Matt Gordon

With so much emphasis on cloud data platforms and AI these days, SQL people can feel left behind by all the marketing hype. SQL Server 2025 was officially released in November of 2025, though, and contains a ton of improvements that will make our SQL Server environments a bit faster, better, and more secure.

The first two sessions in this learning pathway cover essential AI-related knowledge for data professionals and then how to apply that knowledge to your work. The final session in the learning pathway covers what we do next and where we go from here. Everyone who works in technology is feeling...

Migrating to Platform as a Service (PaaS) is not just a technical move—it’s an operational and architectural shift. In this session, Dan and Matt share real‑world PaaS migration experiences from both a Microsoft perspective and a consultant perspective.

SQL Server 2025 is the AI database for enterprises. But there are more new things than just AI—in this demo filled, full-day workshop, you will learn about: • Engine improvements that make everything just run faster • How SQL Server 2025 helps you operate more securely • Further enhancements to high availability •…

You're comfortable in the world of SQL, but this new world of AI presents challenges - and opportunities. Microsoft calls SQL Server 2025 "the AI-ready enterprise database" but what does that mean for you and your company?

Curious about the differences between Azure SQL Database and SQL Database in Fabric? Want to see a cook-off between them? This intro-level session is perfect for developers and DBAs looking to understand the architecture and fundamentals of these two complementary but competing platforms. In just 60 minutes, we'll: • Examine the core architecture and compute models of each platform. • Compare options for scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery - and the hidden downsides of each platform. • Explore the different cost structures between the two solutions. Most importantly, we'll talk through real-world use cases where we've seen each flavor of SQL be the top dog. Come learn from our hands-on experiences in the field which one is better or wurst for your workload. There may also be a few more meat-related Grillen puns. Join us!

As organizations have chased speed through AI, multi-platform estates, and Cloud, database complexity has outpaced the practices needed to manage it. Flexibility has increased, but oversight, confidence, and control have weakened. So how do you regain control in increasingly complex database landscapes? Join industry experts Monica Morehouse, Matt Gordon, Thomas Kronawitter and Grant Fritchey in discussion with Redgate’s Louise Domeisen, to unpack the key findings from the 2026 State of the Database Landscape report. You’ll hear first-hand experience and actionable tips from the panel on the key report topics including: • The defining tension of 2026: organizations are losing control as everything accelerates. • Structural complexity is rising again, making control harder than ever. • AI adoption is exploding, landing on top of unstable data, security, and governance foundations. • Risks are shifting from technology to ownership, structure, and decision-making. • To regain control, organizations must fix the data foundations that everything else depends on. You'll walk away with a clearer understanding of where your organization sits in this landscape and practical steps you can take to start regaining control.

With so much emphasis on cloud data platforms and AI these days, SQL people can feel left behind by all the marketing hype. SQL Server 2025 was officially released in November of 2025, though, and contains a ton of improvements that will make our SQL Server deployments a bit faster, better, and...

Just like any new release, there is a lot of marketing noise around SQL Server 2025. For less experienced DBAs, it can be hard to sort through the hype to the reality of what's in the new release.

You're comfortable in the world of SQL, but this new world of AI presents challenges - and opportunities. Microsoft calls SQL Server 2025 "the AI-ready enterprise database" but what does that mean for you and your company?

Introduced at Ignite 2025, Fabric IQ is a new workload aiming to unify all of the data across your OneLake and organize it according to the language of your business. Sounds great in theory, but how can it help your business?

SQL Server 2025 is the AI database for enterprises. But there are more new things than just AI—in this demo filled, full-day workshop, you will learn about:• Engine improvements that make everything just run faster• How SQL Server 2025 helps you operate more securely• Further enhancements to high availability • Building event-driven architectures with change event streamingMaster the benefits...

When it comes to performance monitoring and optimization across the Azure SQL family, everyone has their own preferred routines. Whether it's using dynamic management views and extended events, digging through Query Store, or looking at Azure Metrics, the goal is always the same: figure out what's going on and fix it fast. You may not have heard of Database Watcher, but it's worth spending an hour having a look at a native Microsoft tool for monitoring your databases. That means you don't have to ask your boss for yet another license for yet another tool! Join us in this demo-rich session to understand how you can finally manage Azure SQL at scale with minimal setup and overhead.. You'll learn what Database Watcher offers out-of-the-box in terms of insights, alerts, and reports. We'll also show how you can start to analyze the performance data stored by Database Watcher with T-SQL or Kusto Query Language (KQL) and then visualize that data with your own custom visuals and dashboards in Power BI and Real-Time Dashboards in Fabric. By the end of this session, you'll understand how quick and cost-effective Database Watcher can be to help you save time, reduce guesswork, and work smarter (not harder).

You've heard way too much about AI - but you're not sure what you need it to do or what you want it to do. You're used to working with Azure SQL or SQL Server in some form or fashion but you don't know how to make them work with AI.

If you ask a user how often they need data their initial answer is often "in real time", right? Once you solve for getting them that data in real-time, then where would you store it? Once it was stored, what tool or tools would you use to visualize it? Once that ecosystem is set up and stable, how does it interact with the data warehouses and data lakes in your estate? The Real-Time Hub is your starting point for building real-time applications in Fabric. It's a kind of action center for bringing real-time events from a variety of sources (and clouds) into Fabric, learning how to analyze - and act upon - that data, storing it, and then visualizing it in real-time dashboards. In this session, we will explore what you can do with Real-Time hub and what real world scenarios you can unlock based on our real world experiences. Following on from there, we'll be using some real-time sample data sources provided within the hub to show you how to easy it is to pull in some real-time data and see all the capabilities that Real-Time Intelligence has to offer you.

Real-time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric brings us into the next generation of data movement and event-driven architecture. As the arms race of cloud data platforms continues, make sure you know the weapons at your disposal so you and your company are fully equipped for the future - because the future is not far…

In this session, we are going to show you how easy it is to use Database Watcher, a cloud-native and cross-platform solution that supports multiple database types, versions, and platforms, to set up proactive database monitoring and collect deep and rich data. You will see how Database Watcher provides easy to…

If you work with data, you're generally dealing with two types of data: data in motion and data at rest. While we have many time-tested solutions for dealing with our data at rest, it hasn't been simple or straightforward to deal with data in motion - yet.

The only smoke and mirrors in this session will be tire smoke and rearview mirrors! Are you curious about how to build a Real-Time Intelligence Solution in Fabric but not sure how to generate real-time data for a POC?

Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric is designed to enable organisations to bring their streaming, high-granularity, time-sensitive event data into Fabric and build various analytical, visual and action oriented data applications and experiences with it. In this session, you will learn about what Fabric Real-time Intelligence is meant for and will then build an end-to-end solution using streaming data. This session will get you hands-on with Real-Time Hub, Eventstream, Eventhouse, Data Activator, Real-time Dashboards, Power BI, and Copilot with combination of Microsoft MVPs and Fabric product group members to guide you along the way. The end-to-end solution we build together will encompass: • Discovering and cataloging your data streams using Real-Time Hub • Connecting to streaming data from various sources around the world • Cleaning, normalizing, preparing data for superior query time experiences • Leveraging Copilot to discover streaming data • Low-code/no-code experiences for data exploration • Developing dashboards

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Even with experienced project leadership it can be very difficult to know that all preliminary preparations are complete. Worse yet, with such a large and complicated project, it can be very difficult to know when the project has actually been successfully completed. Don't you want some help sorting through this enormous pile of work? You need to zero in on the critical items that need to be prepared, executed, and completed to ensure a successful cloud migration project. Join an experienced cloud migration consultant for a targeted walkthrough of their cloud migration success checklist so you can make sure your project gets off to a good start and reaches a successful completion.

If you ask a user how often they need data their initial answer is often "in real time", right? Once you solve for getting them that data in real-time, then where would you store it? Once it was stored, what tool or tools would you use to visualize it? Once that ecosystem is set up and stable, how does it interact with the data warehouses and data lakes in your estate? The Real-Time Hub is your starting point for building real-time applications in Fabric. It's a kind of action center for bringing real-time events from a variety of sources (and clouds) into Fabric, learning how to analyze - and act upon - that data, storing it, and then visualizing it in real-time dashboards. In this session, we will explore what you can do with Real-Time hub and what real world scenarios you can unlock based on our real world experiences. Following on from there, we'll be using some real-time sample data sources provided within the hub to show you how to easy it is to pull in some real-time data and see all the capabilities that Real-Time Intelligence has to offer you.

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Even with experienced project leadership it can be very difficult to know that all preliminary preparations are complete.

Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric is designed to enable organisations to bring their streaming, high-granularity, time-sensitive event data into Fabric and build various analytical, visual and action oriented data applications and experiences with it.

While there are many conference sessions that tackle the technical bits of how to handle an on call role in the data world, there are not many sessions that ponder the toll that these roles can take on someone.

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Even with experienced project leadership it can be very difficult to know that all preliminary preparations are complete.

Even a casual glance at the news lately shows that AI and the things it can do is all the rage. Is a lot of it overblown hype? Yes. But, does it enable technical professionals to do more than they could before? Also yes!

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Even with experienced project leadership it can be very difficult to know that all preliminary preparations are complete.

While there are many conference sessions that tackle the technical bits of how to handle an on call role in the data world, there are not many sessions that ponder the toll that these roles can take on someone.

Even a casual glance at the news lately shows that AI and the things it can do is all the rage. Is a lot of it overblown hype? Yes. But, does it enable technical professionals to do more than they could before? Also yes! I've been working with Azure AI for six years and it is exciting to see the convergency between low-code/no-code development tools and the power of AI in the cloud. Join me for this demo-rich session where I show you how AI-powered and connected tools can help you do your job more efficiently, help you have a little more fun at work, and possibly help you leverage your new found AI knowledge to a new job!

Whether you've been a DBA for a week, a year, or a decade, you've likely had that day where it felt like you were fighting multiple fires at the same time. That often makes you feel like you have no idea what you're doing - but you do.

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Even with experienced project leadership it can be very difficult to know that all preliminary preparations are complete.

While there are many conference sessions that tackle the technical bits of how to handle an on call role in the data world, there are not many sessions that ponder the toll that these roles can take on someone.

Cloud migration projects are often massive projects with sprawling scopes. Don't you want some help sorting through this enormous pile of work? Join an experienced cloud migration consultant for a targeted walkthrough of their cloud migration success checklist so you can make sure your project...

Are you terrified of public speaking? For 37 years of my life, I was too! Now, when I speak at community events, I'm often asked how I got into speaking and how I got over my fears of public speaking. In this free-wheeling session I'll tell you the tips and tricks that I took to heart to go from a little kid in speech therapy to somebody that volunteers to speak in front of people and actually enjoys it. I sincerely hope this session helps encourage people to overcome their fears of public speaking - or that you at least enjoy giggling at pictures of 6-year-old me in speech therapy headphones when I lived in Worthington, OH!

AI is, was, and will be a part of our world for a long time to come. The Speech and Language areas of Azure Cognitive Services provide powerful opportunities for data professionals to enable richer reporting, create chatbots to answer repetitive questions, or just bolster their resume for their next job. Even though my day-to-day job is a DBA/Data Architect, I've worked with these AI technologies for years to provide instant information to my employees, enable richer interactions on internal and external websites, and easily localize apps and documentation to local languages. Want to know more about AI and how it can help you? Attend this session. Want to know more about AI and how it can help you level up in your career? Attend this session. Want to know more about how much fun it is to play with Language and Speech in Cognitive Services? Attend this session. Let's kickoff your AI journey, wherever it leads, together!

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means? Are you facing pressure to have data in Azure as well? Help is here! This session will walk you through the high availability options in on-premises SQL Server, the high availability options in Azure SQL Database and Managed Instances, and how some or all of those can be combined to enable you to achieve the ambitious goals of your management. Beyond the academic knowledge, we'll discuss frequently seen scenarios from the field covering exactly how your on-premises environments and Azure services can work together to keep your phone quiet at night.

How can data professionals help a company deliver more personal and prompt communication to customers that are demanding it? Learn how data knowledge and the power of Azure Cognitive Services APIs can make that happen!

On-call DBAs have all had that phone call in the middle of the night: "the database is down, fix it now!" Learn how Azure Data Studio notebooks can make our responses faster and more organized so we can get more sleep!

On-call DBAs have all had that phone call in the middle of the night: "the database is down, fix it now!" We start scrambling to piece together various scripts to analyze the emergency, mitigate the issues, and kick off a failover or similar fix to make the database happy and healthy once again.

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means? Are you facing pressure to have data in Azure as well?

On-call DBAs have all had that phone call in the middle of the night: "the database is down, fix it now!" We start scrambling to piece together various scripts to analyze the emergency, mitigate the issues, and kick off a failover or similar fix to make the database happy and healthy once again.

The job of a data professional is evolving rapidly, driving many of us to platforms and technologies that were not on our radar screen a few months ago. I am certainly no exception to that trend.

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means? Are you facing pressure to have data in Azure as well?

Long gone are the days where the only architecture decision you had to make when scaling an environment was deciding which part of the datacenter would store your new server. There is a dizzying array of options available in the SQL Server and Azure ecosystems and those are evolving by the day. Is “the cloud” a fad? Are private datacenters a thing of the past? Could both questions have a kernel of truth in them? In this session I will go over real world scenarios and walk you through real world solutions that utilize your datacenter, cloud providers, and everything in between to keep your data highly available and your customers happy.

The job of a data professional is evolving rapidly, driving many of us to platforms and technologies that were not on our radar screen a few months ago. I am certainly no exception to that trend.

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means?

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means?

Have you ever wondered what it takes to keep an Always On availability group running and the users and administrators who depend on it happy? Let my experience maintaining several production Always On Availability Groups provide you some battle-tested information and hopefully save you some sleepless nights.

Every few months the headlines are filled with news of yet another system outage inconveniencing customers and users. As data platform professionals, the systems and servers for which we are responsible generally form the foundation of our companies’ customer-facing applications.

Has your manager come to you and said "I expect the SQL Server machines to have zero downtime?" Have you been told to make your environment "Always On" without any guidance (or budget) as to how to do that or what that means?