Data Podcast

Constantine Kokkinos currently works as a DevOps DBA with a deep focus on performance tuning TSQL; nonetheless his first love will always be the *nix ecosystem. His primary side hustle is the dbatools project where he works on bug fixing, git support, testing, and helping newcomers jump start their contributions, wherever they need help. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Agenda: - You're presenting this year at PASS precon. PASS stands for "Professional Association of SQL Server". It must be really exciting to present there. Is this the first time you're presenting there or have you done it before? Tell us more about the topic you're presenting, the venue, and culture over there... - PowerShell reminds me of the unix Bash Shell, Korn shell during the years in university. In the early years, open source and commercial platforms would be diametrically opposed to each other. However, the current trend appears to be that commercial platforms are adopting more open source projects and vice versa. Is that fair to say? What has been your experience with this regard. - Can you break down the evolution of various iteration of PowerShell in SQL Server? Which releases brought about the most significant changes? - To those of us who are unaware of the DBA role, DBA is some one who administers one or more Databases or Servers or DataCenters. Let's say I am a DBA who is afraid of command prompt or powershell. Teach me some basics... - You are involved with community driven open source project called DBATools? What can you do with it? How did you get involved? Any new updates coming out from that team? - Where do you blog or tweet? How can our listeners connect with you? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Michael is a Data Solution Architect at Microsoft, where he works on Machine Learning, Big Data and Blockchain applications on the Azure platform. Prior to joining Microsoft, Michael worked at Silver Bay, designing and optimizing geographical and financial statistical analysis solutions (mostly regression analysis and clustering). Before that, he was a database architect and then the lead systems architect of a multi-tenant cloud-based Internet-of-Things application for LogicPD, in Minneapolis. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Andy Leonard is a Data Philosopher at Enterprise Data & Analytics, a Biml (Business Intelligence Markup Language) developer and BimlHero, SSIS architect, consultant, and trainer. He created and maintains the DILM (Data Integration Lifecycle Management) Suite that includes tools and utilities for managing SSIS in the enterprise. Andy is an avid blogger and has co-authored several books on SSIS, ETL, and database technology. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Robert is the Director of Business Development for Beyond Impact a Minneapolis based consulting company focused on Cloud, Data, Security. Robert is also the founder of the local Power BI Meetup, which meets monthly. He resides in Eagan, MN with his wife and three young sons. Robert is an avid baseball fan and craft-beer enthusiast. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

David joined AllSight in 2016 to help establish it as the leader in Customer Intelligence Management. He has 18 years of experience in enterprise software and has launched and grown successful product businesses within startups and large software vendors. David led product management at DWL and was instrumental in the formation of the Customer Data Integration (MDM) market, and later the MDM market after acquisition by IBM. Prior to joining AllSight, David led product management and marketing at IBM Big Data & Analytics, where he launched the MDM market, IBM’s big data platform, and it’s self-service data platform. David has an MBA from Schulich School of Business. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Pedro Alexander Medina is Founder & Chief Analytics Officer at Haystack, LLC - an Advanced Analytics Agency specializing in custom managed solutions across the data value chain. With deep expertise in information management and advanced analytics, his mission is to help organizations optimize their strategic data assets by converting complex data into intelligence; intelligence into innovation; innovation into success. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Todd is a Microsoft Technology Center Architect based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota and is primary focused on data, analytics, and IoT scenarios. Todd’s background ranges from application development and architecture to implementation of data and analytics solutions in the field for many years as well as work at a Microsoft ISV prior to joining Microsoft. In addition, Todd has authored several books on Microsoft technologies such as .NET and SharePoint. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar - Bill Gates said, if he was a fresh college graduate, Artificial Intelligence would have been is top choice for career. I am really interested in learning about what Microsoft is doing in the Artificial Intelligence World! Please give us the big picture of how Cortana Intelligence Suite, Azure ML Studio, and Cognitive Toolkit tie in. - How does Microsoft Bot Framework work? What kind of task can it automate? Any limitations or risks? Can it take my conversation and execute commands on a remote server? - Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet.We have seen it's application in social media for fundraising, team collaboration, organizing events. With that said, how does data catalog in Cortana utilize that concept? - Customer Churning is a common scenario in any organization either profit or non-profit. Is it easy to implement a solution in Cortana to discover the root cause? How does that approach differ from building charts in Excel or visualizations in PowerBI? I'm curious to learn how would you balance when you need Cortana or some other traditional tool that already exist? - Tell us about the books you have written and your Cortana Intelligence suite course in MS Virtual Academy. - How can we connect with you in Twitter or other professional network? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Ruben is head of data at VSCO, a creative platform and a community of expression. His focus is on designing the data strategy, understanding user behavior, and designing metrics for the entire organization. Prior to VSCO, Ruben was the head of Content Analytics at Udemy. And before that he had a completely different career developing and troubleshooting chip manufacturing technology. Ruben’s interests span statistics, machine learning, economics, and photography. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Agenda: - In your role, You're in charge of Data Governance at VSCO... Would you like to elaborate on that? - According to Gregory's article in KDNuggets, top 3 most heavily used Data Science algorithms were Regression, Clustering, Decision Trees. In your projects, how useful were they? - What are some of your favorite KDNuggets like online resources, where you find good code samples, articles, podcasts etc? - Are you applying evolving branches of Artificial Intelligence such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, or Reinforced Learning in your organization? - Many people are aware of Instagram... How is VSCO more unique compared to that platform? - Now, on to some art related question... Are you a portrait, landscape, or travel photographer? Or do you experiment with different techniques? - Please tell us where we can find you in social media? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Matthew C. Kelly is the founder of Squarehouse Data Solutions, a business intelligence software and solutions firm based in Baltimore, MD, USA. Matt brings over 20 years of enterprise software development experience, with over 17 dedicated to data warehousing solutions. Prior to starting Squarehouse, Matt spent 15 years as the original architect of a series of packaged data warehousing solutions for Higher Education institutions at a major software firm, overseeing hundreds of data warehouse implementations worldwide. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Hendrik Feddersen is leader of the HRIS at the European Medicines Agency (which is the European equivalent of the FDA) in London. Six years ago, he led the full SAP HCM project from conception to completion and was the main Change Manager. His current tasks are to introduce further process improvements, problem solving, data cleaning, reporting, preparing predictions and training of colleagues. For more than three years he has been connecting internationally with like-minded HR professionals interested in HR Analytics, attending conferences, studying Data Sciences and collecting and writing articles on HR Analytics. His special interests are Text Analytics, Social Network Analysis and open source software like R. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Officially, Alison Cossette is a data analyst for the University of Vermont Medical Center. Unofficially, she says proudly, "I'm the resident data nerd." Interviewer: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Agenda: - In Twitter, your motto is "Numbers are the best story tellers", why do you say that? - Terms such as Linear Regression, Logistics regression may sound scary... is it? How did you implement them when you faced prediction challenge like that? - What do you appreciate between R & python languages (if you know only one, then talk about that one only)? - AI field keeps evolving... how do you define, AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Reinforced Learning? - How do you build network in the DataScience community online or offline? - Any social media presence in Twitter, LinkedIn? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Daniel (@dwhitena) is a Ph.D. trained data scientist working with Pachyderm (@pachydermIO). Daniel develops innovative, distributed data pipelines which include predictive models, data visualizations, statistical analyses, and more. He has spoken at conferences around the world (ODSC, Spark Summit, Datapalooza, DevFest Siberia, GopherCon, and more), teaches data science/engineering with Ardan Labs (@ardanlabs), maintains the Go kernel for Jupyter, and is actively helping to organize contributions to various open source data science projects. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Agenda: - Many of us may or may not be aware of "Jupyter Notebook", which is a web application to write codes in various Languages such is R, Python, Julia, node.js, GoLang, Ruby, & Scala. That appliation in turn creates separate process in the Kernel to receive output from the OS and return the output back to the web application. One of the coolest thing you do is to maintain the Kernela on GoLang aka Go. Currently, Data Scientists tend to gravitate toward either R, or Python as language. You're playing with a bit more modern languages in data science. Why Go? How is it more useful in statistical analysis or Data visualization? - How do you achive reproducibility in data science? - Most of us heard of Virtual Machine tools such as VMWare, Virtual PC, Virtual Box. This is the 1st time I heard of containers. What are some key benefits of it?Are there websites such as Turnkey hub where you can get some good images of various OS / software / DBMS platforms? - What are some best practices around deploying Data Science Models? Do you do something similar to DBAs or DataEngineers to run a job at certain frequencies in the day or hour? - How do you use data pipelines in your project? Is that something used in ETL like Data-Wrangling process? - Please tell us where we can find you in social media? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Denny Cherry is the owner and principal consultant for Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting and has over a decade of experience working with platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Hyper-V, vSphere and Enterprise Storage solutions. Denny’s areas of technical expertise include system architecture, performance tuning, security, replication and troubleshooting. Denny currently holds several of the Microsoft Certifications related to SQL Server for versions 2000 through 2014 including the Microsoft Certified Master as well as being a Microsoft MVP for several years. Denny has written several books and dozens of technical articles on SQL Server management and how SQL Server integrates with various other technologies. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Agenda: - What makes SQL Server exciting? Why are you so passionate about data? - What is the application of Hyper-V? - Have you worked with Big Data analytics in Microsoft SQL Azure cloud environment? - You have been consulting for a while. In your opinion is it worth the challenges? What difficulties have you faced initially? - What has been the most important and high impactful project have you worked on? - You're a "Microsoft Certified Master". What does it mean and How did you go about achieving it? - What would you recommend to aspiring professional who want to move into SQL Server or database world? - Where can people find out about you? are you in linkediN? facebook? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk

Colin Bartol has led a team that built 46% of the servers for Tricare West which covers 2.6 million people for the military which required security for NIST, PCI, and HIPPA. He has his MBA from Carlson school of management, CISSP, and is a SME for the CompTIA Project+ exam. Having been a consultant at 5 Fortune 100 companies in e-commerce, financial services, and retail sectors Colin has a wide experience of what happens in information technology. He is currently employed in telecommunications at a major health insurance company. Interviewers: Rajib Bahar, Shabnam Khan Discussion: - Your background is largely in computer security infrastructure... Tell us about your Data Science related experience? We would like to hear about Affinity project - What is Data Lake? How have you utilized it? - I noticed UHG is hiring Big Data experts like crazy... Are you involved in similar project in your department? - We are interested in learning about Tricare West - As it relates to computer Security, what tips or recommendations do you have on securing data and infrastructure in general? and Social media presence Music: www.freesfx.co.uk