to-tenant migration or exploring strategies for hybrid operational setups, this session will equip you with practical insights and best practices to achieve secure, efficient, and downtime-free transitions.

Automating SQL Permissions Scripting for Daily Audits and One-Click Deployment

Discover the game-changing strategy to secure your SQL environment at our session, where we unveil an innovative approach to daily scripting of SQL permissions against the renowned StackOverflow2010 database. Join us and learn how this practice can transform your database auditing and security protocols.

Key Takeaways:

Audit and Compliance Mastery :
Learn how to seamlessly script all permissions to meet stringent auditing standards.
Gain the knowledge to simplify compliance reporting and certification processes.

Enhanced Traceability :
Understand the importance of maintaining an impeccable history of permission changes.
Acquire skills to trace permissions back to specific roles and users, enhancing accountability.

Boosted Disaster Recovery Readiness :
Dive into techniques for rapid restoration of permissions in case of accidental changes or losses.
Ensure your organization can quickly recover and maintain operational continuity.

Top-Notch Security Management :
Get insights into identifying and managing unnecessary permissions to fortify your security posture.
Master regular reviews and adjustments to align with the principle of least privilege.

I created and used these scripts which I offer on Github for all to use, I used them for multiple migration projects to make sure permissions were not an issue on the SQL Server Level.

Did i forget to mention you can deploy this in one click!

Unlocking the Power of Optimization in Azure Data Factory

Imagine deploying a project that seamlessly moves data from on-premises to Azure and Power BI—only to find your daily reports taking a staggering 18 hours to run in production.
In this session, I'll walk you through how I transformed this situation by rearchitecting the solution, significantly optimizing the performance. You’ll get an insider’s look at the different architectural designs and solutions available, and I'll share the good, the bad, and the ugly of working with Azure Data Factory.

Whether you’re looking to fine-tune your Data Factory pipelines or seeking ways to make your business more agile with faster data processing, this session is packed with practical insights. Discover how Azure Data Factory can help you achieve more, with less complexity and greater speed. Join me to learn how to turn potential roadblocks into streamlined, high-performance data solutions.

Chat With Azure SQL

In the evolving world of data, the ability to interact with your datasets and databases using natural language is a game-changer. This session will introduce you to the power of Azure OpenAI, Azure SQL, and Microsoft Fabric, showing you how to break down barriers that have traditionally required knowledge of T-SQL or other coding languages. By leveraging Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search, you’ll learn how to ask questions of your data—like forecasting future trends—without writing a single line of code. We'll explore how to connect various databases and datasets, implement data cleansing, and ensure data quality through advanced prompt engineering. Whether you're a data professional or a business leader, this session will revolutionize the way you think about and work with data. Don't miss out on discovering the future of talking with your data.

Changing Data Types on Large SQL Server Tables Without Downtime

Large SQL Server tables with growing identity columns can run out of integer capacity and require changing the datatype from INT to BIGINT – but a direct ALTER TABLE can cause extensive downtime due to index rebuilds and heavy logging. This session walks through a real-world approach used on a 500 GB, ~900 million row table to plan and execute the change with minimal production impact. You’ll learn techniques for creating a replica table with the new datatype, synchronizing data using ETL processes, using object-level restore to stage the change, and performing a final cut-over during a short maintenance window. Practical tips on testing, data consistency verification, and reducing downtime will help you safely implement datatype changes on high-volume systems.

Talk to Your Data: The Future of Data Interaction with AI

In the evolving world of data, the ability to interact with your datasets and databases using natural language is a game-changer. This session will introduce you to the power of Azure OpenAI, Azure SQL, and Microsoft Fabric, showing you how to break down barriers that have traditionally required knowledge of T-SQL or other coding languages. By leveraging Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search, you’ll learn how to ask questions of your data—like forecasting future trends—without writing a single line of code. We'll explore how to connect various databases and datasets, implement data cleansing, and ensure data quality through advanced prompt engineering. Whether you're a data professional or a business leader, this session will revolutionize the way you think about and work with data. Don't miss out on discovering the future of talking with your data.

In the evolving world of data, the ability to interact with your datasets and databases using natural language is a game-changer.

WTF (What The Fabric)

Microsoft Fabric? Something you may have heard of? Over the years i have used Azure Data Factory and Synapse which publishes data towards Power BI, Now a game changer is occurring called Fabric! so What the Fabric is happening ;)
I hope to show you use cases and real world scenarios this can be utilized. A setup using PaaS solution and Fabric being the SaaS solution providing the same concept.
Utilizing Data Factory, Synapse, Power bi within Fabric with Data Activator also.
How and when to migrate to Fabric? Big Bang? In Segments and what you need to consider.
Fabric is one product and that may not be one size fits all.

Target audience goes from Data Engineers to Sales, I will walk through the thought process behind Fabric and what audience it really captures. One product cannot be one size fits all.