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My technology career began as a curiosity in 1975. I was 11 years old and living next door to an elderly couple. Their son returned from an engineering career in the Air Force and began tinkering with a microprocessor kit. I was curious and he taught me Motorola 6800 machine language. After that, 40 years …
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SQL Server 2016 introduces temporal tables, an interesting and “data warehouse-y” addition to the relational database. So how do temporal tables work? They add a couple columns to a table that are used to track the date a row is inserted or last updated, based on the primary key. Suppose you have a row that …
Continue reading SQL Server 2016 Temporal Tables and Type II Data Warehouse Dimensions

I am honored to present two sessions at SQL Saturday #431 in Spartanburg, SC on 26 Sep 2015! I will be delivering: Designing an SSIS Framework in 2015 Using Biml as an SSIS Design Patterns Engine SQL Saturday #431 also features two stellar precons: Transforming and Visualizing Data with Power BI by Patrick LeBlanc and …
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Opinions change, and they should change as more and better evidence surfaces. There are words for this: “learning” and “growing” are but two of them. Communication plays a key role in changing opinions. I’ve been studying communication recently and I’ve decided it’s a miracle anyone is ever able to communicate with anyone else. There are …
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I remind my children who live at home – the "junior engineers" – to deal with the things they have in their hands while they have them in their hands. Why? Because it’s inefficient to put something down only to pick it up later and put it where it belongs. Like all rules, there are …
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I am honored to present SSIS 2014 Data Flow Tuning Tips and Tricks to the Triad PASS BI chapter in Winston-Salem 25 Aug 2015. Do you want SSIS to go fast? This session is for you! Attend and learn techniques for developing, instrumenting, monitoring, and managing SSIS 2014 Data Flow performance in your data integration …
Continue reading Presenting SSIS 2014 Data Flow Tuning Tips and Tricks at Triad PASS BI 25 Aug 2015!

I am regularly asked about passing variable values between SSIS packages. Tim Mitchell (Blog | @Tim_Mitchell) wrote an excellent Notes from the Field article for the SQL Authority blog called SSIS Parameters in Parent-Child ETL Architectures. Before the first version of the SSIS Catalog was even released, Jamie Thomson blogged about The new Execute Package …
Continue reading SSIS Design Pattern: Access Parent Variables from a Child Package in the SSIS Catalog

Not once, in my combined years of direct employment by enterprises or consulting, has a customer contacted me about an issue about the grain of their date dimension in their enterprise data warehouse. Not one single time. I haven’t been contacted about cardinality either. Or trouble with execution threading models. Nope. Not ever. Instead, I’ve …
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I love learning new stuff! I’m blessed to work with a talented group of individuals at Linchpin People. We often work together in teams and I have to admit, I cherish those times. One reason is I learn something new. Every. single. time. For years, I’ve validated SSIS Script Task code by searching for red …
Continue reading Validate SSIS Scripts Before Closing the VSTA Window

Own the SSIS Design Patterns (2nd edition – updated for SSIS 2014) ebook today for just $10! :{> Learn more:  Stairway to Biml Linchpin People Blog: SSIS Stairway to Integration Services