Tom Huntley

As a SQL Server DBA, I found myself helping deliver a client’s first proper analytics platform - replacing fragile, manual reporting with something scalable and sustainable. In this talk, I’ll share how I approached that challenge: testing a few different data integration options, leaning heavily on skills I already had, and figuring out how to stitch everything together into a working data pipeline. I’ll cover the architecture decisions, the trade-offs involved, and what I learned moving from database administration into data engineering work along the way - including a first look at some modern data engineering tools. This session is aimed at anyone with little to no data engineering experience who wants an honest, practical introduction to what building a data pipeline actually looks like in the real world.

As a SQL Server DBA, I found myself helping deliver a client’s first proper analytics platform - replacing fragile, manual reporting with something scalable and sustainable. In this talk, I’ll share how I approached that challenge: testing a few different data integration options, leaning heavily on skills I already had, and figuring out how to stitch everything together into a working data pipeline. I’ll cover the architecture decisions, the trade-offs involved, and what I learned moving from database administration into data engineering work along the way - including a first look at some modern data engineering tools. This session is aimed at anyone with little to no data engineering experience who wants an honest, practical introduction to what building a data pipeline actually looks like in the real world.