Thursday 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM · C111-C112
An inside look at how Microsoft builds SQL features
Bob Ward
Principal Architect, Microsoft Azure Data
Slava Oks
Get a behind the scenes look at how Microsoft builds features and capabilities for SQL. This session will go deep into how Microsoft uses AI technology from design to code to deployment including fun examples of how we debug our own product. This is an advanced session, but you will walk away with tips and techniques to apply to your use of SQL.
Thursday 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM · B312-B313a
AI-Powered CI/CD for Microsoft Fabric: Building Enterprise-Grade Pipelines with GitHub Copilot
Eugene Paden
CTO of Ray Business Technologies USA – Leading enterprise adoption of Microsoft Fabric with metadata-driven data platforms and scalable transformation frameworks.
Discover how AI transforms Fabric development! Learn our production-proven approach combining GitHub Copilot with Azure DevOps CI/CD for metadata-driven pipelines. We'll showcase automated notebook validation, security scanning, and AI-guided PR reviews—all without external dependencies. Real code, real results: from medallion architecture to zero-downtime deployments.
Thursday 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM · C211-C213
Spark Performance Deep Dive: Configuration, Debugging, and Performance Tuning
Ashit Gosalia
Engineering Manager
Tim Arif
Microsoft Global Black Belt Analytics
Unlock the full potential of Apache Spark with this in-depth session focused on performance optimization. We’ll explore advanced configuration strategies to fine-tune executors, memory, and partitioning for maximum efficiency. Learn how to leverage Spark’s built-in tools for debugging and monitoring, including the Spark UI and metrics, to identify bottlenecks and optimize workloads.
Friday 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM · C113-C114
Mastering Fabric Data Engineering Admin and Capacity Management
Christopher Finlan
Principal PM Manager
Santhosh Kumar Ravindran
Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering
Optimize Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering for production. Learn about governance controls for Notebooks, Lakehouses, and Spark Job Definitions. We'll cover administrative roles, capacity management for cost and performance, and scaling best practices.
Friday 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM · C202-C204
Unlock the Azure SQL Advantage with a streamlined migration experience via Azure Arc and AI
Anitha Adusumilli
Principal Group Product Manager, Azure SQL, Microsoft
Sudhir Kumar Raparla
Microsoft, Principal Product Manager
Learn how Azure SQL gives you best price/performance with Azure benefits, flexible SKU configurations and how seamless SQL migration experience in Azure Arc puts you on fast-track migration journey to Azure SQL with evergreen assessments, best fit SKU recommendations and near zero‑downtime migrations. Learn how SSMA accelerates Oracle/Sybase to Azure SQL migrations with AI Code Conversion Copilot.
Friday 3:15 PM - 4:15 PM · C108-C109
Demystifying Spark Profile Optimizations in Microsoft Fabric
Thibauld Croonenborghs
Data Engineer at AE
Optimizing Spark workloads in Microsoft Fabric can be a complex endeavor, given the array of available configurations and techniques. Terms like V-Order, Z-Order, and considerations for read-heavy versus write-heavy profiles often add to the confusion. In this session, we'll bring clarity to these concepts, offering a structured overview of each optimization strategy.