It’s probably not a good thing that I use a tagline from the show Lost when discussing a 7-day cruise of Alaska.  Though it’s slightly more likely you’ll encounter polar bears.  Odds are you won’t.  Nor will you need to deal with time vortices back to 1972, smoke monsters, or canned Dahrma provisions.  We’ve successfully confirmed the food is MUCH better on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

One of the additions to SQL Cruise Alaska is not much of a secret.  It was previously announced that Buck Woody, Senior Technical Professional, Windows Azure and Cloud Computing at Microsoft Corporation would also be a lead trainer on the Alaskan SQL Cruise.  It is now confirmed that he will be providing not one, but two sessions on this cruise.

Furthermore, what you will encounter is more SQL Server MVP-ness than you anticipated or expected.  Of course Brent Ozar and Tim Ford be providing training on SQL Cruise Alaska, but so will…

• Jeremiah Peschka, Independent SQL Server and NOSQL Consultant
• Aaron Bertrand, Senior SQL Server Consultant for SQLSentry, Inc.
• Grant Fritchey, SQL Server Product Evangelist for Red Gate Software

Finally, but certainly not least on any list, is Kendra Little; Senior SQL Server Database Administrator and all the talk of the most recent 24 Hours of PASS.

All of these established presenters, trainers, and experts in one place?  (Well, one place that tends to get around for 7 days?)  Yes!  I guess there is another similarity to Lost.  Good thing we’ve got an established captain and crew moving us around – not some prehistoric atomic wooden wheel! 

We’re not done with the news just yet.  We’re also proud to announce that Idera Software will be hosting another contest to offer up travel to-and-from Seattle, a room for two on the Norwegian Pearl, and a seat in the SQL Cruise training for the lucky winner of their SQL Victory contest!  Idera Software provided Mitch Bottell with a seat on the Miami Cruise and they’re back to do it again with a new contest for our Alaskan embarkation.

We’re also welcoming a new sponsor to the Alaskan SQL Cruise:  Confio Software.  Confio is a database performance tuning solutions provider for not just SQL Server, but also Oracle, DB2, Sybase, and VMWare.  Brent and I both are proud to be working with such a fine group of individuals at Confio Software.  Their solutions are comprehensive and their staff is top-notch.

Tomorrow we will be releasing the list of sessions and abstracts for the Alaskan SQL Cruise.  As is our mission, sessions will focus on SQL Server and Professional Development topics and a very granular level.  Expect topics covering SAN configuration, Dynamic Management View Deep Dives, Isolation Levels, NOSQL, Communication and Career Tuning, Denali, and Deep Dives into Execution Plans (among other topics.)  We also will be adding some additional bonus features not found in any previous SQL Cruise so be sure to come back tomorrow when the details are revealed!

(Yes, just like Lost, we needed to keep you waiting for the rest of the secrets.)