2019 recap
By: D Ma
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Analytics, Cloud Analytics, Cloud Computing, Big Data

Time flies. It is the end of 2019 and we want to highlight all good in 2019! And happy holidays with our custom postcard with Batman;)

Analytics Trends 2019

We started the year from Canada Analytics trends.

We talked a lot about cloud analytics, data warehouse modernization, and cloud migration. And this is still valid. We expect more cloud, more analytics modernization and data warehouse migration in 2020.

Cloud Analytics Workshops

During 2019 we worked a lot with our partners. We delivered two workshops in order to promote cloud analytics and the benefits of modern cloud capabilities.

Microsoft Workshop — Azure Data Platform

The first event was in the Microsoft Vancouver office. It was a full-day event where shared concepts, strategies, and best practices for designing a cloud-based data warehousing solution using Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Azure Data Platform.

We demonstrated how to collect, store, and prepare data for the data warehouse by using other Azure services. We also explored how to use business intelligence (BI) and ETL tools to perform analysis on your data and integration.

Azure Data Warehouse in a day

Matillion ETL Workshop — Cloud Data Integration

During the workshop, we learned best practices for Cloud Analytics and Data Integration. Find out the differences between ETL and ELT from Matillion and see they're built for the cloud product on a live demo.

We covered real-world use cases about data warehouse modernization and cloud data migration projects from industry experts. Finally, there was a hands-on exercise everyone learned more about unlocking the potential of data with Matillion’s cloud-based approach to data transformation.

Released 3 books.

We started a year from Tableau released Tableau Cookbook 2019. This is a 600 pages book that includes some of the new Tableau features for the 1st time:

Tableau Prep

Tableau for BigData including Elastic Map Reduce and Hive, Redshift and Snowflake

Tableau Server both on Linux and Windows

Tableau and ETL Integration with Cloud ETL Matillion

TSM and many more.

Another book was the 1st ever book about the new Cloud Data Platform — Snowflake. It calls Jumpstart Snowflake: A Step-by-Step Guide to Modern Cloud Analytics. This book is about modern analytics with Snowflake. You will learn:

Know the key functionalities of Snowflake

Set up security and access with cluster

Bulk load data into Snowflake using the COPY command

Migration from a legacy data warehouse to Snowflake

Integration of the Snowflake data platform with modern business intelligence (BI) and data integration tools such as Tableau and Matillion.

The final book was again about Tableau — Tableau Desktop Certified Associate: Exam Guide. This book is all that you need for exam preparation and a successful pass.

Finally, we reviewed another two books about Tableau:

Learning Tableau 2019

Mastering Tableau 2019

International Conferences

In 2019 we presented at the biggest North America Conference about data — Enterprise Data World in Boston, MA. It is 6 days conference full of interesting sessions and workshops.

We talked about the role of analytics and learn about the modernization of data warehouse projects and enabling cloud capabilities and visual analytics. In 2020, we will be presenting at EDW in San Diego about Cloud Analytics and Architecting as well as Big Data and ML capabilities based on real-world examples.

Another big conference was about performance marketing — Performance Days. It was a huge conference and had a single room with over 1000 people. We talked about marketing analytics, cloud, modernization.

Performance Days

Azure Marketplace

We explored Azure Market Place and added a couple of solutions to it:

In 2020 we will continue to grow our Azure Data Platform practice and add more solutions with Big Data, Data Lake and AI/ML services.

Meetup and User Groups

One of the key activities of Rock Your Data is participating in local analytical communities, share knowledge and use cases. There are some of our favorites events:

Microsoft Pass SQL Saturday in Edmonton

In April 2019, we presented at Edmonton SQL Saturday and we talked about the modern analytics as well as demonstrated real-world use case of Data Warehouse migration from on-premise to the cloud.

McKinsey and Quantum Black meetup

Another great event was at McKinsey Boston Office on Boston Data Engineering Meetup with Quantum Black.

Microsoft Virtual Pass User Group

We participated in the Microsoft PASS Virtual User group and presented about modern analytics with Azure Data Platform and use cases with the topic name Building a Modern Data Warehouse. You may check a record of this event on youtube.

Victoria Microsoft PASS User Group

Another Microsoft event was in Victoria, BC where we made a demo of Snowflake on Azure Cloud and covered the difference between Azure Data Platform and Snowflake.

Vancouver Tableau User Group

We helped to run and organize the Vancouver Tableau User Group. Started from presentation and demo about Cloud Data Platform and Snowflake

Then we helped to organize and promote another event at the end of November.

Victoria Tableau User Groups

In 2019 we ran 3 user groups in Victoria, BC where we covered lots of interesting topics:

Tableau 2019 new features

Getting Started with Tableau and Visual Analytics

Data Visualization Best Practices

Financial reporting with Tableau

Marketing Analytics with Tableau

Data Science with Tableau

And many more

Victoria Tableau User Group

Launched Snowflake User Groups

2019 was a year of Snowflake, the company was growing fast. We launched 3 user groups in Canada and one user group on Linkedin.

Snowflake User Groups:

Vancouver Snowflake User Group

Calgary Snowflake User Group

Toronto Snowflake User Group

AWS User Group

We presented on local AWS User Group about AWS and big data architecture.

Business Analytics School

Finally, we shared cloud knowledge with lots of people who are interested in Cloud Analytics.

University of Victoria Relationship

HighTechU

We joined the HighTechU organization in order to help high school students learn computer science and programming. Based on the University of Victoria Faculty of Engineering, HighTechU is an innovative learning community & skills incubator for high-school-aged youth to make connections, build professional skills, and explore diverse education and career pathways related to technology.

Continuing Studies@University of Victoria

We presented at the Business Intelligence and Data Analytics course about Cloud Analytics, Big Data, and Data Engineering.

Hour of Code and career fairs for kids and students

By the end of the year, we were volunteering with elementary schools and ran Hour of Code event with Dance Party.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!