Hey guys!
In the last post of 2018, I would like to say a big thank you to all of you, who comment, like, rate my articles, visit and share on your social networks. It's a great privilege to be able to have a space to share the things I study and test with so many people. Reading your comments makes me very excited to continue this work, which is tiring, but so worth it!! I will also extend my thanks to our creator and savior, Jesus Christ. All of this is only possible thanks to Him.

I will take advantage of this space to share the achievements and events that marked my life during this fantastic year.

Global Azure Bootcamp – Vitória/ES

In 2018, I had the opportunity to speak for the first time at Global Azure Bootcamp, which took place in Vitória/ES, on 04/21. The event was very well organized by MVP Rafael Santos and my talk was on “Database as a Service”, focusing on non-Microsoft DBMSs that are supported by Azure as PaaS (or DBaaS), which are MySQL and PostgreSQL, as well as several other DBMSs that are supported as virtual machines (VMs), with templates already available for creating the VM, with the OS and database already installed, which are Oracle Database, MongoDB, Cassandra, MariaDB, Teradata and many others.

Congratulations 2018-2019 Microsoft MVP!

And that was the title of the email that arrived to me on 01/07, informing me that I had been recognized by Microsoft as an MVP (Most Valuable Professional). It is a great satisfaction and honor to receive an award as cool and important as this, and with this, I join a team of excellent data professionals from around the world who, like me, have a true passion for sharing knowledge. It really plays like a movie in our heads, remembering important moments, victories and defeats throughout our professional journey. My motivation is certainly 100% renewed and I intend to do even more for the technical community.

I believe that we should share the knowledge we acquire in our daily lives, as it is thanks to the community, blogs, forums and in-person lectures, that we find solutions for our daily lives and are able to come up with new ideas to “think outside the box”, learn about new technologies and evolve professionally.

1st SQL Day – Espírito Santo

On 04/08, I was one of the organizers of the 1st SQL Day – Espírito Santo, an event that brought together more than 10 speakers, from various states in Brazil and more than 250 people present (and almost 500 registered). This was the biggest data event in the history of ES and a milestone for this community so lacking in professionals and events in the data area.

In addition to this great event, we organized 4 more in-person events this year, to bring knowledge, networking and sharing of experiences with the Espírito Santo data community:
– How was the 10th SQL Server ES meeting – From Zero to Everything with Tableau and SQL Server
– How was the 9th SQL Server ES (Power BI x Reporting Services and Performance Tuning) meeting?
– How was the 8th PASS Local Group SQL Server ES (Azure CosmosDB) meeting?
– How was the 7th PASS Local Group SQL Server ES meeting?

Starting the “Youtube career”

2018 was the year in which I started creating content in video format as well, using the YouTube platform, where I have the channel Dirceu Resende – SQL Server and BI Consultant, where I share videos recorded about Power BI, SQL Server and BI (SSAS, SSIS, SSRS), as well as live streams and webcasts on these subjects.

Do you want to know some of my material published there?
– FREE check-up of your database + security analysis: Do you need it?
– SQL Server – How to identify data conversion errors using TRY_CAST, TRY_CONVERT
– SQL Server 2019 – Knowing the changes in row estimation in table-type variables
– SQL Server – How to use Management Studio debugging
– SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) – How to log in to view reports
– SQL Server – Introduction to SQLCLR

Webcasts and Lives – Live events via the Internet

Since I started recording videos for YouTube, why not start participating in live events, covering a specific topic, interacting with viewers via chat and sharing knowledge? In 2018 this became reality! I organized some really cool lives and was invited to other amazing ones! I really enjoyed this experience and I hope to be able to continue doing this in 2019.

What live events did I attend online in 2018?
– Info TI Seminar – Power BI vs Reporting Services
– What's new in SQL Server 2019 ft Sulamita Dantas
– Webinar – Microsoft certifications in the data area (Data Platform)
– .NET Channel – What's New in SQL Server 2019
– DBA Brazil – Data Tuesday #38 – The Modern and Automated DBA

Events at Microsoft

2018 also marked the year in which I left Espírito Santo to network and share knowledge in São Paulo. On October 16th, I spoke at the 1st SQL Server Meetup at Microsoft, with the theme “The Modern and Automated DBA”, where I had the opportunity to comment on my vision of the DBA from a few years ago, seen almost as an enemy of developers and BI teams, and the role of the DBA in current times and in the future, where he is a partner in the development/bi areas, operating in the DevOps culture, automating repetitive tasks and acting more in line with the needs of the business. I also demonstrated some tools and resources that enable the DBA to deliver more results with much less time and effort, such as monitoring tools (Redgate SQL Monitor, ApexSQL Monitor and SQL Performance Monitor), HealthCheck tools, such as sp_Blitz, by Brent Ozar and also various tools, such as DBA Tools.

On the 11th and 12th of December, I returned to São Paulo to participate in the Microsoft Ignite 2018, network a lot with other MVP’s and incredible professionals that I met at the event and I also managed to do some demonstrations about the Power BI Report Server at Demo Station 8, which was reserved by Fabrício Lima and who, kindly, gave me this space for a morning.

On the 13th and 14th, I participated in the MVP Get Together 2018 event, an annual meeting of Brazil's MVP's, where we participated in several lectures (given by MVP's and Microsoft employees), talked a lot and had the opportunity to speak about “Power BI Service x Power BI Report Server” on the last day of the event, alongside the big Claudio Bonel.

Certification exams and more MCSA

In 2018, I studied a lot about technologies in the area and data, and this allowed me to pass 5 Microsoft certification tests, which gave me 3 more MCSA titles and the update of my MCSE for 2018. My goal for 2019 is not to slow down, continue studying hard and try to pass some more tests... lol

Posts.. Many posts

Throughout 2018 (and counting this post), I wrote 88 articles on this blog, which gives an average of 1 post every 4.15 days.

And speaking of numbers... What a year!

315 thousand views in 2018

715 thousand views to date. Expected to reach 1 million in 2019 😀

Power BI RoadShow #5 – Vila Velha/ES

On 11/17, I had a golden opportunity to speak about “Azure and Power BI”, together with Fabrício Lima at the Power BI RoadShow #5 – Vila Velha/ES, at the invitation of Fernando Garcia and the Ruy Lacerda, creators of Planheiros, the largest Power BI channel in Latin America on Youtube and soon, the largest in the world.

It was a very well organized event, which featured some of the greatest professionals in the data field, who are Sulamita Dantas and the Fabrício Lima and we also had the illustrious presence of the Microsoft myth Fabio Hara. Coincidence or not, at this event we brought together all 5 Data Platform MVPs from Espírito Santo speaking to the people of Espírito Santo. Really, something incredible and shows that Espírito Santo is once again entering the route of major data events in Brazil!!

MSSQL Server Portal

On 01/08, the Data Platform community officially launched the MSSQLServer Portal, a platform I developed to aggregate articles, videos and content from all content creators in the data area in Brazil.

This new portal works as an aggregator of technical articles from various data experts, separated by technology (SQL Server, Power BI, Reporting Services, Azure, Analysis Services, etc.).

Furthermore, this new portal is classifying posts between technical articles and publicity posts and event information. This way, it will be much easier to read technical articles and also find out about upcoming events.

Another interesting feature of this new portal is the promotion of local groups, where you can find a group near you and start participating in in-person events and interacting with the technical community in your region and also has a Global Community Events Calendar.

You can also view the posts written and published by each of the authors of this new portal and subscribe to the portal's newsletter, to receive an email whenever a new article or event is published and thus, always be up to date with the latest in technology and events held in person or online throughout Brazil.

Changing jobs.. Twice!

2018 really was a year of many changes. On February 5th, I was leaving Dacasa Financeira, a company I had worked for since 2013 and started a new challenge in the Commercial area of ​​EDP Brasil, to implement a BI platform with Power BI Report Server, Reporting Services and SQL Server. I met incredible people there and learned a lot throughout 2018. I managed to change people's views on data. Many laborious and manual tasks ended up being automated and modernized. Reports with various information that users needed but did not have time to extract and work with the data were now available with just a few clicks. My sector became a reference for innovation and automation within the company.

Even though I found it an incredible experience to work there, I felt that I lacked the autonomy to create much more than I did, after all, I wasn't in the IT area and everything was limited to what IT could handle and wanted to release. Tools like Analysis Services, which could have created a data revolution there, were not available to the business areas, even though there were professionals trained to use them.

Given this scenario, in October I ended up being invited to join the team of Consultants at Fabrício Lima – BD Solutions to work with BI and SQL Server and despite having only been at EDP for 8 months, in November, I ended up accepting the invitation as I found it a great challenge for my career to start working as a Consultant, leave the CLT and become a PJ.

Anyway, 2018 was an AMAZING year!
This just makes me look forward to 2019 even more.

I wish much success, peace and health to all of you!
A big hug and HAPPY NEW YEAR!