OHSU IT Group, 1515 SW 5th Ave, Suite 900, Portland OR 97201

Python: Turn your SQL ETL up to 11

Almost everywhere you look in the data community you see Python being used (job-postings, Azure Services, AWS Service etc…). But what is Python, and why has it become such a popular tool for Data Professionals? During this discussion we will talk about what is Python, why is it being used so heavily, what benefits it provides, and what is in store for future uses of Python. There will be demos using Jupyter Notebooks doing data analysis, importing data into database (ETL), and light visualization.

Data professionals, we love being able to offer you amazing tech presentations every month, networking opportunities, and most importantly snacks so you can focus on the presentation! While not everyone may want food, we rely heavily on the registration count in Eventbrite (NOT Meetup) to ensure we have enough food for everyone. If you can please help us and register through Eventbrite, even if you RSVP in Meetup, then we can aim to feed you all. Thanks for your help!!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2020-oregon-data-community-meetings-tickets-86227949117

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Schedule: 6:00 - 6:30 PM - Hearty Snack and Networking 6:30 - 6:45 PM - Announcements 6:45 - 7:15 PM - 1st Presentation 7:30 - 8:45 PM - 2nd Presentation

We have a raffle each meeting!

In December’s short session, Paul introduced a set of guidelines for Power BI projects. This deep-dive session will explore those best practices with several examples and hands-on demonstrations.

Whether designing moderate-scale reports for a few business users or large-scale solutions with loads of data for an entire corporation, this session provides best practice guidance for the essential components of Power BI projects. Power BI is a very flexible platform with an vast range of options and often overwhelming design choices. We will discuss recommended practices to manage datasets and reports for team collaboration, version control, query optimization for scale, data modeling design patterns, measure design, dataset certification and governance. We will conclude with a complete checklist of important items to ensure project success.

William Aguilar Glad I Pushed Back

An anecdotal presentation about Q & A including a use-case for the RAND operator in T-SQL. I am an intermediate Data Analyst with not quite a full year of professional experience. After being tasked with a project to compare tables between two servers to check for inconsistencies, I developed a method for screening large random samples. My suggestion was turned down for a method developed by someone with over 20 years of BI experience. I obviously went with the advice of my co-worker and followed his format… once or twice. I later compared the results of his method to that of my Q&A which had a much more profound impact than my previous explanation.

Reid Havens Demystifying Chart Types and Report Design Principles in Power BI

Failing to deliver a well-designed Power BI Report can be a common reporting pitfall. What good is quality data if it is not presented in a way that is meaningful or easily understood? Someone without any prior knowledge should be able to quickly understand a report without explanation and be quickly drawn to the key elements you want them to view. This talk will walk through many elements of bad report design. Learn about visual cues and how certain chart types can convey data more accurately than others. Also, learn about the basic dos and don’ts of report design and layout, using easy-to-learn techniques that bring data to life.

Paul Turley Preview: A Best Practice Guide and Checklist for Power BI Projects

Whether designing moderate-scale reports for a few business users or large-scale solutions with loads of data for an entire corporation, this session provides best practice guidance for the essential components of Power BI projects. Power BI is a very flexible platform with an vast range of options and often overwhelming design choices. We will discuss recommended practices to manage datasets and reports for team collaboration, version control, query optimization for scale, data modeling design patterns, measure design, dataset certification and governance. We will conclude with a complete checklist of important items to ensure project success.

Janis Griffin HiHo! HiHo! SQL Server on Linux, we go!

Are you being forced to the ‘Cloud’ to reduce costs? SQL Server 2017 now runs on Windows, Linux, and Docker containers.

Now SQL Server can be installed on Linux in order to provide a consistent database platform across Window and Linux servers, as well as on-premises and in the cloud. This presentation will discuss the advantages of using SQL Server on Linux, comparing architecture, cost and performance. Several demonstrations on installing and maintaining SQL Server on different Linux distributions and Docker will be shown, as well as best practice considerations for production/development environments. Also, several useful Linux commands for monitoring, managing and backing up SQL Server will be demonstrated. Finally, client connectivity and tools will be discussed – plus the new Azure Data Studio UI with the ability to add monitoring widgets will be demonstrated.

Query Optimization Statistics – The Driving Force Behind Query Performance

When the SQL Server optimizer evaluates a query to determine how best to execute it, the statistics are quite possibly the most important information at its disposal. But SQL Server statistics objects aren’t perfect because they only contain estimated summary information. In this session, we’ll start with an overview of what the statistics objects are, how the optimizer uses them, and some general guidelines for their maintenance. Then we’ll look at some of the issues, how to find them, and how to solve them, that can arise due to their imperfection: ascending keys (the most prevalent statistics based performance killer?), skewed distribution, or downright bad summary information. There’ll be many examples, and even a stored procedure to help you find ascending keys. By applying the techniques we’ll discuss, you WILL see improved query performance.

Vern is an independent SQL Server consultant and contract trainer in Portland, OR, and leader of the OregonSQL user group. He has attained MCSE, MCITP (both Administration and Development), and MCT certifications, among others. Vern has been passionate about databases since 1992 and has worked with SQL Server since version 4.21a. He provides broad technical SQL Server knowledge gained from the mixture of academic and practical experiences acquired from his classroom instructing and varied consulting contracts.

Michael Curry Theory Driven Data Science: Cybersecurity Improvement using SQL, R and machine learning

Data science seeks to uncover actionable data relationships to solve pressing organizational needs e.g. improved cyber security behavior, and this talk presents three steps for doing just that. The goal is a clear picture on how to leverage those actionable data relationships, e.g. how effective was a cyber security training program? The aim of this presentation is to provide an exemplary theory driven approach to building evidence of being better prepared against a cybersecurity threat.

Dr. Michael Curry is a Cyber security behavioral researcher utilizing data science methodologies to develop actionable data relationships to solve pressing organizational needs e.g. improved cyber security behavior. He is part of the OregonSQL Leadership and also an instructor for Oregon State University.

Michael Wall PoSh for SSRS: Essential Skills to Manage Your Report Server with PowerShell

Whether you are a casual report designer or a DBA who has the responsibility of managing the SSRS installs at your company, you will find the new PoSH tools for SSRS to be very useful. This demo heavy presentation will do a deep dive on a number of the new PoSh tools for SSRS. From deploying new SSRS installations to easily and QUICKLY backing up and restoring your reports, everyone will come away from this presentation ready to go to work with PowerShell!

Michael Wall has been a Database Administrator since he was asked if he wanted to be one after successfully managing the Y2K upgrade project on over fifty UNIX servers. Immediately thrust into a major Oracle upgrade project, he has since then managed multiple challenges and now is the sole DBA for a global food processing company responsible for both SQL Server and Ingres databases. He was honored to speak at PASS Summit in 2018 and hopes to have the experience again! He is currently very active in his SQL Server community (PACNW) both as a presenter and assisting with multiple SQL Saturdays. Having experienced the Power BI community, he has now gone back to basics and is working with his VAXen at work again.

Alberto Santaballa JSON In and Out “Ins and Outs”

Even if you’re not planning to use JSON in the database yourself, you may come up against JSON in the SQL environment at some time. Let’s review some simple techniques to parse elements from a JSON formatted field and to generate JSON from SQL queries.

Alberto SantaballaAl is a lifelong software developer but with a strong data gene. Always curious about how to bend SQL to do interesting things and totally drawn in when someone says “I don’t think you can do that with SQL”. Happy transplant from the very muggy Southeast and member of OregonSQL for the five years here in Portland.

Refreshments graciously provided by ServerLogic.

We wish to acknowledge the OSHU Information Technology Group for supporting Oregon SQL by generously providing the meeting venue.