Welcome to gethynellis.com

Merry Christmas - End of Year Round Up

2019-12-20T13:39:00.000+00:00

Hello everybody Merry Christmas and welcome to the end of year round-up of all that's been going at gethynellis.com

Merry Christmas!

2019

Its been another successful year here at gethynellis.com

We have been involved extensively with our consulting customers on the Microsoft Data Platform, some of the projects we have been involved with include:

Helping a famous retailer move from some legacy versions of SQL Server to the latest and greatest
We have helped a large insurer deliver a new claims handling system
Helped a communication company with a performance tune-up
Reviewed Microsoft data platform security for a large insurance client
We've been helping a few other clients manage their SQL Server Estates
We have delivered training courses on SQL Server including both onsite and virtual classes, introductory courses and more advanced TSQL courses. We also gave our first Azure Training course. No doubt more of these will follow

On top of that, we have been running a series of Webinars throughout 2019 the topics we have covered are

Cloud Computing: Myth's Mysteries, Vampires and Vultures
SQL Server R2 (D2)...The Sequel
Driven by the 9 - SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery

If you missed these webinars and would like to catch up, please don't fret as they are recorded and available to our mailing list subscribers. You can watch any of these webinars only by signup for the mailing list. I'll leave a link below, and we'll email you a link so you can watch them at your leisure. Also, by signing up, you will be able to download a copy of David's ebook - an introduction to cloud computing and Azure which you can read at your leisure.

We also spoke at SQL Saturday in Bulgaria; I delivered my driven by the 9s talk in Sofia back in October.

In 2019 Sabrina completed a Masters Degree in Occupational Psychology, she graduated with merit this week. So I'd like to congratulate her for her achievement, I know how hard she has worked on it and thoroughly deserves her success. She was also nominated for Business Mum of the Year at the Women’s Business Club awards and made the final. Sabrina has had quite the year too.

Sabrina's graduation

Here at gethynellis.com, we are pleased to have sponsored Cwmbran Under 11s football team - I do like the tops! We were also very proud to sponsor and get involved with the Women’s Business Club - Women in STEM award. And we got to choose the winner. Congratulation’s to all the Women in STEM finalists and well done to Sally Hodgson at Izzytea Ltd on winning the award!

The Women in STEM winner

There were some big SQL Server announcements and events in 2019

SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 went out of support - so if you're running these old versions you are no longer getting patches and security updates, maybe 2020 you'll look to upgrade or migrate?
SQL Server 2019 was released - Data is the new gold, or I prefer to call it Oil. There can be vast amounts of Value in properly refined data. SQL Server 2019 allows you to improve and work with both your structured and unstructured data in the form of Big Data Clusters. If digital transformation is on your agenda and road map for 2020, you'll be interested in the new features of SQL Server 2019.
Changes to the Software Assurance Benefits were announced - potentially reducing the cost of ownership for SQL Server.

The first two bullets above mean that there are many drivers for SQL Server modernisation projects - if you need help with that you know where we are. The last one can potentially have a significant impact on reducing your licensing footprint. For more details on that, come to the SQL Server Licensing Webinar I'll be running in January; where I'll explain what you can do to save money on your licenses potentially.

2020

What does 2020 have in store for gethynellis.com, well the turn of a decade is often a big deal. The roaring 20s will soon be upon us. We have plans to expand and refine our service and product offering. You'll still be able to make use of our consulting services

• SQL Server Upgrades and Migrations

• Performance tune-up

• Security reviews

• High availability and disaster recovery design

• Data Analytics

I know for sure that the Microsoft data platform will see continuous change and evolve and I'm looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings

We're also expanding in other areas,

• All the technological change brings changes for people, and this requires sensitive handling, we will be able to help you with that.

• If you work in technology and would like some career counselling to get the best out of your skills or would like to develop yourself in a particularly personal and professional area to help you progress your career, then we can help with that too.

• If you need to find suitably skilled team members and more importantly, an appropriate team fit, we can help out. Keep an eye on the website for more details or contact us we'll happily chat with you about how we can help.

I'll be delivering a webinar for Northdoor all about SQL Server Licensing and how if you get it right you can save a considerable amount of money - you can sign up here.

I have a new talk planned on the Top 5 Skills a DBA will need in 2020 - this is still a work in progress. I plan to deliver this in a webinar early in 2020, and I'll submit to a few SQL Saturdays too.

We are planning on submitting to a few SQL Saturdays around Europe and maybe further afield in 2020.

Sabrina will be speaking at the Women in Business: Championing Equality & Diversity conference being held at the University of Wolverhampton on Thursday 23rd January 2020. Her talk is titled “My story in the industry and the future for inspiring women in business.”

The conference is an in-person event an if you would like to attend, please do reserve your place using the following Eventbrite page link http://wlvwib2020.eventbrite.co.uk

Sabrina will be disseminating her latest research project titled “The work experiences of autistic IT professionals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis”. If you would like to know more or arrange for Sabrina to be a guest speaker in your organisation we would be happy to speak with you.

We'll continue to partner with Microsoft to offer top class training - if you have a training requirement, get in touch.

That's about it for 2019 work-wise for us at gethynellis.com we'll be back in 2020 raring to go in what promises to be another good year. So we will wish you a very merry Christmas and happy new year from the team and me, and maybe we'll catch up in 2020?

Woman in STEM award 2019!

2019-11-28T15:49:00.000+00:00

gethynellis.com is proud to sponsor the Woman in STEM award at the Woman’s Business Club conference 2019! The Women in STEM award recognises the outstanding contributions of woman in STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Over the past week, we have taken the time to get to know individual nominees. One thing that stands in each nominee is that they are proud not only of their successes in their career but they each consider the power of influence on other women they can have in STEM especially the younger
generations. As a male IT professional in a predominately male sector, I felt the strength and determination from each nominee to be the best in STEM and pave the way over the years to come. For this, I am proud to not only sponsor the Woman in STEM award but to meet each nominee face to face on the day and present the award to the winner.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all nominees on becoming finalists in the Woman
in STEM award 2019 and we look forward to meeting you all next week!

Is there a woman in STEM that inspires you?

Or...

Or maybe...

Business Mum of the Year Finalist 2019

2019-11-26T09:00:00.000+00:00

Here at gethynellis.com we are proud to announce that our Operations Director Sabrina Ellis is a finalist for the Business Mum of the Year award, taking place on Wednesday 4th December 2019. To vote for Sabrina click here.

Why Sabrina stands out from the crowd?

In 2018, Sabrina has given birth to her third son, planned a wedding, successfully got married and returned from maternity leave accomplishing many successes to date. Sabrina is known for stepping out of her comfort zone and has recently completed a Masters in Occupational Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton. Her graduation ceremony is in December 2019!

Sabrina embraces new business opportunities and lead’s our company development and growth, with new solution-focused services launching soon. Sabrina’s passion and nursing nature shine through when supporting client’s to gain a sustainable solution in organisational development and change.

In 2019, Sabrina conducted a successful research project titled ‘The work experiences of autistic IT professionals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis’ which is due to be disseminated in 2020. As gethynellis.com’s company champion in Equality, Neurodiversity and Inclusion, Sabrina’s strong passion to help others is channelled through volunteering as a Registered Mental Health Nurse and Organisational Psychologist. In the local community, Sabrina aims to support initiatives that may be underrepresented for disadvantaged children and adults.

Now, with all this said when we asked Sabrina what her greatest achievement was to date, she explained it was inspiring her children to be the best version of themselves and hopes she inspires others she meets along her journey too. We asked Sabrina what she is looking forward to the most about the award and she is excited to meet the other mum finalists, hear their life journeys and encourage them to be awesome mums every day!

To vote for Sabrina click here, Scroll down the page until you find her name, click it and then click vote!

Do you need to know about Microsoft Azure

2019-10-28T09:30:00.001+00:00

The problem

You don’t know anything about Microsoft’s Azure Cloud.
Do any of the following describe you

You are running your business, and you’ve heard all about “the cloud” and how it helps your business. But you don’t know where to start. You know Microsoft products, but you don’t know about Microsoft’s cloud offering.
You work in IT, and your company has decided that cloud is the way forward and the new strategy is a “cloud-first approach”, and the cloud provider in question is Microsoft’s Azure.
Your company has started its cloud journey, but you feel a little left behind, you haven’t done any cloud work yet as you’ve been sorting out a big project with an on-premises solution. You want to get yourself up to speed so you can start working on Cloud-based projects delivering value to your business.

The Solution

On the 12th of December, we are running an Azure fundamentals training course. By attending this course, we will provide you with a general understanding of cloud computing concepts. We will discuss the core services available in Microsoft Azure. We will look at how you can quickly use these cloud resources to benefit your business. One of the significant concerns with cloud computing is security, and we will talk about how we can achieve security, compliance and trust with Microsoft Azure. We will have to show you how much this could cost and look at you can best set up your pricing model to get the most out of your investment.

At only £350 + booking fee / VAT (£295 +...early bird for the first five bookings) we believe this is excellent value. The full list of course objectives and to book, click here.

If you want to chat about the course first, or you want to book for a group of people or if you need to pay via invoice. Contact Us

Azure Fundamental Training this December

2019-10-23T11:39:00.000+01:00

Here at gethynellis.com. We're very excited to be launching our web-based Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals Course AZ-900T01 as the next stage of delivering our aim of making Expert Skill available at Affordable prices.

If you're seeking Azure Certification or just want to gain Azure skills, then this course is for you. At only £350 + VAT per delegate (£295 + VAT early bird discount for the first 5 bookings), we believe this is excellent value for money. This course covers everything you need to know should you wish to become Microsoft Certified at this level, and the full list of the course objectives is available here.

Here are some comments from previous training course customers:

"The Instructor was knowledgeable and friendly. The mixture of slides, demonstrations and exercises keeps the material interesting".

"Really informative, I received everything I expected and extra!"

"Gethyn answered all questions very well clearly and concisely and went through the material in good speed and explained certain areas in more depth where necessary."

"Excellent clear tuition and knowledge from Geth Ellis. Thank you!"

If you would like to book, please take this link, to make your booking and payment. Note prices above exclude the small Eventbrite booking fee.

So whether you're an individual, or you work for a Not for Profit, Membership body, Financial provider, Law Firm or any Public or Private sector organisation and you want to get to know Microsoft Azure, our web-based course can help you maximise your investment at an affordable price. We look forward to seeing you on the 12th. To be assured of a place, please book as soon as you are able as places are limited.