Join AWS at PASS Data Community Summit 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is excited to welcome our customers and partners to the PASS Data Community Summit 2023 in Seattle on November 14-17, where data professionals and experts gather to explore the latest trends, technologies, and innovations. We are delighted that AWS will continue our ongoing support of this community as a Platinum sponsor—and we have some exciting news to share: we are celebrating the 15-year anniversary of SQL Server on AWS! Join us in commemorating this milestone and enjoy some delicious cupcakes and refreshing beverages at booth #103.

SQL Server on AWS: A 15-Year milestone

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the incredible journey of SQL Server on AWS. Since 2008, AWS has been at the forefront of helping hundreds of thousands of customers transition their SQL Server workloads to the cloud. In fact, we’ve been doing it longer than anyone else, and customers continue to choose AWS for migrating and modernizing SQL Server for optimized price performance, license flexibility, ease of use, and innovation to manage, access, and scale their data.

At AWS, we are committed to continuously empower our customers with innovations and services that enable them to migrate, optimize, and modernize their SQL Server workloads in the cloud, while harnessing the full potential of their data.

Level up your data knowledge with AWS

As part of our commitment to the PASS Data Community Summit, we are excited to offer a diverse range of educational sessions to empower your data journey, covering various topics, such as: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, analytics, generative AI, cost optimization, database management best practices, etc. Here’s a sneak peek of the sessions our data experts will be presenting:

Using Generative AI to Accelerate SQL Development (Session 2031)

In this session, we will demonstrate how Amazon CodeWhisperer enables more agile and productive database development by taking natural language input about desired database operations and outputting the corresponding SQL code. We will highlight examples of generating SQL with CodeWhisperer, best practices for crafting effective prompts, and how to refine the generated code to fit your database schema and requirements.

Cost Optimization Strategies for SQL Server in the Cloud (Session 2028)

As more businesses move their workloads to the cloud, optimizing costs has become a top priority. One of the most significant costs associated with running SQL Server workloads is licensing. In this session, we will discuss how to optimize costs on AWS by optimizing SQL Server licensing and infrastructure. We will review licensing options available on AWS, and strategies for license optimization, including bringing your own licenses (BYOL), licensing at the physical core level, and SQL Server consolidation. We will also discuss infrastructure strategies, such as optimizing CPU usage and modernizing legacy applications.

Using NVMe Instance Store for SQL Server Tempdb (Session 1535)

NVMe instance store provides 10x times faster on write and 6x times faster on read (no cache read), which makes it a perfect solution for hosting SQL Server Tempdb. In this session, we will show you how to configure instance store for SQL Server to generate both high performance and high availability.

Cost Optimization with Amazon RDS for SQL Server (Session 1624)

Amazon RDS provides a managed database experience, while making it incredibly easy to consume as many resources as needed without having to purchase any hardware, licenses, or operate a data center. New RDS customers, and sometimes even experienced customers, may find the costing exercise a bit nebulous and confusing due to multiple cost dimensions. This session will focus on explaining cost components with running your database workloads on RDS SQL Server. We will discuss primary cost components, optimization best practices and we will also discuss AWS provided tools, like Cost Usage Reports (CUR), tagging and cost explorer, to identify how customers can reduce their RDS usage costs. Some of these optimization techniques can also be applied to other open source service (OSS) engines on RDS as well.

Demystify Migrating SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL (Session 1477)

We will dive deep on the migration process from start to finish when re-architecting to Aurora Postgres from SQL Server. Learn how to easily convert database Schema objects like tables, views, and stored procedures to a PostgreSQL compatible schema. This will include common schema conversion challenges and estimating level of conversion difficulty during the planning phase. We will also discuss migration mechanisms, migration purpose-built-tools, and migrating with minimal downtime. Lastly, we will review lessons learned and best practices captured directly from real migration scenarios.

3-Step Guide to Modernize SQL Server to PostgreSQL (Session 2030) – also being live-streamed!

We will discover a comprehensive 3-step guide on modernizing SQL Server workloads to PostgreSQL seamlessly, with minimal code changes. Learn from the success story of FundApps.co, a leading company that accelerated SQL Server database modernization with Babelfish for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL without having to make any changes to the majority of the application.

Unlock the Power of your SQL Server Data with AWS Data Lake (Session 1800)

In this session, we will propose a modern data architecture as a mechanism to drive innovation from business insights in siloed data on SQL Server operational systems end to end. We will give an overview on the process to feed a data lake, using the native AWS tooling to build data pipelines and catalog data derived from your SQL Server databases. We will describe the use of Redshift serverless as a cloud-native data warehouse for stage and data mart, and the use of Athena and integrated ML services to derive BI dashboards and business insights directly from the data lake or data warehouse. Finally, we will run through a use case scenario specific to a SQL Server ERP application to showcase the art of the possible.

Is your Analytics Solution Solving the Right Problem? (Session 1495)

Almost every enterprise has some kind of data analytics solution. They invest heavily in the solutions and implement complex analytics workflows, desiring to turn data into actionable insights and be able to develop competitive advantages for the business, only to find out that they are getting incomplete findings and wrong conclusions from the analysis. This session covers the typical traps that enterprises fall into, how to assess the current state of your solutions using a data strategy framework, and the introduction of some proven augmented data management techniques that can yield successful outcomes.

Optimize your Amazon Aurora resources to reduce costs (Session 1538)

Amazon Aurora is a cloud-native managed relational database offering that allows you to create, manage, and scale your database resources with ease. In this session, dive deep into Aurora cost components and see how you can use cost-focused features and tooling to optimize costs for your workload without sacrificing performance or scale. Also learn how the Amazon Aurora I/O-Optimized configuration can help you achieve cost savings for your I/O-intensive workloads.

Practical Memory Tuning for PostgreSQL (Session 1938)

This session will first introduce the different ways PostgreSQL can use memory, from the operating system, to cluster wide, and then into per session and per operation. From there, we will dive into specifics around different PostgreSQL parameters like shared_buffers, work_mem, maintenance_work_mem, and how to set them, depending on your workload. The presentation will also cover some of the lesser known ways that PostgreSQL will consume memory, how you can diagnose what is using the memory in your PostgreSQL cluster, and possible ways to avoid running out of memory. Additionally, discuss the importance of huge pages for not only performance, but memory usage on large memory systems.

Wait! What’s going on Inside my Database? (Session 1849)

PostgreSQL 9.6 introduced wait events and PostgreSQL 10 progressed them, but what are they? What do they mean? How do I find them and how do I make them go away? Wait events are one of the most significant advancements in observability for PostgreSQL databases; their usefulness is unparalleled in troubleshooting performance. This talk will go into all that and more, as we perform a flyover of the field of database performance engineering in general, and then dive deep to explore the world of PostgreSQL wait events specifically.

Blockchain Beyond Bitcoin: The Future of DB Decentralization (Session 1297)

As blockchain technology continues to gain momentum, its potential as a decentralized database solution cannot be ignored. By leveraging cryptography, distributed consensus, and peer-to-peer networking, blockchain has the potential to transform the way we store, manage, and share data. In this session, we will explore the opportunities and challenges of using blockchain as a decentralized database, including its potential use cases, benefits, and limitations. We will also discuss the impact of blockchain on traditional databases and the broader implications for data management and privacy. Whether you’re a business leader, technologist, or data enthusiast, this session will provide valuable insights into the future of decentralized databases and the role that blockchain will play in shaping it.

In-booth theater sessions and swag

When you visit our booth at the Summit, prepare to be inspired by 16 in-booth theater sessions, featuring AWS data experts and partners. These sessions offer a unique opportunity to gain insights, ask questions, and interact with your peers who are shaping the future of data. Plus, there’s more to look forward to – in-booth session attendees have the chance to win a copy of the book, Modern Data Architecture on AWS: A Practical Guide for Building Next-Gen Data Platforms on AWS.

And don’t forget to drop by our booth to collect some AWSsome swag! From T-shirts to stickers and pens, we have plenty of goodies to make your Summit experience even more memorable.

Book a meeting with AWS experts

If you’re interested in having in-depth conversations with AWS experts to kickstart your SQL Server journey to the cloud and map out a plan tailored to your data strategy, don’t hesitate to book a meeting with one of our AWS experts. Simply send an email to microsoft@amazon.com with ‘PASS’ in the subject line to schedule your meeting.

Your voice matters

Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we want to understand your needs to provide an even better customer experience. Take a moment to participate in our AWS survey. Your insights will help shape the future of our services and ensure they align with your expectations.

Join us at the PASS Data Community Summit 2023, and let’s celebrate 15 years of SQL Server on AWS together! We look forward to seeing you at booth #103 and sharing this exciting journey with you.

See you in Seattle!

AWS has significantly more services, and more features within those services, than any other cloud provider, making it faster, easier, and more cost effective to move your existing applications to the cloud and build nearly anything you can imagine. Give your Microsoft applications the infrastructure they need to drive the business outcomes you want. Visit our .NET on AWS and AWS Database blogs for additional guidance and options for your Microsoft workloads. Contact us to start your migration and modernization journey today.