speaking

SQL Saturday Syracuse 2024 Recap

Andy Levy
First Things First Thanks to every who came to my session, Asnwering the Auditor’s Call with Automation. Slides and scripts are posted to my Github. The Event! This was Syracuse’s first SQL Saturday was held at the Onondaga County Public Library’s Central Library location, right downtown. This made it a bit of a “homecoming” for me. My first job out of college was across the street from this building and my colleagues and I used to eat lunch in the (no longer there) food court.

Spring 2024 Speaking Engagements

Andy Levy
I will be presenting Answering the Auditor’s Call with Automation at two upcoming events, one virtual and one in-person. DBA Fundamentals Virtual User Group Tuesday, April 9 2024 at Noon EDT Capital Area SQL Server User Group on Monday, May 13th at 5:30 PM. As DBAs, we’re called on regularly to produce documentation for security & compliance audits. Being able to show who has what level of access to an instance is the minimum, but we’re often asked for more.

On Session Evaluations

Andy Levy
As PASS Summit approaches this week, I’m re-reviewing my evaluations from SQL Saturday Boston and I’d like to give feedback about feedback. Why Feedback? Both speakers and event organizers depend upon getting feedback about every session delivered at SQL Saturday, Data Saturday, PASS Summit, or any of the user groups (in-person or virtual). This feedback is valuable to speakers and event organizers alike. For speakers, it helps us understand if we’re doing OK when we’re in front of the room, but more importantly we want to know what we can do better.

SQL Saturday Boston 2023 Recap

Andy Levy
First Things First Thank you to everyone who attended my session “Answering the Automator’s Call with Automation.” My slide deck and demo code are now available on my Github.. This was a new session and I’m pretty happy with how it worked out. I wasn’t sure if it would “land,” even after doing my run-throughs at home. Now that I’ve delivered the material to real people and had a conversation or two about it with folks, I’m feeling much more confident.

Speaking at SQL Saturday Boston 2023

Andy Levy
I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday Boston on October 14th, 2023. This year’s session is Answering the Auditor’s Call with Automation As DBAs, we’re called on regularly to produce documentation for security & compliance audits. Being able to show who has what level of access to an instance is the minimum, but we’re often asked for more. Collecting this information and compiling it into something usable by auditors could take you hours or even days.

My PASS Data Community Summit 2021 Speaking Experience

Andy Levy

If you’d asked me 5 years ago if I would ever speak at Summit, I’d have said “no way, not possible.” I didn’t even think I was able to produce the kind of material that’s expected at an event on such a large scale. Not to mention having that many eyes on me.

But times change. Experience, skills, and knowledge change. People change. And sometimes, people get talked into doing things things by their friends.

Followup for the Kansas City SQL Server User Group

Andy Levy
I had a great time speaking at the Kansas City SQL Server User Group on Thursday, February 18th. The more I present my Backup Basics with PowerShell and dbatools session, the more I enjoy it. And each time, I’ve learned something new myself. In one of the demos I show how Restore-DbaDatabase selects and restores the most recent backup of a database when pointed at a directory holding several backups of a single database.