Courses & certifications

Completed training, mostly around SQL Server, ETL and Azure data services. Where a course prepares for a vendor exam, it is labelled exam preparation — that means the course was completed, not that the vendor certification was issued.

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SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) — advanced ETL

Completed August 2024 · Udemy · Course completion

An intensive course on data integration and automation with the Microsoft stack.

Installation and advanced configuration of Visual Studio, SQL Server and SSIS. Creating and modelling relational databases, generating synthetic data with T-SQL for realistic exercises.

Building a data warehouse end to end — from the staging area through modelling to loading data with SSIS — including transformation techniques aimed at load performance and integration.

Automating the import and manipulation of data from several sources, such as Excel and CSV files, and configuring scheduled processes in SSIS to replace manual steps.

Data modelling with SQL Power Architect, including associative tables and detailed database diagrams, as well as modelling directly in SQL.

Complex transformations — aggregation, derived columns, Pivot and Unpivot, and Lookup — which are the core of preparing data for analysis.

Working with different connection types and data origins, and resolving the usual integration problems between CSV, TXT, Excel and SQL Server, from custom SQL queries through to replicating data across several databases.

Using containers to automate loading many files, and configuring SQL Agent jobs to run multi-step ELT processes on a schedule.

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) — Udemy

SSIS is Microsoft's tool for data integration, transformation and movement, widely used for ETL processes and scheduled loads in corporate environments.

Day-to-day work of a SQL Server DBA

Completed July 2024 · Power Tuning · Course completion

A practical course covering the routine responsibilities of administering SQL Server environments:

Installing and configuring servers for SQL Server with performance in mind.
Managing access: permission strategies and security so only authorised users reach the data.
The daily routine of a DBA — the tools and checks used to monitor database health.
Designing backup and recovery strategies that limit the exposure to data loss.
Automating recurring tasks with SQL Agent.
Identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks by tuning queries and indexes.
Configuring alerts for proactive monitoring of critical SQL Server events.

Day-to-day work of a SQL Server DBA — Power Tuning

Hands-on training in SQL Server administration, automation and performance, applied to corporate environments.

Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) — exam preparation

Ka Solution · Eight hours, delivered by Microsoft Certified Trainers · Exam preparation, not the certification

An introduction to building artificial intelligence solutions with Microsoft Azure services:

The different AI workloads, their practical applications and their technical constraints.
The fundamentals of machine learning on Azure — algorithms, models and how they are deployed through the platform's services.
Computer vision: detecting, analysing and classifying images with the native Azure services.
Natural language processing: sentiment analysis, key phrase extraction, translation and language understanding.
Conversational AI, including bots and the services behind natural interactions with users.
Preparation for the AI-900 exam itself.

The course gave me a working understanding of where AI services fit in an Azure-based data and application estate.

Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) — Ka Solution

AI-900 covers the foundational concepts of artificial intelligence and how they are applied with Azure services. This entry records the preparation course, not the Microsoft certification.

DP-300 Azure Database Administrator Associate — exam preparation

Completed June 2025 · Udemy · Delivered in English · Exam preparation, not the certification

An advanced course preparing for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate (DP-300) exam, covering relational database administration across Azure SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance and SQL Server on virtual machines:

Provisioning and managing cloud data resources with attention to performance, elasticity and scale (vCore, DTU, provisioned versus serverless).
Query performance work using execution plans, index design and tuning, partitioning and compute sizing.
Monitoring and maintenance with Azure metrics, custom alerts and automation to find and fix bottlenecks.
Security and compliance: RBAC authentication, encryption at rest and in transit, and access controls for sensitive data.
Automating administrative tasks — backups, restores, index maintenance and scheduled jobs — with native tooling and T-SQL.
High availability and disaster recovery: failover groups, geo-replication and Always On for hybrid and cloud-native scenarios.
Administration through T-SQL, with governance, auditing, user management and performance monitoring in production environments.

The course is not published by Microsoft; its syllabus follows the exam as updated in July 2024.

To be explicit: I completed this preparation course. I have not sat and passed the DP-300 exam, and I do not hold the Microsoft certification.

DP-300 exam preparation — Udemy

DP-300 validates practical database administration on Microsoft Azure: provisioning, security, performance, automation and high-availability strategies across cloud and hybrid environments.

Shorter courses

Completed, with no separate write-up.

50 tips and shortcuts — SQL Server Management Studio

March 2024 · Power Tuning — productivity and good practice in SSMS.
Azure SQL Database

September 2024 · Power Tuning — fundamentals and operation of relational databases on Azure.
SQL for data analysis — beginner to advanced

June 2025 · Udemy — SQL queries and techniques applied to analysis.
SQL Server Expert community

September 2025 — participation in a specialist SQL Server community. This is community membership, not a certification.