If you’ve been contemplating enrolling in Brent Ozar’s SQL Server classes, I recommend you take advantage of this year’s Black Friday sale.
Keep reading to understand why I recommend his courses and to also find out how you can get an additional 10% off of the courses in case you’ve missed the limited Launch Day Bonus.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on them and make a purchase, I might earn a little commission at no extra cost to you. Think of it as a way to support my my blog!
Brent Ozar’s Black Friday 2024 prices
If you’re ready get enrolled into Brent’s courses, I recommend you opt for one of the bundles.
| Bundle name and link | Description | Black Friday Price | Regular Price | Bought Individually |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals | Great for getting started with SQL Server performance tuning! Includes all of Brent’s fundamental classes. 41 hours of videos. | $195/year | $395/year | $936/year |
| Mastering | This includes the following mastering level classes: – Mastering Index Tuning – Mastering Query Tuning – Mastering Parameter Sniffing – Mastering Server Tuning 57 hours of videos. | $695/year | $1,295/year | $1,580/year |
| Fundamentals and Mastering | The best value! Includes all of the Fundamentals of SQL Server and Mastering SQL Server classes. 98 hours of videos. | $795/year | $1,184.05/year | $2,516/year |
| Lifetime | Includes all of the Fundamentals of SQL Server and Mastering SQL Server classes with the added bonus of having lifetime access to them and their updates. | $1,795 (one time) | $2,495 (one time) | N/A |
If bundles aren’t your thing, then check out the entire classes library.
And if you want to add Brent’s apps, SQL ConstantCare® and the Consultant Toolkit, these bundles include those too:
- Level 1 Bundle (Fundamentals + Apps): $995/year $695/year, save $300
- Level 2 Bundle (Fundamentals + Mastering + Apps): $1,595/year $995/year, save $600
Need to get a bit more familiar with how Brent teaches?
Check out his “How to Think Like the SQL Server Engine” video:
Why I’m a big fan of his courses?
From my point of view, these are the main points I’ve really appreciated in the content and the reasons why I personally recommend Brent’s courses, especially at these prices.
(Don’t get me wrong, all of Brent’s course are well worth their full prices, but why not save some money if you can?)
Expertise
Besides being one of the few Microsoft Certified Masters in the world, Brent Ozar is a renowned SQL Server performance tuning expert with decades of real-world experience.
His insights are valuable for anyone working with SQL Server, regardless of their current level of experience.
Aside from this, Brent’s blog has been a constant source of helpful information ever since I’ve first started working with SQL Server.
Practical Learning
The courses are hands-on and focused on practical applications, making complex concepts easy to understand and apply in real-life SQL Server performance tuning scenarios.
Brent’s courses have their chapters structured in the following way:
- Overview and demo.
Brent walks us through the topic covered in this chapter and demos a few scenarios. - Lab and homework.
A brief guide on setting up and running the workload for the current topic after which you should start investigating the performance issue and solving it. - Brent’s solution.
Where Brent walks us through his process of addressing the performance issue.
Great teaching style
Brent’s teaching style is the “try and find a solution yourself before I show you how to do it” approach, which I generally prefer as opposed to being spoon-fed the solution from the get-go.
This allowed me to:
- See if I understood the topic.
- Find out if I am able to find a solution for the issue.
- Verify if my solution was the best approach or find out what the viable solution was for said scenario.
It’s also impossible to get bored. Brent’s courses are engaging and informative, packed with useful SQL Server knowledge, interesting facts about SQL Server internals, plus humor and pop culture references.
Not just SQL Server
Depending on the bundle you opt for, you can also get the following courses by Drew Furgiuele:
- Fundamentals of Azure Networking
- Fundamentals of PowerShell for DBAs – which is especially useful if you’re using dbatools
The impact on my work
Besides what I’ve already covered above, the knowledge I’ve gained from Brent’s SQL Server tuning has been vital in both my previous role as a production DBA as well as in my current Dev DBA role.
Some of the most notable areas that I’ve seen improve as a result are (ORDER BY LEN([Area]) DESC):
- My knowledge on columnstore indexes.
- My ability to troubleshoot and address complex performance issues.
- Learning to ask better questions when troubleshooting something indirectly.
- I gained vital knowledge about the database engine and the query optimizer.
- The way I explain technical topics to people who might not be so familiar with SQL Server.
- Being able to better understand why SQL Server sometimes doesn’t make the best decisions.
An unexpected result was the fact that it got me into sharing my knowledge through blog posts.
Brent’s Black Friday prices are the best you’ll see for a while
The prices are as low as they will possible get, at least until next year’s Black Friday. But waiting until next year would just mean an extra year of you not upping your SQL Server performance tuning game.
Bonus discount code
Plus, using the coupon code Vlad10 during checkout will get you an additional 10% off on top of the Black Friday discount.
Additional resources
If you need help building a VM and spinning up a SQL Server Developer Edition instance with minimal effort for Brent’s classes, check out the following blog posts:
Conclusion
If you were eyeing Brent’s courses and waiting for the right moment to enroll, his Black Friday sale is the best time to click on that “Enroll” button.