Peter Kruis
SQL Server Consultant
Middelharnis, The Netherlands
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Peter is a SQL Consultant at Monin-IT who enjoys working across the full spectrum of SQL Server since 2010, though he likes the performance tuning the most. Since stepping into the speaker scene in 2023, he has shared his knowledge at events like SQLBits and SQL/Data Saturday. Peter’s sessions are known for being informative, demo-filled and delivered with an approachable style that is very suitable for newcomers and accidental DBA's. Whether it’s diving into wait stats, tackling tricky query plans, or just having a laugh while learning something new; Peter is always up for making SQL a little more fun.
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We Organized a Community Event and All We Got Are These Lousy Stickers
What began as a small conversation over coffee turned into a rollercoaster: visiting venues, finding sponsors, drafting event plans over stuttering Wi-Fi, rethinking session schedules, and designing an endless stream of mascot memes (shoutout to SeaQL Sammie).
We thought we were ready for anything. But struggling to buy off drinks during the day? But eventually we found the perfect venue to bring it all together.
In this session, we’ll walk you through our behind-the-scenes journey of organizing a data event from scratch. You’ll hear about first inspiration, the chaos we created and controlled, the spreadsheets with way too many tabs (each with its own format), and the everlasting moments that made it all worth it.
Thankfully, we weren’t flying blind. The SQL Saturday Checklist was a lifesaver, giving structure to our chaos and helping us stay (mostly) sane. No marketing fluff. No corporate slide decks. Just two passionate community members sharing what it’s really like to bring an event to life; with all the lessons, facepalms, and laughs that come with it.
If you’ve ever dreamed of hosting your own event or just want a peek behind the curtain; come join the story.
And yes, there will be stickers. You get a sticker! You get a sticker! Everyone gets a sticker!
Two Developers, One Mission: Make a Test Database That Doesn’t Suck
If you've ever been frustrated by a test database filled with nonsense, duplicates, sensitive information, or YOLO-style restored production backups, this session is for you.
Join Peter Kruis and Tonie Huizer, two energetic data enthusiasts, on an epic (and slightly chaotic) quest to build test databases that are safe, realistic, and actually useful for development and testing. With decades of combined experience, they’ll take you on a journey through the wild world of test data, showing just how bad it can get, and how good it can be.
Through engaging role play, real-world examples, and live demos, they’ll expose the dangers of shady test environments and share smarter, safer ways to manage test data. Audience participation is encouraged; because (bad) test databases are a team sport!
You’ll leave entertained, but more importantly, you’ll leave with tools and strategies to stop your test database from being the weakest link in your development chain.
Because let’s face it: your test database shouldn’t suck.
Query Store Basics: A DBA’s Best Friend
Ever wondered why your queries are running differently today than they did last week? Query Store in SQL Server can help you figure that out! In this session, we’ll break down the basics of Query Store, designed especially for junior or accidental DBAs.
We’ll talk about what Query Store does, how it works and how it evolved over time, and why it’s such a great tool for keeping track of query performance over time. With explanations and demos, you’ll learn how to use Query Store to spot performance issues, dig into query execution plans, and even prevent bad plans from ruining your day.
If you’re new to SQL Server or just looking for a practical way to optimize query performance, this session will help you to get started.
From GUI to Scripting: PowerShell for the DBA
Still clicking through SSMS and wizards? Well, it works.. until you have to do the same thing on ten, fifty or a hundred servers. In this session we'll dig in the wonderfull world of scripting and take a look at how PowerShell, and especially the dbatools module, can help you move DBA tasks from manual clicking to repeatable scripts.
We start with an introduction to PowerShell. From there we dive into dbatools demo's and we can use it: discovering and inventorying instances, checking configuration, running health checks, and performing bulk changes across multiple servers.
This session is aimed at DBAs who live in the GUI today and are curious (or a bit scared) about scripting. You’ll leave with a basic understanding of how Powershell can help you with optimizing your work.
How I use AI on a daily basis, in my Professional and Personal life
Artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly evolved from last year's buzzword to being integrated in some way into almost every tool we use in our daily lives. While marketing narratives often sell AI as a one-size-fits-all solution, the real question remains: How can we extract real value from AI?
I'm excited to share my personal experience in using AI to not only enhance efficiency but also to bring speed without loosing quality in my professional life.
In this session we will go through the use of AI in:
1. Collaborative Coding: Learn how I leverage Language Models (LLMs) to guide the development process from the initial coding phase to the final review, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow.
2. Mastering Technical Documentation: Every expert needs a reliable reference. I'll reveal my techniques for not only creating but also comprehending detailed technical documentation.
3. Enhancing Meeting Efficiency: Discover how to streamline and capture the key points of meetings by analyzing transcripts with AI, ensuring no important detail is overlooked.
4. Effective Communication Strategies: Navigating complex technical communications can be challenging, but with AI assistance, every message is delivered clearly and accurately.
Please join me as we explore practical applications of AI in the professional sphere, but we also touch a few subjects how it helped me in my personal life.
Waitstats for the accidental DBA
Do you wear many hats at work and sometimes find yourself playing the role of a DBA? When SQL Server performance issues arise, finding, understanding and resolving wait statistics can be your secret weapon. This session explain wait statistics and provides actionable insights for improving query performance.
In this session, you will:
Learn what wait statistics are and why they matter.
Discover the most common wait types and what they reveal about your SQL Server's health.
Dive into real-world scenarios to identify and resolve common performance bottlenecks.
Gain tips to distinguish critical waits from those you can safely ignore.
Whether you're a developer, IT generalist, or accidental DBA, you’ll leave equipped with practical tools and knowledge to keep your SQL Server running smoothly.
Even though is goes about basics of wait statistics, it would be good to have the following knowledge.
A basic understanding of SQL Server concepts
This session is aimed at accidental DBAs, Developers and other professionals who need to deal with SQL Server performance as part of their job.
How to use AI, in your professional and personal life
Artificial intelligence (AI) has transcended its buzzword status to become an integral part of professional life for many of us, especially in areas such as data analytics, code generation and semantic search. However, if you're not yet directly involved in an AI project, perhaps you feel like you're struggling to making the best use of AI tools or are still skeptical of the quality of what they can deliver.
If so, this session is for you! It will demonstrate how you can get real value from generative AI tools in both your professional and personal lives. We'll provides practical examples of how AI can improve tasks as diverse as eliminating repetitive work, performing code reviews, optimizing work emails, generating concise meeting notes and actions, and even negotiating salaries!
We'll explain techniques to 'tune' your AI input, the so-called prompt, which in turn will greatly increase the quality and reliability of what the AI Large Language Model (LLM) tools produce. We'll demonstrate how to create and refine custom models, which instruct the tool to tailor its output to your personal style, or to a set of requirements. We'll even find time to have a bit of fun with AI, showing you how to bore your spouse and colleagues with impressive AI-generated images!
The development of AI goes at rocket speed and our session is designed to help you keep up, assuming the pace of changes isn't so fast that we've been replaced by AI before the session starts!
An introduction to Extended Events
Are you ready to dive into the awesome world of MSSQL Extended Events! In this presentation, we'll explore this great feature in Microsoft SQL Server that helps you monitor and troubleshoot database performance.
We'll start by understanding what Extended Events are and when they come to the rescue. You'll learn how to set them up step-by-step, customizing them to capture the data you need and show you how to look into the results.
But wait, there's more! We'll also compare Extended Events with the traditional SQL Server Profiler, so you'll know which one to pick for different situations. Plus, we'll share some nifty scripts to start with them right away.
SQL Bad practices caught in the wild
Who are you?
You are a SQL developer, but when you handover your code to your senior, you sometimes might hear: “Don’t do this anymore, it’s a bad practice!”. If you want to learn more about those bad practices which I see are being used a lot, this session is for you!
How is this session going to help you?!
In this session you will learn about some of those "code smells". I will show you an example of the bad practice, explain why it should be avoided and give a possible solution for them. We are going to talk about: Functions in the WHERE clause, Implicit casting, SELECT * and some others. This knowledge will help you make your queries run faster, need less resources and therefore will make your DBA and users happy.
SQL Bad practices caught in the wild
Who are you?
You are a SQL developer, but when you handover your code to your senior, you sometimes might hear: “Don’t do this anymore, it’s a bad practice!”. If you want to learn more about those bad practices which I see are being used a lot, this session is for you!
How is this session going to help you?!
In this session you will learn about some of those "code smells". I will show you an example of the bad practice, explain why it should be avoided and give a possible solution for them. We are going to talk about: Functions in the WHERE clause, Implicit casting, SELECT * and some others. This knowledge will help you make your queries run faster, need less resources and therefore will make your DBA and users happy.
SQL Konferenz 2026 Sessionize Event Upcoming
SQL Saturday Oregon/SW Washington 2025 Sessionize Event
SQLDay Lite 2025 Sessionize Event
dataMinds Connect 2025 Sessionize Event
SQLBits 2025 - General Sessions Sessionize Event
Data Saturday Gothenburg 2024 Sessionize Event
SQLBits 2024 - General Sessions Sessionize Event
Data Left Unattended - Nuernberg Sessionize Event
SQL Saturday Oregon/SW Washington 2023 Sessionize Event
New Stars of Data #5 Sessionize Event
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