Bob Ward - SQL Server 2019 Revealed: Including Big Data Clusters and Machine Learning

Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the books product page, located at www.apress.com/9781484254189 . For more detailed information, please visit http://www.apress.com/source-code .

We are truly at a unique tipping point in the history of technology, and there has never been a better time to be in the field of data, analytics, and AI. The pace of growth in data is more rapid than ever before, and digital disruption through AI and ML has created unlimited potential for companies to embrace data as a competitive advantage for their business. With the dramatic acceleration of digitization, the primary question we now face is how to take advantage of this massive volume of data to help our companies and communities transform.

We see a massive opportunity powered by the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge. SQL Server is unparalleled in the industry in the level of consistency it provides the developers, data engineers, and administrators across the edge, on-premises, private cloud, and the public cloud. Our SQL Server community has played a very important role in this evolution, and I cannot thank them enough for their support and feedback over the last 25+ years.

SQL Server 2019 is a phenomenal release, and I am proud of what the team has delivered. SQL Server 2019 builds on the innovation that was delivered in SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017. While there are several new capabilities that will serve our customers well, as is expected from every major release of SQL Server, I am most excited about the remarkable innovation that extends the skills our customers have built over multiple decades to manage and get insight from their Big Data systems. This innovation will play a critical role in driving the digital transformation for our customers.

Like my first book Pro SQL Server on Linux , the pages you are about to read have seen some mileage. Ive travelled more in the year 2019 than any in my lifetime. That meant I needed to be prepared to write wherever and whenever I could. This includes flights, hotels, trains, and car rides across cities like Seattle, London, Manchester (UK), Nashville, Las Vegas (multiple times), San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Orlando, St. Lucia (that was on vacation), Genesee (Colorado), Charleston, Boston, Dubai, Johannesburg (South Africa), Greenville (SC), and Indianapolis and late nights in my office at my home in North Richland Hills, Texas.

I thought after finishing my first book I would not be ready to write another one, but I couldnt resist the chance to tell the story of SQL Server 2019. This book really does represent that famous saying A labor of love. Ive put my heart and soul into learning, teaching, complaining about, breaking, documenting, testing, and using SQL Server 2019. This book represents all of that and more.

I wrote this book for data professionals and developers who have a fundamental knowledge of SQL Server but want a comprehensive look at SQL Server 2019 in one book. This book has plenty of examples, figures, and references to guide you along the way. I wrote this book so it would not only be a complete understanding of SQL Server 2019 but also as a reference you can come back to at any time.

While each chapter is independent, I highly recommend you start with Chapter first.

I love learning by example so Ive included many examples for almost every chapter in the book (and in some cases, I explain how to use an example already created). You can find all the examples for this book on GitHub using the link for the books reference at www.apress.com/9781484254189 or on my GitHub repo at https://aka.ms/bobsqldemos ( https://github.com/microsoft/bobsql ).

I also recommend you take a look at free training resources our team has built at https://aka.ms/sqlworkshops . This includes free hands-only lab training with SQL Server 2019!