I’ve been intensely preparing the LinkedIn Learning Oracle 23c courses, set to film later this month. Despite my responsibilities as Director of Data and AI at Silk, I’m finalizing my Women in Tech presentation for SQL Saturday Jacksonville. The theme is Star Wars, so I used ChatGPT to generate a Princess Leia-inspired image and here’s what was returned: I grimaced, as my red flags went up. Why does she have wisps of hair across her face that’s out of place, yet her white dress is spotless?  Does the open V at the chest serve as a target?  Does the plate on her torso have some kind ..read more

So, this last week I had the opportunity to speak and attend at the SQLbits conference. This was high on my list after attending an Oracle event last year where even attendees and organizers there mentioned that they admired the conference and the way that it was run.  I fully admit to running the full gambit of either hyper-aware or completely oblivious and with SQLBits, I’d been a bit of the latter and I wanted to change that. Now I want to preface this post with saying that I refer to this month as “March madness” and that means that I’ve been traveling every week all month.  I w ..read more

AI has become a buzzword synonymous with the future of technology and innovation. However, the advancement of AI is not just about algorithms and computing power; it’s fundamentally about data. The adage “data is the new oil” has never been more pertinent than in the context of AI. But why is data so crucial for AI, and how do relational databases and data lakes fit into this narrative? The Importance of Data for AI AI learns and evolves through data. Machine Learning (ML), a subset of AI, involves training models on data to enable them to make predictions or decisions without being explicitl ..read more

Each person’s experience with a diagnosis is going to be as unique as the individual and when it comes to ADHD, this is exceptionally true.  Although diagnosis gave me an answer and a sense of relief, it also caused me confusion when I was presented with common challenges that ADHD folks experience.  I was diagnosed after the age of 40, which means I had over three decades to build out coping mechanisms, accommodations/work arounds or simply battled an ADHD tendency into surrender.  These are the traits that I neatly fit into the box when someone imagines ADHD: Folks with ADHD ..read more

I’ve recently become a Co-organizer for the Data Platform DEI community, representing women in technology and individuals with Autism/ADHD. I’m joining some awesome people in the Microsoft community- Tracy Boggiano, Deepthi Goguri and Kay Sauter.  Today, I want to share more about my journey with Autism/ADHD (AuDHD), a condition that made me feel different from my peers since childhood and led to challenges such as bullying. Understanding and embracing this aspect of my diversity has been a continuous journey and where I wanted to be anyone other than me as a child, that’s a distant memor ..read more

Along with presenting the keynote at SQL Saturday Oregon this weekend, I will be taking the SQL Train up to PASS Summit for the next week’s conference.  I will be on the WIT panel, as well as presenting with Chris Yates in a Professional Power Hour: Journey to Management on how to transition from a technical role to management.  As much as I enjoy the technical aspect of my career, it was a careful navigation for me to ensure that my neurodiverse self was fulfilled as I moved up the ladder to my current Director position at Silk. If you’re going to be attending Summit, consider comin ..read more

One undeniable truth is that we often lean towards what’s familiar to us. Open-source solutions might be cost-effective and supported by their enthusiastic communities, but there’s a correlation between value and investment. Enterprise relational systems, backed by substantial licensing revenues, can afford to innovate and introduce advanced features—capabilities that sometimes surpass what open-source can offer. However, it’s essential to understand that not every application necessarily demands an enterprise-level relational database. Amidst the evolving narrative about AI/ML’s potential to ..read more

I’ve been pretty busy with work and travel, but I finally got an official Silk Github repository to publish a couple new white papers and sizing assessment worksheets for customer access.  These are primarily Oracle and SQL Server to Azure focused white papers, but I will be publishing ones on GCP next, to be followed by AI and other database platforms soon. White Papers The A2Z on Oracle for Azure The A2Z on SQL Server to the Cloud The slides for the session that is part of the research that went into the white paper above can be found here.  I gave this session last week at SQL Sat ..read more

It happens, someone has a good idea and unfortunately, theory is better than reality and it just creates more frustration than functionality.  I’ve been wanting to blog about Technology gaffs for quite a while and I’ll put them in the category of rants, and hopefully folks can chime in with their own opinions… for this week’s rant, I’ll discuss how LinkedIn,  just like every other product in the friggin’ world, decided it needed to incorporate AI into their customer interface.  For anyone wanting to post, you get the following opportunity to write a few ideas or prompts and AI ..read more

Here is what’s going on for me at Silk for the month of August! I’ve served in the role as Director of Technical Advocacy at Silk for just over 2 months.  It’s been a productive months, helping out with Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL and other workloads on Azure and Google Cloud interested in running with Silk.  I love the energy from each of the teams at the company and enjoy the opportunity to contribute to all the different aspects of the business here. I want to thank the sales teams for keeping me engaged.  I also would like to curse switching to a Mac to then have to run S ..read more