This year marked the 20th anniversary of SQL PASS Summit and once again Dell was there! For myself personally, this was the 8th year I’ve attended. For Dell, like most attendees, it marks the unofficial end of the SQL Saturday year and the beginning of a new one. SQL Saturdays provide great local access to a community of like-minded SQL Server professionals and SQL PASS brings roughly 4,000 of those to Seattle, WA to share ideas, gain insight on features of new releases, and talk to vendors like Dell about their challenges and what we can do to help address those needs.
Attendees woke up early on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and were hungry for knowledge on Dell’s SQL Solutions. Wednesday morning, we held an “Empowering SQL Server DBAs with Dell Storage” session which focused on the unique combination of capabilities with Dell AppSync and our enterprise storage products.
So many DBAs struggle to maintain a wide range of different Microsoft SQL Server versions within their environment, often spread across equally as many hardware configurations. Leveraging the right storage platform can elevate the overall capabilities of a typical environment. Having consistent data services, like thin provisioning, compression, deduplication, snapshots, replication… and many more can raise all ships! Furthermore, combining those data services with outstanding performance and self-service capabilities for protection and repurposing of Microsoft SQL Databases yield a space efficient and agile solution which is unmatched in the industry.
During the Wednesday morning keynote, Dell’s most recent certified Microsoft Data Warehouse Fast Track solution was on display. With the smallest array-based solution already in the catalog, we added the largest to the catalog as well. A 200TB balanced SQL Server solution that combines PowerEdge R940 with the SC9000 storage array allows you to get your SQL Server deployment right the first time. This solution is designed to handle extremely demanding, mission critical workloads and very large databases.
The Thursday session, “BOOST Your SQL Backup with Data Domain and Ola Hallengren’s Scripts” was again a full house with at least 80% of the attendees actively using Ola’s scripts today for their backup needs. Dell and Ola have partnered to add support for Data Domain Boost and its industry-leading de-duplication to Ola Hallengren’s award-winning SQL Server Maintenance Solution. Our technology and Hallengren’s scripts are designed for mission-critical environments and advanced backup scenarios, leveraging the latest features in SQL server.
During the 3 days when the expo was open, many SQL PASS Summit attendees brought their questions to our booth. Whether it is an existing configuration that they are looking to modernize, a question on the functionality of their existing products, or just to follow-up on something said in the breakfast sessions, we had the right staff available to answer all the hard-hitting questions.
As we say goodbye to the first 20 years of PASS Summit… we look forward to seeing you again at a SQL Saturday near you!
