Baton Rouge .Net, SQL Server & PowerBI User Groups Meeting

Agenda:
• 5:15 - 5:45 - Food and Drinks (Networking)
• 5:45 - 6:00 - Introduction/Announcements
• 6:00 - 7:15 - Presentations
• 7:15 - 8:00 - Open forum for questions

Main Presentation
Benjamin Claxton
❇️ Abstract — Data Modernization and AI: A Cloud Warehouse Journey
Organizations often view data modernization as a one-time migration project, but in reality it is an ongoing evolution that fundamentally changes how data is engineered, governed, and ultimately leveraged for intelligence. This talk explores that evolution through a real world journey from a legacy SQL Server data warehouse to a modern, cloud native platform built on Google BigQuery.

The presentation unfolds in three acts. First, it examines the pressures that made change inevitable, including growing data volumes, long ETL runtimes, operational complexity, and cost constraints, and the architectural shifts required to successfully migrate a traditional warehouse to the cloud. Second, it moves beyond migration to focus on platform maturity by adopting modern data engineering practices such as CI/CD, Git based development, deployment pipelines, and Kanban driven workflow management using Azure DevOps to operate the data warehouse as reliable, scalable software.

Finally, the talk looks forward to how a modern cloud data platform becomes the foundation for AI. It contrasts chat-based AI with emerging agentic systems and explains why trustworthy data, automated pipelines, and disciplined engineering practices are prerequisites for meaningful AI adoption. Rather than treating AI as a bolt on capability, the session shows how data modernization lays the groundwork for analytics to evolve into intelligent, action-oriented systems.

Attendees will leave with practical lessons learned, architectural insights, and a realistic perspective on how cloud warehousing, DevOps practices, and AI fit together as stages in a broader data modernization journey, not as separate initiatives.

Lightning Round Presentation
Doug Lubey
❇️SDLC AI Catalyst
🔹AI Catalyst: How AI impacts all the steps in the entire SDLC
🔹Kill the Manual Grind (and Vibe Coding).