Boris Hristov

Founder of 356labs

Founder of 356labs
and PowerPoint MVP.
Speaker, Trainer & Author.
A guy that loves to do sports, have fun and enjoy life. Gallery / Blog / Contact

Copyright © 2021 ·

Wanna Play with
SQL Server 2016?

May 24, 2015 By Boris Hristov 1 Comment

SQL Server 2016 Virtual Labs
Are you one of the folks that can’t wait to put his hands on the upcoming release of SQL Server 2016? Surprise, surprise! There already is a way for you to do that via the Microsoft Virtual Labs where you will find 7(currently) hands-on trainings covering some of the new things coming with 2016.

So what are you waiting for? Prepare your Microsoft account, click on the link above and play with the product for free!

Update(25.05.2015): The labs are now down and unavailable because of a security breach that was allowing people who were using them to download the private bits of SQL Server 2016 CTP 1.3. Stay tuned.

Update(26.05.2015): The labs are now again accessible.

Filed Under: SQL Server Tagged With: Columnstore Index, In-Memory OLTP, JSON, Row-Level Security, SQL Azure Database, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server Training, Temporal Tables, Training

Another Group of DBAs Trained

February 28, 2015 By Boris Hristov 1 Comment

Boris_Hristov_Group_of_Students

Last Saturday the 4rd group of DBA students (and 5th group just from New Bulgarian University) completed their 40-hour DBA training. I have to say(once again) that I am extremely proud of the group! Their motivation for learning(during some of the days we were working for more than 7 hours – they were just not going home…) was almost second to none. Those guys are all actually database professionals – some of them are system engineers who also work with SQL Server, some of them are reporting specialists and some of them are doing both Oracle and SQL Server on a day-to-day basis. It’s always a fun experience for me as trainer to have such a wide variety of skills because it’s not only them that learn a lot. I do too! So huge congratulations to them for taking the course. I feel privileged that I was their trainer and what’s more I am happy that I made them join our SQL community in Bulgaria. That’s 5 more seriously knowledgable people who are going to participate in the user group meetings, come to events and probably decide to speak at some one day! So much great things, huh? 🙂

Filed Under: Courses, SQL Server Tagged With: Database Administration, New Bulgarian University, SQL Server Training, Training

Career Move.
BULPROS and Freelancing.

July 28, 2014 By Boris Hristov 8 Comments

bulpros-ideas.jpgIt’s been 3 years since I have been working for HP as a SQL Server DBA and it’s really hard for me to explain what an experience it is to be part of this huge company. It really is! I started my professional DBA career there and I learned tons of things during my stay there. I learned how Fortune 500 companies work, how their IT departments work, what processes need to be followed and most importantly – I have been lucky enough to build and work with some of the most biggest and complex SQL Server solutions in the world! It’s time for change however…

As of 27th of August I will no longer be an HP employee. On 28th I am travelling to Oslo where I am going to speak at the SQLSaturday event there and then on 1st of September the first new change comes – I will be delivering a very customized SQL Server in-house training for a company here in Bulgaria. Delivering trainings is not something new for me(did quite some of those already for HP, college students, other companies), but I decided I will expand it because I really love doing it, so as from now I will be doing SQL Server trainings as a freelance work in addition to my other responsibilities for other companies and organizations.

The most important and exciting update is BULPROS, though. This is a Bulgarian company that is more or less a start up, but they do two very interesting things (not to mention, have amazing insurance here) – they develop enterprise software and they offer consulting services(+4 other MVPs are working there!). I am happy to announce that I am joining their team as a SQL Server Consultant from 1st of October and my responsibilities will be to design, build, implement and help our customers in their journey with SQL Server. In addition to that, I will also architect an upcoming product that we will be offering to our customers in 2015(or at least these are the plans for now). The decision to move was not an easy one, but being able to have a customer-facing role and help customers build the solution they need and help them advance is something that makes me really excited! I am also sure the new role will force me to learn and get familiar with SQL Server even more and I am really looking forward to having my hands durty with some cool BI or development(or both) project! Last, but not at least, the company will heavily support me in my speaking and training engagements and that also matters quite a lot for me…

That’s it. That’s all I have for now! Looking forward to seeing some of you at any of the upcoming SQLSaturday conferences in Oslo, Paris or Dublin!

Filed Under: Perosnal Tagged With: BULPROS, Career Development, Freelance, Hewlett-Packard, SQL Server Training, SQLSaturday, Training

Hangout #014 with Alberto Gastaldo on Teaching SQL Server

January 27, 2014 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

It’s #14 and this time I am joined by a friend of mine from Italy – Alberto Gastaldo. We met in Italy on the SQLSaturday in Verona and we immediately started talking about delivering trainings on SQL Server and teaching people. That’s why I asked him to join me for a SQLHangout and give some of his advices on what does it mean and what must a trainer consider in case he wants to deliver his training in a proper way! Listen to our discussion and the advices given and I hope that you will find it helpful if you want to enter in the so called “training space”! Enjoy!

Oh, and if you want to learn more about Presentation Skills, you can check the 3 part series of blog posts that I wrote on the topic. Start here.

Filed Under: Presentation Skills & Presentation Design, SQL Server, SQLHangouts Tagged With: SQL Server Courses, SQL Server Teaching, SQL Server Training, SQLHangouts, Teaching, Training

The Recognition That Made Me Speechless

September 22, 2013 By Boris Hristov 2 Comments

This one below – I am speechless! Thank you, Andrey and Oracle team! I have received a lot of amazing feedback in the last couple of years, but this one really reminds me once again why I do what I do and I am glad that I was able(and will continue) to help with my knowledge and experience!

Recognition after Presentation Skills Training

That’s it. That’s the whole post.

Filed Under: Presentation Skills & Presentation Design, Public Speaking Tagged With: Awards, Oracle, PowerPoint, Training

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »