“Every business workflow in every enterprise will be engineered with GenAI at its core” -ServiceNow’s Bill McDermott

Microsoft Build 2024 focused on transformative advancements in AI, cloud computing, and developer tools. This year’s event showcased Microsoft’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

AI and Copilots were the overwhelming theme. Even though AI has hit mainstream for a while now, jumping on board now would still make you an early adopter and could give you some advantages within your market. With that being said, let’s delve into the key announcements and their implications for the data and application development space.

Copilots

Teams Copilot was introduced as a powerful enhancement for Microsoft Teams, designed to revolutionize the way teams collaborate. Leveraging advanced AI capabilities, Teams Copilot assists users by summarizing conversations, generating meeting agendas, and even drafting responses during discussions. This intelligent assistant integrates seamlessly within Teams, helping to streamline communication and enhance productivity by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks. With Teams Copilot, organizations can ensure that their teams are more focused on strategic initiatives, ultimately driving better outcomes and staying ahead of competitors​

You can now create and deploy custom AI agents with ease within Copilot Studio. Copilot Studio offers a robust set of tools for building intelligent agents that can automate complex tasks, streamline workflows, and enhance productivity. With the new agent capabilities, developers can design agents to interact seamlessly with various applications, providing users with context-aware assistance and real-time insights. These AI agents leverage advanced machine learning models and natural language processing to understand and respond to user inputs effectively. This allows businesses to create tailored solutions that can handle customer inquiries, manage routine tasks, and provide valuable data-driven insights, all while maintaining high levels of accuracy and efficiency.

Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric

One of the most groundbreaking announcements was the introduction of Real-Time Intelligence within Microsoft Fabric. This end-to-end SaaS solution enables businesses to process high-volume, time-sensitive data at the point of ingestion, facilitating faster and more informed decision-making. Real-Time Intelligence is designed to support both low-code and code-rich experiences, making it a versatile tool for analysts and developers alike. For our data analytics team, this means we can build more responsive analytics solutions that provide immediate insights, enhancing our ability to drive strategic decisions based on your real-time data​.

Enhancements in GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot, already a game-changer for developers, received significant upgrades with the introduction of new extensions. These extensions, developed by Microsoft and third-party partners, integrate seamlessly with services like Azure, Docker, and Sentry. For our custom app development projects, this means we can leverage natural language capabilities within Copilot to manage Azure resources, troubleshoot issues, and streamline our development workflows. This integration not only boosts productivity but also enhances the efficiency of our development processes​.

Advances in Azure AI

Azure AI continues to evolve with the availability of GPT-4o, a multimodal AI model capable of processing text, images, and audio. Additionally, Microsoft introduced Phi-3-vision, a new model in the Phi-3 family, which is optimized for personal devices and offers powerful capabilities for text and image input. These models are accessible through Azure AI Studio, providing us with advanced tools to experiment and build innovative AI solutions. For our Data Analytics projects, these models can offer new ways to interact with and analyze data, enabling us to identify patterns and gain insights that can help us stay ahead of competitors. By leveraging these advanced AI tools, you can uncover hidden trends, make more informed decisions, and ultimately drive a greater strategic advantage against your competitors.

Smart Components

These components represent a significant leap forward in streamlining UI development within the .NET ecosystem. Smart Components are designed to automatically adapt to varying contexts and states, reducing the need for boilerplate code and extensive conditional logic. By leveraging advanced AI and machine learning, Smart Components can intelligently adjust their behavior and appearance based on real-time data and user interactions. This innovation simplifies the development process, enabling developers to create more dynamic and responsive applications with less effort. Smart Components can be particularly beneficial for building complex interfaces where different parts of the application need to interact seamlessly. They also enhance maintainability and scalability, as developers can rely on these components to handle many of the intricacies involved in state management and UI rendering.

Honorable Mentions

Additionally, .NET 9 Preview 4 was released, offering a glimpse into the future of the platform with numerous performance improvements, enhanced security features, and expanded support for cloud-native applications.

The announcement of C# 13 brought a host of new features aimed at making the language more expressive and user-friendly. Notable enhancements include improvements in pattern matching, interpolated string handlers, and extended lambda expressions, all designed to simplify coding and increase developer efficiency.

All of these advancements collectively underscore Microsoft’s dedication to evolving the data and .NET ecosystem, making it an even more robust and efficient environment for developers to build robust cutting-edge data solutions​.

WebNN (Web Neural Network API) was highlighted as a cutting-edge technology designed to bring advanced machine learning capabilities directly to web applications. WebNN allows developers to run neural network models efficiently in the browser, enabling real-time AI-powered experiences without relying heavily on server-side processing.

Conclusion

These features promise to revolutionize the way we interact with data, build applications, and drive business success. Staying up-to-date on all of these developments is crucial for any company aiming to maintain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

At Procure SQL, we are dedicated to helping businesses harness these cutting-edge technologies. Whether you need to integrate AI capabilities, enhance your data analytics, or develop custom applications using .NET, our expertise can guide you through the process. Let us assist you in leveraging these new and upcoming features to stay ahead of the game and achieve your strategic objectives. Contact us to learn more about how we can support your data journey.


Here are some news, videos, tips, and links the Procure SQL team would like to share!

Scan vs. Seek

The most straightforward example explains the difference between a scan and a seek in execution plans.

Data Engineering with Notebooks

Watch Justin’s seven-minute video on loading and transforming data in Microsoft Fabric.

Is Tableau Dead?

Yes and No. The future looks mixed.

Most Recent Issues

The work done by DBAs and Data professionals is all over the map.

Apple Electric Car

Apple pulled the plug on their Apple electric vehicle.

Should you always listen to data?

The answer is a resounding NO!

The Wheel of Misfortune

Skyscanner used this game to increase engineers’ confidence in incident management with Open Telemetry. Learn how to ingest your application’s telemetry data into Azure Monitor.

Performance Testing

Ensure a consistent and reliable user experience with Azure Load Testing.

Maximize Your Savings with SQL Server

Are you using these options to develop or test for free or with substantial cost savings?

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. SQL Saturday is a free training day around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you want lunch, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Remote DBA or Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

Checkout this quick video to see how you can start to load and transform your data with notebooks. Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric becomes easier once you understand how to leverage notebooks to your advantage.

If you are in Austin Texas on March 8 & 9, 2024 don’t miss SQL Saturday Ausin where you can learn more about Microsoft Fabric, PowerBI, SQL Server and more.

Procure SQL - Data Architect as a Service - Weekly Newsletter


Here are some news, videos, tips, and links the Procure SQL team would like to share!

Near Zero Downtime Migrations

Near zero downtime migrations are why Azure SQL Databases can be a subscriber for transactional replication.

Habits of Effective Data Leaders

How many of these seven effective habits do you see at your job?

AI Coming for Your Job?

Maybe. Regardless, let your skills, quality of work, and service to others define who you are.

Air Canada Chatbot Lawsuit

Air Canada lost a lawsuit claiming the airline should not be liable for their chatbot’s misleading information.

Testing and Bug Fixes

We hope this is different from how you do testing or bug fixes.

Offload Workload to Availability Group Replicas

Learn about temporary statistics on your secondary replicas. See how to enable Query Store for secondary replicas with SQL Server 2022.

Serverless for Hyperscale in Azure SQL Database

These are things to know before you jump into Serverless for Hyperscale. Serverless auto-pausing and resuming in Hyperscale are not currently available. The provisioned compute tier may be less expensive if CPU or memory usage is high enough and sustained long enough.

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. This is a free training day around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you would like lunch to be provided, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Remote DBA or Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

Procure SQL - Data Architect as a Service - Weekly Newsletter


Here is some news, videos, tips, and links the Procure SQL team would like to share!

Procure SQL made it out to their first trade show of 2024! Justin, Kon and John were at SQL Saturday Atlanta BI on February 10th.

Justin Cunningham gave a talk on Data Catalog: Visualizing Your Data Sprawl. John Sterrett gave a talk on Things to Know Before Going Independent.

The team is excited to be back on April 20th for SQL Saturday Atlanta. You can also catch them at SQL Saturday Austin on March 10th.

Procure SQL Sponsored SQL Saturday Atlanta BI on February 10, 2024. Justin Cunningham talked about Data Sprawl and Managing Your Metadata.
Justin Cunningham talked about Data Sprawl and Managing Your Metadata.
Procure SQL Team sponsored SQL Saturday Atlanta BI on February 10, 2024. Kon Melamud, John Sterrett, and Justin Cunningham had a great time meeting everyone.
Procure SQL Team sponsored SQL Saturday Atlanta BI on February 10, 2024. Kon Melamud, John Sterrett, and Justin Cunningham had a great time meeting everyone.

Someone’s Dream Job

Dream of being a researcher for the Microsoft data systems? Good, they’re hiring.

NASA’s Computer Glitch

ever wonder what it’s like to troubleshoot 1970’s tech that’s 15 billion miles away…

Data Sprawl

Interesting editorial about managing your metadata. This challenge gets harder when only 3% of company’s data meets data quality standards.

Power BI Desktop Projects

Martin Schoombee shares how DevOps and Report sharing gets easier with Power BI Desktop Projects. Power BI Desktop projects are going to open up many possibilities.

Microsoft Analytics Overview in Five Minutes

Justin created this video about the personas and tools behind Microsoft’s new shiny analytics tools.

Developers, Developers, Developers…

It’s time to make data the first choice in the technology stack, not an afterthought. Developers’ words not ours. We do agree with them though. 🙂

Working With Others

Aaron Bertrand has a very simple but great tip. Leave it better than you found it.

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. This is a free training day around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you would like lunch to be provided, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Remote DBA or Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

Procure SQL - Data Architect as a Service - Weekly Newsletter


Here are some videos, tips, and exciting links the Procure SQL team would like to share!

MLB’s Databases

Have you ever wondered about what MLB teams name their databases? We like “the fish bag,” “ground control,” and “MITT.” What is your favorite one?

Cloud Failures

Most cloud failures are traced back to human mistakes. Have you experienced or seen these top five mistakes?

SQL Server 2022’s New Disaster Recovery Solution

Daniel Taylor from Tales from the Field shares his video on how to set up bidirectional failover for SQL Server 2022 to Managed Instance using the MI Link for free.

State of Database Landscape in 2024

Data management is more complex, and people struggle to support multiple data platforms.

Microsoft Analytics Overview in Five Minutes

Check out this video about the personas and tools behind Microsoft’s new shiny analytics tools.

Win A Free Registration to PASS Conference

Everyone loves to win free stuff. More importantly, this is your opportunity to improve the best Microsoft Data Platform conference!

Power BI Performance Tuning

Eugene Meildinger (Speaking at SQL Saturday Austin) just released his new class. You can watch the first module for free and get the complete course for $100.

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. This is a free training day around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you would like lunch to be provided, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

In five minutes, Justin gives you a Microsoft Fabric overview to help you ingest, process, store, monitor, and govern your data with Microsoft’s new analytics tool. He will discuss user personas like Data Engineering and Data Science within Microsoft Fabric and how the personas will use tools like Data Activator, Power BI, Data Factory, Real-Time Analytics, Notebooks, Spark, Lakehouse, and more.

In five minutes, Justin at Procure SQL breaks down how Microsoft Fabric tools help you ingest, process, store, monitor, and govern your data with Microsoft’s new analytics tool.

Got Microsoft Fabric or Analytics Questions?

We would love to discuss your questions from watching this Microsoft Fabric overview video or anything related to the Microsoft Data Platform. Fill out the form below, and we will be in touch soon.

Procure SQL - Data Architect as a Service - Weekly Newsletter


Here are some videos, tips, and exciting links the Procure SQL team would like to share!

Xbox and SQL Server

Learn how Xbox reduced patching downtime significantly in their SQL Server environment.

Fabric Common Tasks with Python

Are you building complex fabric orchestrations in Python? Microsoft Spark Utilities can be your best friend. It’s like DBATools for Python and Fabric.

Time Series Data

Need to work with Time Series data?  The new Generate_Series and Date_Bucket functions can make your life a lot easier!

State of Database Landscape in 2024

Data management is more complex, and people struggle to support multiple data platforms.

Toys We Always Wanted

Do you remember the number one toy you always wanted but never could have as a kid? Allen’s favorite is the Millennium Falcon. What was the toy you always wanted? Did it make the list?

AI + Microsoft = 3 Trillion Valuation

Microsoft is riding AI to new record heights. See how they became the second company to reach a three trillion valuation.

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. This is a free training day around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you would like lunch to be provided, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

Procure SQL - Data Architect as a Service - Weekly Newsletter


Here are some videos, tips, and interesting links we have viewed at Procure SQL.

Comparing NULLS

Struggling to compare many columns that contain null values? Here is a great way to do so before SQL 2022; here is a newer way with SQL Server 2022.

Azure SQL Database Limiting Resources

Like life with Azure SQL Databases, you get what you pay for. Here is an overview of why the Azure SQL Database team has resource governance around providing a balanced service. Are you being throttled down due to your tier of Azure SQL Database?

Optimized Locking with Azure SQL Database

Aaron Bertrand writes about long-running transactions leading to fewer lock escalations with optimized locking enabled with Azure SQL Database.

Tesla’s caught out in the cold.

Who knew you needed a high-availability plan for using your car? Not all batteries like subzero temperatures.

Christmas Tree Closet

Is Daniel McCutchen the only one to slide his Christmas tree in and out of his closet?

Finding Changes with Cumulative Updates

John describes why cumulative updates are needed. You can also see why he predicts that external data governance sources will come to SQL Server 2022 soon!

Free Azure and SQL Server Training in Austin, Texas!

On Saturday, March 9, 2024, SQL Saturday will be coming to Austin, Texas. This is a free day of training around SQL Server, Azure, and the Microsoft Data Platform. If you would like lunch to be provided, it’s $20. We will also have two all-day deep dive training classes on performance tuning and Microsoft Analytics on Friday, March 8, 2024, for $125.

Need a Data Architect?

Have you got questions? Need some help? Are you curious to know the cost of procuring a Remote Data Architect?

Every so often, when a new cumulative update (CU) comes out for SQL Server, I like to see what system objects are new and which ones have changed. With the cumulative SQL Server 2022 update eleven this month, I noticed some exciting views not documented in the release notes. I figured I would blog about them and the process I used to identify them. If you didn’t look at the title of this post, they are related to external governance 🙂

New Views In SQL Server 2022 CU11

Don’t just take my word for it. Here are the new views added. Here is an image showing new or modified views. A little later, I will show you how you can find these yourself below.

NOTE: As of January 23rd, 2023, the Microsoft Release notes for Cumulative Update 11 with SQL Server 2022 do not include anything relating to external governance.

External Governance Might Be Coming to SQL Server 2022.

How to Find New or Updated Objects with Cumulative Updates

In this six-minute video, I explain cumulative updates with SQL Server. More importantly, I will show you how I get nosy and check whether views or modules were added or changed.

Learn why Cumulative Updates are important and how they benefit you. Also, learn how to be a detective and see if other updates occurred that might be missing in the release notes.

How Do I Know When Cumulative Updates Are Released?

Microsoft shares the latest updates and version history on their website. I recommend using Visual Ping to notify you when the update page changes.

Scraping System Views After Update is Applied

Here is a script I would use to pull data after applying the update. You can pull more or less, but here is some of the data I looked at to see what has changed in the system views and objects.

use [procuresql]
go
-- New Minor verision number for SQL 2022 CU11 is 4105 --
CREATE SCHEMA [4105] AUTHORIZATION dbo;
GO

USE [master];
go

select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].all_sql_modules From sys.all_sql_modules
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].all_views FROM sys.all_views
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].all_columns FROM sys.all_columns
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].all_objects FROM sys.all_objects
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].all_parameters FROM sys.all_parameters

SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].assemblies FROM sys.assemblies
SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].assembly_files FROM sys.assembly_files
SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].assembly_modules FROM sys.assembly_modules
SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].assembly_references FROM sys.assembly_references
SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].assembly_types FROM sys.assembly_types
SELECT * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].asymmetric_keys FROM sys.asymmetric_keys
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].spt_values from master.dbo.spt_values

use [msdb]
go
select * INTO [ProcureSQL].[4105].mssqldb_views from sys.views
order by name

Suppose you pulled the same System data for cumulative update ten (CU10), minor number 4035, before applying the cumulative update eleven. We could compare the differences between the modules, views, objects, etc…

Using the free data comparison we provided in a previous blog post, we can see modules that are either new, removed, or changed between CU11 and CU10.

/* What modules are new or different? */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tmp1
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tmp2

SELECT o.name AS ObjName, o.[type_desc] 
INTO #tmp1 
FROM [4105].all_sql_modules m join [4105].all_objects o on m.object_id=o.object_id
EXCEPT
SELECT o.name AS ObjName, o.[type_desc] 
FROM [4035].all_sql_modules m join [4035].all_objects o on m.object_id=o.object_id

SELECT o.name AS ObjName, o.[type_desc] 
INTO #tmp2 
FROM [4035].all_sql_modules m join [4035].all_objects o on m.object_id=o.object_id
EXCEPT
SELECT o.name AS ObjName, o.[type_desc] 
FROM [4105].all_sql_modules m join [4105].all_objects o on m.object_id=o.object_id

SELECT ObjName, [type_desc] FROM #tmp1
UNION ALL
SELECT ObjName, [type_desc] FROM #tmp2
order by ObjName

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tmp1
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tmp2

What is External Governance?

Good question; if you look at the image above, you will notice several new Microsoft shipped views (is_ms_shipped = 1). These views are related to external governance.

My educated guess is that you can add or import external 3rd party sources to help you discover, classify, label & report the sensitive data in your databases. Here is a guide if you are new to data discovery and clarification with SQL Server.