Sander Stad
Data Masterminds, PowerShell Underdog
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Sander is a SQL Server DBA with over 20 years of experience in IT. He has worked with SQL Server since version 2000 and is a Microsoft MVP.
He is a huge PowerShell enthusiast and will try to automate processes as much as possible.
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Scaling the Cloud: Bicep & Terraform Deep Dive
Scaling the Cloud: Bicep & Terraform Deep Dive is more than just a training day, it's a hands-on journey into the real-world challenges of cloud infrastructure. Whether you're just starting or managing complex, enterprise-scale environments, this full-day session will help you level up your skills with Bicep and Terraform. We’ll cover everything from deploying SQL Server instances and setting up secure Azure Policies to integrating source control and managing multi-cloud environments across Azure, AWS, and GCP. Packed with live demos, practical exercises, and real-world examples, this workshop will leave you ready to confidently automate, secure, and scale your infrastructure.
Real-World Use Cases for Bicep in Enterprise Deployments
In this session, we'll explore real-world use cases for deploying Azure infrastructure using Bicep, a modern Infrastructure as Code (IaC) language.
You'll learn how Bicep simplifies complex deployments through its modular design, clean syntax, and built-in tooling. We’ll dive into practical examples, such as automating virtual machine deployments, enforcing security policies, and managing multi-environment applications.
Whether you're new to Bicep or an experienced Azure professional, this session will give you hands-on insights and best practices for using Bicep effectively in enterprise environments.
Walk away with actionable ideas to streamline your Azure deployments.
Unveiling the magic of CI/CD for SQL Server using GitHub Actions
In this expert session we unveil the magic of CI/CD for SQL Server updates using GitHub Actions.
Topics covered include:
• Configure branch strategies in GitHub
• Decide whether to work with local applications or a cloud-dev environment
• Setup best GitHub Runner for your environment
• Configure a workflow for SQL Server deployments
• Work with secrets
• Unveil some of the magic behind Actions and Workflows
• Configure Unit Testing
At the end of this session you will walk away with a better understanding of how to do SQL Server deployments in your work environment using GitHub Actions.
Start To See With tSQLt
Unit testing with databases is fairly new and is not yet embraced within database development.
Many database developers do not do any unit testing or don't do it in a automated way.
tSQLt is a unit testing framework that enables developers to create sophisticated unit tests for databases.
You can create a whole bunch of different kind of unit tests. From really simple to very complex.
In this session we'll talk about unit testing in general, unit vs integration testing, test driven development and of course tSQLt.
Come to this session if you want to learn how to implement tSQLt in your development procedures
I can assure you that it's going to make your life so much easier in the end.
Real-world CI/CD for SQL Server using Azure DevOps deep dive
In this expert session we dive deeper into CI/CD for SQL Server using Azure DevOps. Which focuses on the Azure Pipelines service within Azure DevOps.
Topics covered include:
• Setup optimal settings for Azure Pipeline Agents for your environment
• Decide whether to use Classic Editor or YAML pipelines
• Customize YAML pipelines for various CI/CD scenarios
• Work with secrets
• Configure manual and automated approvals to different environments
Even though this session focuses on SQL Server you can use a lot of the concepts in this session for other Microsoft Data Platform services.
At the end of this session you will walk away with a better understanding of how to do SQL Server deployments in your work environment using Azure Pipelines.
Real-world CI/CD for SQL Server using Azure DevOps deep dive
In this expert session we dive deeper into CI/CD for SQL Server using Azure DevOps. Which focuses on the Azure Pipelines service within Azure DevOps.
Topics covered include:
• Setup optimal settings for Azure Pipeline Agents for your environment
• Decide whether to use Classic Editor or YAML pipelines
• Customize YAML pipelines for various CI/CD scenarios
• Work with secrets
• Configure manual and automated approvals to different environments
Even though this session focuses on SQL Server you can use a lot of the concepts in this session for other Microsoft Data Platform services.
At the end of this session you will walk away with a better understanding of how to do SQL Server deployments in your work environment using Azure Pipelines.
Professional Azure DevOps for the real-world
In this customized Precon Data Platform professionals will be prepared to use Azure DevOps in the real-world.
Brought to you by two MVP’s who have extensive Azure DevOps experience. One who has used Azure DevOps extensively as a Product Owner and took the time to gain the Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer certification, and the other implementing in-depth technical solutions and contributing heavily to open-source solutions.
During the day we will cover all the default services within Azure DevOps. Whilst helping with jargon along the way and answering questions.
In addition to this, we invite attendees to join a special Azure DevOps organization. So that they can reproduce demos shown during the session.
Plus, download Git repositories into their own version of Azure DevOps.
We will make this training day as broad as possible to help people understand how Azure DevOps can be used with a variety of Data Platform offerings. Including SQL Server, Azure Databricks and Microsoft Fabric.
Topics we will cover along the way include how to:
• Customize Azure Boards to manage your work items efficiently.
• Use Power BI to create powerful reports for Sprint reviews.
• Explain how Git works to other people.
• Decide which branch strategy to use.
• Implement CI/CD for various services using deployment pipelines.
• Perform unit tests for SQL Server related databases.
• Manage test plans without a single spreadsheet.
• Use Azure DevOps as an artifacts store.
• Take full advantage of extensions.
Attendees will need to bring along a laptop to configure Azure DevOps and some recommended material to accelerate their development efforts.
Practical Azure DevOps for Data Platform professionals
In this customized session Data Platform professionals will be prepared to use Azure DevOps in the workplace. Since there is more demand for Data Platform professionals to have Azure DevOps knowledge.
Brought to you by two MVP’s who both have extensive Azure DevOps experience in the workplace. One of whom is a former Product Owner and the other known for contributing to open-source solutions
During the session we will cover how to use all the default services within Azure DevOps in the workplace. We will also explain some jargon and answer questions along the way.
A lot of examples are based on SQL Server. However, a lot of the topics covered can also be used with other services available within the Microsoft Data Platform. For example, Azure Synapse Analytics.
Topics we will cover along the way include how to:
• Customize Azure Boards to manage your work items on a daily basis.
• Use Power BI with Azure DevOps to track work progress.
• Work with Git, including branch strategies.
• Implement CI/CD for different types of deployments.
• Perform unit tests for SQL Server databases both on-premises and in the cloud.
• Manage test plans without a single spreadsheet.
• Store artifacts within Azure DevOps.
• Make the most out of extensions.
Hacking and Hacking Mitigation For SQL Server
In recent years we have seen and heard about a scenarios where hackers gained access to your system, databases are encrypted and where data is stolen.
The question is not if our systems are going to be attacked, but rather when this is going to happen.
As a data professional you have the obligation to protect the data to the best of your abilitity.
You have to deal with both outsider and insider threats.
Outside attackers motivated by profit, activism, retribution, or mischief.
Insider threats may have the same motives but could be tied to workplace issues resulting in people abusing their access privileges to inflict harm.
When you have been attacked it is really important to find out what happened and how to mititgate the attack.
Mitigation, or Attack Mitigation, is the reduction in seriousness or severity of an event.
In mitigation we center around strategies to limit the impact of a threat against our data.
In this session we will discuss:
* Teach you how you can attack your systems
* Mitigate the attack
* Log your findings
GitHub or Azure DevOps? Decisions, decisions...
You're an organization that is going to implement devops within the organization.
You've probably heard about Azure DevOps and GitHub. Which would you want to use?
How do all the options in Azure DevOps and GitHub compare? Does GitHub have the same features as Azure DevOps?
Watch our video and find out what you can do with both systems and how to translate each feature to the other.
GitHub database deployments workshop for Data Platform professionals
In this one-day workshop we will go through everything a Data Platform professional needs to deploy SQL Servers using GitHub.
Which is co-presented by a major contributor to dbatools and a dual-category MVP who has gained a couple of the new GitHub certifications for Azure partners.
We will cover:
• Work with Branches within GitHub
• Setup GitHub runners
• Deploy SQL Server infrastructure and database updates using GitHub Actions
• Use security best practices
• Test your deployments
• Perform automation within GitHub
• Build your own action
• Use newer GitHub features
Even though this session is based on SQL Server, a lot of the GitHub concepts you learn can be used with other applications and services as well.
During this workshop you will create multiple repositories in your own GitHub account. So that after the workshop there will be yours to keep.
We will send out information beforehand on how to create a GitHub account if you do not have one already.
A local instance of SQL Server is preferred. However, we will also support deploying SQL Server as a virtual machine in Azure.
An Azure Account is preferred for some of the exercises so that you can setup your own Azure Key Vault along with secrets. We will demo this as well though.
During the course of the day, we will also show some demos highlight some things at an organization level.
At the end of this workshop, you will have everything you need to deploy SQL Server using GitHub. Plus, you will have gained knowledge that can help you gain the new GitHub certifications for Azure partners.
DevOops: What Not to Do in DevOps
DevOps isn’t just about tools, it's about culture, collaboration, and discipline. But what happens when it goes wrong?
This session explores common DevOps anti-patterns.
We’ll cover issues like ignoring databases in CI/CD, manual deployments, broken pipelines, and teams working in silos.
Learn from real-world failures. Discover ways to turn your DevOps dream into success, not a nightmare. Database DevOps mistakes included, because yes, your SQL scripts matter too.
Duet about which parts of Azure DevOps and GitHub to use together
In this session we have a roleplay scenario where a Data Platform Development and Operations teams have merged together into one DevOps team. One heavily uses Azure DevOps and the other uses GitHub.
After various discussions, the team have decided they want to use parts of both services. Leaving the Product Owner and Scrum Master for the team to figure out how to use GitHub and Azure DevOps together and to make it work for the team. Which is where myself and Sander come in.
During this session we will discuss:
- which features from both offerings to use, and why
- recommended practices for using them both together to work in a DevOps related way
- organizing work items efficiently
- creating a database project
- implementing CI/CD for your database project
- Manual and automated testing of your Data Platform releases
After this session you will have a better understanding of how to start using both of the services together. Plus, you will take away knowledge about some of their features and services.
It's worth noting that even though we focus a lot on the Microsoft Data Platform for this session, a lot of this session can also be used for other services.
Deep dive into CI/CD for SQL databases using Azure DevOps
Join us for an in-depth session on implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) for SQL Server databases using Azure DevOps.
Presented by two Microsoft MVPs who are well experienced in this area, this session will guide you through the intricacies of automating database deployments, ensuring robust unit testing, and incorporating industry best practices.
Topics we cover during the session include:
- Overview of CI/CD principles and their application to SQL Server databases.
- Azure DevOps best practices.
- Setting up Azure DevOps pipelines.
- Integrating unit tests with tSQLt to validate database changes.
- Modern working practices in the age of AI.
Our experts will also share best practices for securing your database deployments and will show demos along the way.
By the end of this session, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of how to leverage Azure DevOps to streamline your database development lifecycle and improve code quality.
A full intro to Azure Devops projects for SQL Server deployments in 60 minutes or less
The first time you’re introduced to Azure DevOps you’re confronted to an array of different items on the screen and you may not know where to start.
What are all the different parts for and what can I do with them to help with SQL Server deployments?
What’s the difference between Azure DevOps Service and Azure DevOps Server?
All these questions will be answered in this session by Kevin and Sander.
Do you want to learn how to start with Azure DevOps for SQL Server deployments, then come to our session?
Azure DevOps with databases in 15 minutes
Starting with Azure DevOps and SQL Server databases may look like a daunting thing to set up but it isn't.
With the right tools and procedures we can create a SSDT solution, import our database schema, generate basic unit tests, push our solution to source control and to to Azure DevOps.
From there we run our tests using Docker and SQL Server.
All of this can be achieved in 15 minutes.
After this session you should have all the knowledge and tools to get you set up. You should at least no longer have the argument that setting op Azure DevOps will be a lot of work.
Bridging the Gap: Integrating tSQLt with State-Based and Migration-Based Deployments
This session, "Bridging the Gap: Integrating tSQLt with State-Based and Migration-Based Deployments," explores advanced techniques for database deployment strategies. Attendees will learn the pros and cons of state-based and migration-based deployments, how to integrate tSQLt for robust unit testing, and ways to automate testing within CI/CD pipelines.
Custom Deployment DSLs: Writing Your Own Terraform/Bicep for SQL Server
Standard IaC tools like Terraform and Bicep are powerful, but when your SQL Server landscape includes tenant sharding, feature flags, and strict data lifecycle policies, they can fall short in expressing intent. In this session, we’ll explore how to define your own Domain-Specific Language (DSL) tailored to your database deployment patterns.
You’ll learn how to build a mini-declarative language using ANTLR, compile it into Bicep/Terraform, and inject it into your DevOps pipelines. If you’ve ever wished you could say tenant "contoso" uses plan "gold" and have it build out the correct infra and data policy—this session is for you.
Saying no is OK
In the fast-paced and dynamic world of information technology, professionals often find themselves juggling numerous tasks, projects, and expectations. The common refrain is to always say "yes" to opportunities and requests, but this often leads to overwork, stress, and a diminished work-life balance. It's time to challenge this paradigm and recognize that "Saying No is OK."
This presentation explores the vital concept of setting boundaries in the IT industry. By providing real-world insights and practical strategies, it empowers IT professionals to assertively manage their workload, protect their well-being, and achieve greater success in their careers. The discussion will delve into the art of saying no, helping attendees to understand the significance of personal and professional priorities, and offering guidance on navigating work requests while maintaining professionalism. Through this engaging session, attendees will learn how to strike a balance between their work and personal lives, ultimately contributing to a more fulfilled and sustainable IT career.
Join me for an eye-opening journey that will change the way you approach your work in IT. Discover that Saying No is not just acceptable—it's a powerful tool for personal and professional growth.
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