DATACON, a Microsoft Data Platform conference, brings together top experts, industry leaders, and data professionals for an immersive five-day experience. Focused on cutting-edge Microsoft data technologies—including Azure SQL Databases, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server, and Real-Time Intelligence—DATACON delivers deep technical insights and practical solutions to help individuals and organizations unlock the full potential of their data.
With two days of intensive preconference workshops followed by three days of expert-led sessions, attendees gain hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge across a range of specialized tracks, including,&nbsp;Azure Data Services,&nbsp;SQL Server Optimization &amp; Best Practices,&nbsp;SQL Server Data Solutions for Enterprise,&nbsp;Data Warehousing,&nbsp;Data Integration &amp; Transformation,&nbsp;Power BI &amp; Data Visualization,&nbsp;Microsoft Fabric, and&nbsp;Data Security &amp; Governance.
At DATACON, learning comes from the best in the industry. Our speakers include Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Certified Masters (MCMs), Microsoft Program Managers, Engineers, MCTs, and Regional Directors—each bringing expert-level insights into Azure SQL Databases, SQL Server, Purview, Power BI, Fabric, and more.
Choose a complete learning track to deepen your expertise or mix and match sessions to fit your organization’s specific needs. Whether you’re focused on building data pipelines, designing dashboards, integrating AI into your workflows, or mastering data governance,&nbsp;DATACON&nbsp;is your destination for actionable insights and transformative learning.

DATACON

Room 325

Join us for a full day of exploration into Microsoft Fabric, the revolutionary Software as a Service (SaaS) product that’s changing the game in Business Intelligence and Modern Analytics. For the last 3 years, Microsoft has been building this groundbreaking technology, which offers the ability to ingest and link to existing data without duplication. With Azure Synapse Data Engineering, Data Factory, Data Science, Data Warehousing, Realtime Analytics, and Power BI all at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless. In this pre-conference event, we’ll guide you through a full build scenario, showing you how to link existing data, and utilize OneLake. Join us and discover the power of Microsoft Fabric!

Introduction to Microsoft Fabric for the Data Professional

Data scientists can manage data, notebooks, experiments, and models while easily accessing data from across the organization and collaborating with their fellow data professionals using Microsoft Fabric. 

In this module, you'll learn how to understand the data science process in Fabric, train models with notebooks in Fabric and 
track model training metrics with MLflow and experiments.

Data Science Jump Start using Microsoft Fabric

It doesn’t matter if you are a Junior DBA, an accidental DBA or all the way up to a Senior DBA, the infrastructure your SQL Server environment runs on is important. Many among the DBA community came in as developers or perhaps directly into database administration roles it is equally possible that you have been out of the operations world long enough to have fallen out of the loop with what is happening. This session is intended to provide a full stack infrastructure overview so that you can talk shop with your cohorts in operations to resolve issues and maybe even be proactive. We will discuss, in an introductory fashion, hardware, network, storage, virtualization and operating system layers. Additionally, some suggestions as to where to find more information will be provided.

Infrastructure for Data Professionals: An Introduction

Microsoft Fabric, the unified data platform, now includes an operational database solution and it is SQL! Come learn all the fundamentals of how this solution is the same and different from other SQL deployment options. We will also show you the value of using SQL in the Fabric ecosystem including developer experiences, automation, monitoring, and integration for AI applications.

Getting started with SQL database in Fabric

The promise of SQL Database in Fabric is that it is simple, autonomous, and optimized for AI - but what does that mean for you and your organization? In this session we will explore how various personas can benefit from a deeply integrated operational database in Fabric. Discover how customers are using SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric today, and how Fabric databases can help you build innovative solutions in the age of AI, faster and easier than ever.

Transform your business with integrated solutions using SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

Power BI is a great sandbox environment for report design. However, knowing how to leverage visuals and features in a way that adds additional value can be challenging. New visualizations and features can be created a number of ways including: layering visuals, customizing visual formatting, and/or utilizing DAX measures. The session will include a series of visualization and reporting techniques that you'll be able to leverage in your company's reports to take them to the next level.

Visualization Magic in the Age of Numbers & Science

The Azure SQL free database offer is bigger than ever—now providing 10 free databases per subscription for life! This means unlimited opportunities to build, analyze, and innovate without worrying about costs.

In this session, you'll explore how to:
1. Unlock AI-driven insights by running ML models, anomaly detection, and intelligent recommendations directly in SQL
2.Power real-time analytics by processing and visualizing data streams for predictive forecasting and decision-making
3.Automate workflows and optimize data pipelines with SQL-based automation and event-driven processing
4.Enhance BI reporting and dashboarding with seamless integrations into Power BI and other analytics tools
5.Develop enterprise-grade applications, including AI-powered customer insights, fraud detection, financial forecasting, IoT telemetry, and marketing personalization
6.Set up multi-database environments for development, experimentation, and CI/CD pipelines—all without affecting production

Whether you're a developer, data scientist, or analytics enthusiast, this session will show you how to harness the full power of SQL for AI and analytics—with zero cost and limitless possibilities.

Join us and take your data-driven applications to the next level!

10 Free SQL Databases: Your Playground for AI, Advanced Analytics, and Next-Gen Applications!

Azure SQL Database offers a very popular deployment option called elastic pools, to help ease the challenges around right-sizing and cost-optimizing resources for a group of databases. In this session, we will dive deep into the latest generation of elastic pools which leverage the Hyperscale cloud-native architecture. Starting with a quick overview of the motivation for using elastic pools, and a quick recap of the Hyperscale tech, we will use demos to show you:

- How Hyperscale elastic pools ("HSEP") implement resource sharing...
- ... while maintaining strong isolation between databases
-  What are the performance and capacity limits of each HSEP
- How you can proactively control "noisy neighbor" databases in a HSEP
- How HSEP scales vertically and / or horizontally, and what the impact of such scaling is on your workloads
- How to monitor HSEP effectively using DMVs, Azure Monitor and Database Watcher
- How backups, high availability, and disaster recovery work for databases in a HSEP
- Last but not the least, how HSEP helps in cost optimization - and what you should watch out for as well to manage TCO.

To make best use of this session, some Azure SQL knowledge would help, but it's not necessary. Anyone who plans to run databases in Azure SQL should be aware of elastic pools so that they can benefit from the optimizations they provide. This session will directly help you in understanding how HSEP work and how they may be beneficial to your scenario.

Azure SQL Database Hyperscale elastic pools - a deep-dive

This session will guide you through the basics of version control, ensuring you understand its significance for efficient Power BI project management. We will introduce you to GIT, a widely used version control system, without delving into intricate code or overly technical jargon. 
In just one hour, you will gain a genuine grasp of how it all works.

Key Topics Covered:

- Demystifying Version Control: We'll explain version control in plain language, emphasizing why it's pivotal for successful Power BI projects.

- An Introduction to GIT: Get a straightforward overview of GIT, without getting bogged down in technical details. Discover why it's so popular and beneficial.

- The Power of Power BI Developer Mode: Understand how the new Power BI Developer Mode simplifies development and collaboration, without diving into intricate coding.

- Version Control in Power BI: Not all users need GIT, so understand the options for all projects and different methods available.

- Practical Tips for Success: We'll share practical insights and straightforward tips for effectively using version control in Power BI.


Suitable for any data analyst, a Power BI developer, BI enthusiast, or anyone looking to understand enterprise features. 

Introduction to Version Control, GIT, and Power BI Developer mode

Join us for an in-depth exploration of Elastic Database Pools, the game-changing technology that empowers developers and DBAs to efficiently manage and scale their databases. In this session, we'll delve into best practices and strategies for leveraging Elastic Database Pools to optimize your workload management and improve performance. 
Drawing from real-world support cases at Microsoft, we'll demonstrate the significant impact and benefits of using Elastic Database Pools in various scenarios. Our talk will also cover essential troubleshooting techniques to identify and resolve incidents effectively. 
Plus, don't miss our live demos showcasing practical examples and code in multiple programming languages. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a DBA looking to enhance your toolkit, this session is tailored for you! Gain valuable insights, practical tips.

Mastering Elastic Database Pools: Best Practices and Troubleshooting from Microsoft Support

Join content developers from the Microsoft Database Docs content team for an interactive discussion and call to action on modern Microsoft docs. Learn about the Docs publishing process in GitHub, and the best ways to add content and fixes to Docs that are read by the entire customer community. We'll also ask for your feedback on Docs and host Q&A. Learn what contribution to Microsoft Learn can mean for your Microsoft MVP status, your career, or your personal brand.

Microsoft Database Docs - Learn about Contributing for your Career

Join us for a deep dive into the modern data warehouse! We’ll break down the core principles, use cases, and architectural intricacies. Discover how innovations like Data Virtualization, enhanced Data Modeling experiences, AI-powered insights with Copilot, and more are helping developers and customers unlock the full potential of Fabric Warehouse. This session is packed with live demos, best practices, and an exciting glimpse into the future roadmap of Data Warehousing.

Unleashing Modern Data Warehousing: Architecture, Insights & Future Innovations in Fabric Warehouse

In this session, we are going to show you how easy it is to use Database Watcher, a cloud-native and cross-platform solution that supports multiple database types, versions, and platforms, to set up proactive database monitoring and collect deep and rich data. You will see how Database Watcher provides easy to understand visualizations, with near real time monitoring, which can help you optimize your database performance, availability, and health.
 
During this session we will cover the following with you:
- Brief overview of Database Watcher architecture
- Delve into real scenarios with Database Watcher dashboards
- Create custom dashboards for custom scenarios
- Using the power of KQL to query the raw monitoring data
 
Join us in this session and discover how Database Watcher can help you take your DBA career to the next level by enabling you to proactively monitor, troubleshoot, and improve your database operations.