RunAs Radio

The cloud-based distributed database is a product you can buy by the minute! While at Build, Richard chats with Mark Brown about CosmosDB, Microsoft's high performance distributed database. The conversation turns to the modern thinking around storage - you have lots of space, you need speed and reliability. So what does your data storage architecture look like? Mark talks about how CosmosDB reflects this modern thinking, utilizing the cloud to provide fast data services anywhere you need them.

Machine learning has brought new terms and language to data - do you speak it? Richard chats with Jen Underwood about how machine learning has added capabilities to data analytics, but also a number of new terms that need to be understood to take this capability into the business. If you're coming from the DBA role and adding machine learning to your skills, you need to know the language well enough to teach it to others!

How do you maintain Windows Server Update Services? Richard chats with Adam Marshall about all the maintenance that WSUS needs over time - and the toolset he has built to automate it. This leads to a conversation about Windows Update in general... which hasn't been great lately. Can you really count on Windows as a Service? What about InTune? Adam also talks about Windows Update for Business which is a free option for managing updates without having an on-premises update server. Lots of choices!

Microsoft Teams is popular, but is it effective? Richard talks with Melissa Hubbard about how to get the most of out of Teams. Melissa talks about the natural chaos that comes from adding a new collaboration tool and how that can be a good thing for adoption but ultimately needs some governance. At the same time, too much governance up-front can stop people from using a new tool - so allow a little chaos! Teams is all about collaboration, and works with other Microsoft products like Yammer and SharePoint, offering a great combination!

Is it time to migrate to Server 2019? Richard chats with Dave Kawula who says YES! After a bit of a bumpy start, Server 2019 is good to go and offers a ton of great features - and some pretty painless in-place upgrades too. Dave points out that this is a version of Server 'born in the cloud' and since Microsoft does in-place upgrades, for certain roles, it makes sense for you to do it too. File servers and VM hosts are great for in-place upgrades, but domain controllers and app servers, you need to think things through more carefully - and they're likely virtual machines anyway, so build new... and use automation while you're at it!

What's a data lake and why do you need one? Richard chats with Stacia Varga about the evolving landscape of data analytics - focusing on how the cloud is changing the way a company can gather, store and analyze data. This leads to a conversation about the role of the data lake, a place where raw data can arrive and then be processed on-demand for analytics. The cloud provides the elasticity and scaling to be able to analyze data quickly on demand - you just need to take advantage of it!

WIndows Server 2019 has been out since November 2018 - is it time to install it? Richard talks to Jason Helmick about how the creation of Windows has evolved and how Microsoft's new practices around building Windows has affected adoption and interest in the latest operating system. Jason talks about how the continuous improvement model of Microsoft products including Windows can be a challenge for some folks, but provides huge benefits also. Should you install Server 2019? Jason says YES!

SharePoint is not just a product, it's a tool for helping your organization manage critical information. Are you taking advantage of it? Richard chats with Susan Hanley about what information architecture is about and how SharePoint can play a key role in helping an organization find, store and share data. Every organization needs this capability, successful organizations do it well - how well do you do it?

IT may be evolving, but are all aspects of your IT organization advancing? Richard chats with Jeff Stokes, former Microsoft PFE and now working at Tanium about the challenges IT people have around improving performance. Arguably the least advanced part of much of IT infrastructure is the network - so what does a modern network look like? Jeff talks about being able to get visibility into what servers and desktops are talking to each other, and how to set logical boundaries around them. At least know when your machines are speaking out of turn!

How do you make your SQL queries go faster? Richard chats with Erin Stellato about how Query Store in SQL Server 2017 and its ability to provide detailed information on query performance, including where SQL Server is compiling new query plans for repeated calls. Erin talks about how ORMs can cause repeated ad-hoc queries and how Query Store can be used to help educate developers and explore options for tuning those queries with stored procedures or parameterization. But you can't blame code by default - Query Store can be used for a variety of performance tuning options, on-premises and in the cloud!