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Get an overview of all the sessions.

Power BI serves as a self-service BI platform with a strong focus on data preparation and interactive analysis. With the introduction of Power BI dataflows, self-service data preparation is brought to a new level using well-known and established technologies.

Level: Intermediate

If you want to privately deliver your Docker images to your data centers or customers world-wide, you will need to run your own registry. Running it yourself or using IaaS in the cloud for that means investing a lot of effort. Ready-made registries in the cloud are an alternative. Long-time Azure MVP and Microsoft Regional Director Rainer Stropek spends this session showing you how to setup, configure and use the serverless Container Registry in Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

Level: Advanced

So you have been running on-prem SQL Server for a while now. Maybe you have taken the step to move it from bare metal to a VM, and have seen some nice benefits. Ready to see a TON more benefits? If you said “YES!”, then this is the session for you as I will go over the many benefits gained by moving your on-prem SQL Server to an Azure VM (IaaS). Then I will really blow your mind by showing you even more benefits by moving to Azure SQL Database (PaaS/DBaaS). And for those of you with a large data warehouse, I also got you covered with Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Along the way I will talk about the many hybrid approaches so you can take a gradual approach to moving to the cloud. If you are interested in cost savings, additional features, ease of use, quick scaling, improved reliability and ending the days of upgrading hardware, this is the session for you!

Level: Intermediate

Development and test environments typically consume a significant part of your enterprise IT infrastructure. With Azure Labs (formerly known as DevTest Labs) you can deliver development and test environments quickly and cost-effectively while keeping control over costs and resources. Stefan gives you an overview of Azure Labs service and shows you how to optimize deployment by integrating Azure DevTest Labs into your Azure DevOps CI / CD pipeline.

Level: Intermediate

It is cool to build new things in Azure, to try out some services and to run stuff in the cloud. But you should double check your environment to stay secure and in control. This session focuses on how to keep control over your Azure Environment manually and in an automated way. We will figure out a way to do a Health Check on a regular basis that really keeps you informed, which will be demoed live!

Level: Advanced

You have heard about machine learning, but are not sure what it is actual all about. What are labels, features, and examples? What is a model and how can it be used to make predictions? What is the difference between regression and classification?

Join this session for a look at the theory of machine learning. We will go through the concepts that you need to understand and apply machine learning to produce useful predictions on never-before-seen data.

Level: Intermediate

Understanding evaluation contexts is the key to understand DAX and to start thinking in DAX. In this session we will start from the basics of evaluation context and explain in depth the role of filter context and row context in DAX expressions, providing several examples of formulas where following the flow of contexts in the correct way is mandatory to make a sense out of the numbers computed.
At the end of the session you will have a clearer idea of the importance of evaluation context and you will probably look at your DAX code in a different way.

Level: Advanced

Azure Functions has been a popular growing service due to how simple it makes for developers, IT-pros and data professionals to build applications in the cloud. 

But how does Microsoft deliver on the serverless promise? What's next for serverless and FaaS (Functions as a service)?

This talk will go through some of the most popular aspects of Azure Functions and provide details of how it works. It will also paint the picture of what's next, with some concepts demonstrated in practice.

Level: Advanced

The world is wild about Containers, and so is Azure! Where container support has been part of the Azure platform for almost 3 years now, based on the recent amount of questions I got on the topic, it seems most partners and customers are only looking at it now. Which comes with the related confusion in terminology and capabilities. And that's exactly what I will show you during my session: how to run Docker (DCK) containers in Azure, by using the different Azure Container solutions available. Starting from the basics, moving to more complex architectures and scenarios. And as usual in Peter's sessions, more live demos than PPTX-talk...

Level: Advanced

Azure SQL Managed Instance is Azure Database as a Service that combines the best Azure SQL Database and SQL Server capabilities. One of the biggest challenges that you might face with Managed Instance is understanding where is the exact boundary between SQL Server and Azure SQL, how to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot this new flavor of SQL Server in a new Azure environment. In this session you will see some of the issues that you might face when you start with Managed Instance and tools, tips & tricks that can help you resolve them.

Level: Advanced

Come to this session to learn how Microsoft Identity platform (Azure Active Directory) helps you with your app’s access and security. Topics discussed include: Multi-tenant vs single-tenant apps with Azure Active Directory and Microsoft accounts, B2C, B2B, and optimizing permissions and consent. Explore how your app fits in with external identities, and which development tools and libraries are right for your app scenario.

Level: Intermediate

Microsoft has a wide array of tools for artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and cognitive services, and it's often difficult to know where to start and what to use. In this session, we show you a defined process to your needs, walk you through the entire set of AI offerings from Microsoft Cognitive Services to Azure Machine Learning, provide demos, and also help you find in-depth training on everything from programming to Python, R, ML, and more.

Level: Intermediate

The desire and expectation to use real-time data is constantly growing, businesses need to react to market trends instantly. In this new data driven age a daily ETL load/processing window isn’t enough. We need a constant stream of information and analytics achieved in real-time. In this session will look at how that can be achieved using Azure Stream Analytics. Building streaming jobs that can blend and aggregate data as it arrives to drive live Power BI dashboards. Plus, we’ll explore how a complete lambda architecture can be created when combining stream and batch data together.

Level: Intermediate

We have been seeing it in movies for years, cars that drive without any human intervention or interaction. What looks futuristic at first, is now being worked on by all car manufacturers. The ultimate goal is building a full Level 5 Autonomous Car. 

Though it might still take a couple of years (or decades) to achieve this, the technology investments are already happening today and the foundations are laid for these challenging projects. 

In order to build such cars and get these validated, massive data sets need to be processed and analyzed over an over again. The industry has set clear expectations and the validation of such "human replacement" scenarios are lengthy and very expensive. The goal is clear, build a car that can do better than a human … but can it?

This session includes the following services:

• Azure Storage
• Azure Batch
• Azure CycleCloud
• Azure Messaging

Level: Intermediate

Data security and privacy is big challenge. With so much data flowing in and out of servers it’s easy to understand how data breaches take months to discover. For decades our industry placed a value on performance at the cost of security. Those days are over. Data security and privacy are now at the forefront of any project.

In this session we will examine available tools and methods to protect data at rest, in use, and in motion. Topics for discussion will include:
- Data discovery and classification
- Data encryption
- Data masking
- SQL injection
- Audit and threat detection
- Penetration testing

Attend this session and leave with confidence knowing you have the ability to lower the risk of suffering an expensive data breach. Don’t wait until tomorrow, start securing your data today.

Level: Intermediate

Serverless is the next evolution in cloud computing. Azure Functions are simple, short-lived, stateless, single-purpose actions that respond to events in the cloud. 

But your applications are probably complex, multi-step, long-running, and stateful! Are you still able to reap the benefits of serverless? Do you have to hand-craft the interactions of stateless isolated functions yourself?

In this talk, Mikhail will demonstrate how Durable Functions combine Azure Functions and Durable Tasks to enable you to manage the state of workflows in the cloud. The toolbox includes "fan-in fan-out" pattern, waiting for external events and human interaction, error handling, retries and timeouts, and more.

Level: Advanced

In this session you'll learn about how to secure your Azure workloads using available Azure networking technologies. You'll learn how to implement Azure Firewall, Network Virtual Appliances, Web Application Firewall, and Network Security Groups. You'll learn how to monitor Azure networks and design a secure network architecture for your Azure workloads.

Level: Intermediate

In this session we’ll cover the full life-cycle for building bots using the Microsoft Bot Framework - from design through to build and publishing. We will look deeper into the recently released V4 Bot Builder SDK, covering integration with Microsoft Cognitive Services, new templates, tooling and SDK features, making it easier than ever to build your own AI driven chatbot, highlighting recommended best practices along the way. We will also take a look at the Bot Builder Community, which features open source extensions, allowing you to build Alexa Skills and Google Actions using the Bot Framework!

Level: Intermediate

Power BI dataflows are powered by Azure Data Lake Storage gen2, but by default the Power BI service manages the storage details. This is great for self-service data preparation and analyst-driven reuse, but Power BI doesn’t stop there. Through its support for CDM Folders, Power BI dataflows integrate with a wide range of Azure data services.

In this session, Power BI program manager Matthew Roche will explore integration scenarios between Power BI dataflows, Azure Data Lake Storage gen2, and additional Azure services such as Azure Data Factory. If you want to bridge the worlds of IT and self-service, and to enable easy reuse in both directions, this is a session you to not want to miss.

Level: Advanced

Avoid the scenario where you are not in control of what is being deployed within your Azure subscriptions or what your costs are. 

Come to this session and understand how you can use tools and policies to control what your employees can (and cannot) deploy within Azure, how you can monitor and manage your costs, and ensure services deployed are compliant with your business guidelines. 

We will also cover off how you can use things like Azure Automation to help control costs and cover off daily tasks.

Level: Intermediate

SQL Server 2017 started with query processing improvements called Adaptive Query Processing. In SQL Server 2019 there are additional improvements and all of them are packed in a feature with the most promising name - Intelligent Query Processing. 

The intention of these improvements is to fix poor performing queries due to wrong cardinality estimations and other sub-optimal plan decisions, and hereby enhance query performance with almost no code changes. 

This session will cover briefly all these features: Batch and Row Mode Memory Grant Feedback, Batch Mode Adaptive Join and Interleaved Execution, Table Variable Deferred Compilation, Approximate Query Processing, Batch Mode Rowstore and Inlining of scalar UDFs.

Better cardinality estimations should bring better plans, so one of the questions that inevitably arise is do you still need to tune your queries, does an intelligent query processor really needs my help, does it also solve parameter sniffing issues and so on.

The session will address such questions, and also suggest how much improvements you should expect in real workloads with this very promising set of features.

Level: Advanced

Understanding how our applications function in the wild is essential for developers when issues arise. With the power of knowledge, we can enable ourselves to provide the best experience to our fellow developers, and our stakeholders. One of the solutions that supplies this power is Application Insights. Application Insights is a service provided by Microsoft allowing you to monitor your application live, detect performance anomalies, and observe this data with powerful analytics. Together we will see how easy it is to add Application Insights to our applications, whether we have access to the code-base or not. Once instrumented, we will dive deeper into the capabilities of Application Insights and show how to leverage all the rich data collected from our application. Finally, as developers the last thing we want to do is troubleshoot an issue in Production, with everyone watching and the stakes are high. Watch as we monitor a live application that is throwing exceptions and how Application Insights can be used to help us solve the problem faster. When we are done, attendees will be empowered with the knowledge to leverage Application Insights to be more productive with their work.

Level: Intermediate

Azure Stack allows you to extend Azure to your datacenter and run Azure Services under your terms. Find out more about Azure Stack and how it can help you to in your Hybrid Cloud strategy. Learn about the features and services you will get by offering Azure Stack to your customers and how you can build a true Hybrid Cloud experience.
In this presentation Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations and experiences during the Azure Stack Early Adaption Program and Azure Stack Technology Adoption Program (TAP).

Level: Intermediate

Of the myriad environmental challenges facing our planet, the rapid depletion of rich biodiversity is amongst the most pressing. The rapidity of loss of entire species due to poaching, encroachment or plain human apathy is accelerating Earth’s sixth mass extinction. 

Rapid advances in AI models are placing immense power in the hands of environmental groups and researchers to tackle the escalating global environmental challenges, head-on. Deep learning models have taken the world by storm and have also created a perfect dichotomy. On the one hand, we have data science practitioners raving about it, and then there is everyone else wondering what the supposedly game-changing technology is all about.

This talk will cover three things:
1. A simple, conceptual introduction to Deep learning
2. Live business case studies showcasing the application of deep learning to real-world environmental use cases: from conservation of Salmon in rivers, to identification of endangered species, or spotting of African elephants, and the counting of Antarctic penguins. This will be drawn from the work done jointly by Gramener and Microsoft AI-for-Earth team, for NGOs around the world
3. Discussion of the technical challenges in the implementation of deep learning in enterprises and ways to overcome them

The talk will conclude with an outlook for the future and on what can be expected in the coming years.

Level: Intermediate

Microsoft Power Query is the transformation engine in Power BI. This is the engine with which you do all data preparation before loading data into the model. This is the keystone of your Power BI solution. In this session, learn what Power Query can do. Learn how M, the language behind the scenes of Power Query, can be more beneficial than the Power Query graphical interface. See demos of transformations that you can do with M Code. Learn about functions, parameters, generators and many other amazing features of this tool. Prepare to be amazed with what Power Query can do in this demo-filled session!

Level: Expert

Gain insights about Azure Kubernetes Service and how AKS is playing well together with ACI, ACR and Azure DevOps supporting you to build & run first class container applications.

We cover in this session Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Instances, Azure Container Registry, Azure DevOps as CI/CD pipeline and Azure Monitor Container Health for monitoring. The session has several demos about deploying, monitoring and operating Azure Kubernetes Service as well how you build a container image and rolling it out to AKS with Azure DevOps.

Level: Expert

Azure DataBricks brings a Platform-as-a-Service offering of Apache Spark, which allows for blazing fast data processing, interactive querying and the hosting of machine learning models all in one place! But most of the buzz is around what it means for Data Science & AI - what about the humble data engineer who wants to harness the in-memory processing power within their ETL pipelines? How does it fit into the Modern Data Warehouse? What does data preparation look like in this new world?

This session will run through the best practices of implementing Azure DataBricks as your data ingestion, transformation and curation tool of choice. We will:

• Introduce the Azure DataBricks service
• Introduce Python and why it is the language of choice for Data Engineering on DataBricks
• Discuss the various hosting & compute options available
• Demonstrate a sample data processing task
• Compare and contrast against alternative approaches using SSIS, U-SQL and HDInsight
• Demonstrate how to manage and orchestrate your processing pipelines
• Review the wider architectures and additional extension patterns

The session is aimed at Data Engineers & BI Professionals seeking to put the Azure DataBricks technology in the right context and learn how to use the service. We will not be covering the python programming language in detail.

Level: Intermediate

So you have built an awesome service based on Azure PaaS components and now you need to take care of monitoring and supporting it?

In this session, we are going to start from the point that the Application is "ready" and we will focus on production.

We will cover setting telemetry, measuring SLA, setting meaningful alerts, troubleshooting the application without having an access to the code and how to ensure smooth updates.

Level: Advanced

Microsoft Azure IoT Hub is a powerful service, that is being used by large scale IoT deployments. The service is part of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. 
In this session, Sam will explore the different capabilities for Telemetry ingestion, Security, Command and Control, Device Management, Message Routing, Device Twins, Device Metadata, File Upload, Device jobs and Direct queries.
For every feature, you will see some real world examples on how they get applied in different situations. 
At the end of this session, attendees should get a good understanding on the different capabilities of Azure IoT Hub and how to use them in the field.

Level: Expert

In times past, Data Science was only for those elite few with a rare combination of skills including advanced knowledge of statistics.
Microsoft has been making sure that everyone can participate in the data revolution by giving people access to predictive API’s, in-database advanced analytics and drag-and-drop predictive experiments. And it all started with SQL Server 2016 and the Cortana Intelligence Suite in Azure.
These advances have given people with less knowledge of statistics and programming the ability to become what Gartner calls citizen data scientists.
Should we be worried about creating fools-with-tools or should we embrace the democratization of data science as the golden age of data?
Using a combination of theory and demo’s, we explore some of Microsoft’s solutions to ensure democratization of data science and the possible dangers that lurk below the surface.

Level: Intermediate