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Can You Trust Your Cloud?

“How do I know my data is secure?” “A lot of companies have been hacked lately, why would I want to move to the cloud?” “We have sensitive data that can’t be moved to the cloud.” If you are a decision maker in a company you have probably raised questions and objections similar to those above. If you are someone who is architecting solutions that...

CJIS and the Microsoft Cloud

Having a cloud you can trust is important. Microsoft takes security and compliance extremely seriously in both the commercial and government clouds. An August 2016 article on the Azure blog, Not All Clouds Are Created Equal, addressed this topic in detail discussing the impact of a CJIS compliant cloud on Justice and Public Safety organizations. State and local agencies in 22 states (at the time...

Webinar Followup: New Security Features in SQL Server 2016

I recently presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I discussed new security features in SQL Server 2016. You can click here to watch the recording of the webinar if you missed it. In this follow up I wanted to post the scripts I used and answer a few questions from the webinar along the way. Q: Can I use a WHERE clause on a masked column? For instance, SELECT * FROM Table WHERE SSN...

Webinar Followup: Migrating your SQL Server VMs to Azure with PowerShell

Earlier this week I presented a free webinar for Pragmatic Works where I discussed how to migrate virtual machines to Azure. You can click here to watch the recording of the webinar if you  missed it. In this follow up I wanted to post the scripts I used, walk through the steps in the process and answer a few questions from the webinar along the way. We will separate this into 4 sections:...

Upcoming Presentation – Migrating your SQL Servers VMs to Azure with PowerShell

Each week Pragmatic Works hosts a free training session. The topics include SQL Server internals, Business Intelligence, cloud services and even big data. On Tuesday November 17th, 2015 I will be presenting the free training session on Azure Virtual Machines. Devin Knight (Twitter | Blog) and I presented on this topic recently and it received a great response. Whether you are already using Azure...

Hyper-V The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed

Note this fix only works on Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 or later. A different method is required on Windows Server 2008R2 or earlier which involves the use of the NETDOM command. For several years now I have been using Hyper-V for building out a virtual development environment on my laptop. Since I work as a consultant I have to handle a lot of different software scenarios. Some customers use...

Pragmatic Works Los Angeles BI Boot Camp

Click to purchase a seat in the Pragmatic Works Los Angeles BI Boot Camp. Microsoft has a wide range of offerings in the business intelligence space and it can take a lot of work to figure out how they all fit together. The Pragmatic Works BI Boot Camp will walk you through a week of hands on activities that show exactly how each piece of the BI stack works. I will be teaching the class for all 5...

Upcoming Presentation – Space Coast SQL/.Net User Group

If you happen to be in the central Florida or Daytona area head over to Melbourne on September 10th to see me! I’ll be speaking at the newly merged Space Coast SQL/.Net User Group on Power Query. This topic is easy for anyone in SQL, business intelligence, .Net or even every day users to understand. I’ll show you some awesome things you can do with Power Query and how to mash data...

How To Use the Unpivot Transform in SSIS

Moving data from columns to rows can be a tricky task and accomplished in a variety of ways. That may be through a series of unions in T-SQL, but that’s just ugly and means lots of passes at the data potentially. You could use a T-SQL unpivot, which isn’t bad and usually my preferred method. The problem is you may not always have the option to use T-SQL. What if your source is a flat...

Monitoring BI Performance: Scripts and Slides

I recently did a presentation and discussed some techniques for monitoring the performance of your business intelligence stack. I will be doing 3 additional posts that go into a little more detail and contain screenshots of how to monitor each BI tool with some step by step instructions. Be on the lookout for those coming out over the next week. I have the first one written and scheduled to...

Bradley Schacht

Bradley Schacht is a Principal Program Manager on the Microsoft Fabric product team based in Jacksonville, FL. Bradley is a former consultant, trainer, and has authored 5 SQL Server and Power BI books, most recently the Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide. As a member of the Microsoft Fabric product team, Bradley works directly with customers to solve some of their most complex data problems and helps shape the future of Microsoft Fabric. He frequently presents at community events around the country, is a contributor to sites such as SQLServerCentral.com, and is a member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG).

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