About Me (Kent Graziano)

Hi there! Thanks for dropping by and checking out my blog.

The Basics

Here are the basics of my “professional” profile (but if you are here, you likely know this stuff already):

I am a recognized industry thought leader, award winning speaker, author, and semi-retired Snowflake Data Cloud and Data Vault evangelist with too many decades in the industry to count! I am also a Data Vault Master, Knight of the Oaktable, Oracle ACE Director – Alumni, and Grandmaster of TaeKwonDo. I have written lots of articles, blogs and white papers and done hundreds of presentations (both nationally and internationally). When not thinking about data and the cloud you might find me kayaking, taking foodie pictures, practicing martial arts, volunteering at my local food bank, or just sitting on a beach watching the waves roll in – looking for that next perfect wave.

Currently I spend a bit of my time as a strategic advisor to a number of well known companies that partner with Snowflake such as DataOps.live, SqlDBM, Coalesce, Wherescape, and on the Data Vault side, I help out Cindi at DataRebels. 

Long ago, I co-authored “Oracle Designer: A Template for Developing an Enterprise Standards Document” (with Mark Kramm) and “The Data Model Resource Book” (1st edition), with Bill Inmon and Len Silverston. I am also the co-author (with Dan Linstedt) of the very first book on Data Vault ideas – “The Business of Data Vault Modeling” (no longer in print).

I have several other books on data modeling, Oracle Data Modeler, and Data Vault out on Kindle now, which you can find by checking out my Amazon author page.

I was also the co-editor helping Dan with his book “Super Charge Your Data Warehouse“, the first technical book about Data Vault Modeling that hit #1 on Kindle.

If you want to know more, check out my LinkedIn profile or my Amazon author page.

You can also follow me on twitter now @KentGraziano.

Me and the Martial Arts

So that’s the part the data world knows about. The other big piece about me is that I am a martial arts fanatic too (and the reason I am called “The Data Warrior”). I have been practicing and teaching traditional Chang Hun (non-Olympic) Tae Kwon Do for over 42 years (which is actually longer than I have been doing databases and data modeling). Currently I hold an 8th Dan black belt and title of Grandmaster with the Independent TaeKwonDo Association under the direction and mentorship of Grandmaster John Pellegrini. Over the years I have been privileged to study several styles with some very gifted instructors, masters, and grandmasters (including a personal student of the founder of TKD). I continue to train in Tae Kwon Do with my friends here in Texas. I attend, and give, workshops and seminars around the country whenever I can.

Other martial arts I am trained in or practice:
Chi Gung (20+ years) – fyi – I run morning Chi Gung sessions at several user group conferences these days.
Chen-style Tai Chi Chuan (20+ years)
Escrima (20+ years)
Combat Hapkido (20+ years via seminars, 1 year formal training)
Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan (1 year)
Aikido (1 year, in Japan)
Judo (1 year, in Japan)

I have definitely learned a lot from this training, and it has influenced my approach to my work in IT and data. This will come up on my blog from time to time. 🙂

Anyway welcome to my blog!

Standard Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not necessarily those of the company I work for or past companies I have worked with.