James Snape

[jamessnape]

If you want to test your system this is a great set of resources.

[jamessnape]

A great way to think about upfront work such as architecture and design. You might not need it but if you do then it would cost you.

[jamessnape]

Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

The real gender issue isn’t a lack of qualified women, but a surplus of unqualified men.

The qualities we look for in order to promote people are the very qualities that tent to make them a poor leader.

[jamessnape]

Process any type of data. From analyzing BotNet attack patterns from security logs to extracting features from images and videos for machine learning, the language needs to enable you to work on any data. Use custom code easily to express your complex, often proprietary business algorithms. The example scenarios above may all require custom processing that is often not easily expressed in standard query languages, ranging from user defined functions, to custom input and output formats. Scale efficiently to any size of data without you focusing on scale-out topologies, plumbing code, or limitations of a specific distributed infrastructure.

This is an interesting new but familiar language designed for large scale data.

[jamessnape]

Today, I’m happy to announce several key additions to our big data services in Azure, including the General Availability of HDInsight on Linux, as well as the introduction of our new Azure Data Lake …

Some fantastic news from Microsoft:

Hadoop on Linux

Azure Data Lake Services

Azure Data Lake Analytics

[jamessnape]

5 Steps To Ensure That Data Projects Are Successful

5 key ways to ensure that data projects are a success and keep growing

Many of these points seem obvious but they are easy to overlook in the rush to get some value out of an expensive data project.

[jamessnape]

How to Make Better, Faster Decisions

Tips and techniques to improve the quality and timeliness of your decision making.

Bad decisions can ruin an organization and kill careers. Have you been given feedback that you need to improve your decision making? If so, you are not alone. Managers often get poor grades from 360-degree feedback assessments in the quality and timeliness of decisions areas.

[jamessnape]

Azure Data Catalog is one of the components of the Cortana Analytics Suite . What is the Cortana Analytics Suite?

What a great way to tackle one of the biggest issues with enterprise data - discovering and cataloguing all the data sources so that anyone can find the data they need.

Its cloud based but the great thing is that only the metadata (and samples rows if you like) are sent into the cloud. All your precious data can stay on premise.

[jamessnape]

The Craigslist Method: You Can Build Big Things In Your Spare Time

FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn It was 1993 when Craig decided to change careers. 17 years at IBM and it was time for a shakeup. Charles Schwab came calling from across the country in San Francisco. Craig was 40 and starting over. The job kept him busy, but he’d make time to for local programming events where he met […]

We all have busy and demanding jobs but sometimes its best (and safer) to keep them whilst you realize your big ideas.

[jamessnape]

With cloud computing comes a new paradigm shift as organizations continue to realize the potential cost benefits of running their database applications in the cloud with greater scale and flexibility. Microsoft SQL Server is built for cloud integration—your organization can easily deploy SQL Server in a private cloud, hybrid cloud, or public cloud, and can use familiar tools for development and management. In the public cloud, you can run SQL Server in a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine. Microsoft SQL Server in an Azure Virtual Machine provides full feature parity with on-premises SQL Server. The ability to seamlessly cross these logical boundaries and integrate operations with data and services from virtually anywhere is one of the most exciting and impactful features of SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft Azure.

Despite massive improvements in virtualization technology in the past 10 years, the fact remains that there is still a significant performance penalty for virtualizing certain workloads...

[jamessnape]

3 Ways to Fail Successfully

Some failures are useful, but not all. Failure is useless when caused by... Lack of effort. Dishonesty. Intentional deviation. Deal quickly and firmly with useless failure. Useful failure teaches y...

Failure isn’t always a bad thing and the sooner you face failure the sooner you can find success.

[jamessnape]

Beware Spurious Correlations

Analytical sleight of hand can mislead managers.

Especially when demoing your latest and greatest BI tool

[jamessnape]

One of the world's biggest companies is scrapping annual performance reviews

As of September, one of the largest companies in the world will do all of its employees and managers an enormous favor: It will get rid of the annual performance review.

“95 percent of managers are dissatisfied with the way their companies conduct performance reviews, and nearly 90 percent of HR leaders say the process doesn’t even yield accurate information.”

[jamessnape]

Context is king.

[jamessnape]

How deploying all the time can actually make you faster.

[jamessnape]

User stories are often abused in the name of standardization. Its the conversation that is important.

[jamessnape]

Very interesting read on why tech debt is the wrong term to use. We are addicted.