Barnaby's Canadian IT Pro WebLog : SQL Server and SQL Reporting Services

Thank you Canada

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:04:00 GMT

After 5 weeks of touring across the country and delivering presentations in 10 different cities, all I can say is WOW! The Canadian IT Pro's and Developers are great.

As Damir mentions in his post "It has been an amazing five weeks..."

For those of you that were not able to attend every session that you wanted to, the slide decks are now posted at http://www.microsoft.ca/launch2005, additionally, the audio recordings of the Database Track are also available (look for my earlier blog posts on this).

Finally, make sure to stay connected to TechNet by signing up for the TechNet Flash Newsletter http://www.microsoft.ca/technet/flash.

I look forward to see you all again on my next tour across the country.

Tags: [Microsoft] [Launch2005] [SQLServer]

Launch 2005 - High Availability Podcast

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:26:00 GMT

Here is the third of the Launch 2005 audio recordings. This was recorded live on November 22nd as part of the Launch 2005 activities in Vancouver.

If you were not able to attend the Architecting for High Availability Session, download the mp3 version to hear what my colleague Damir Bersinic had to say. The session runs about an hour and twenty minutes.

Tags: [Microsoft] [Launch2005] [Podcast] [SQLServer]

Update: changed mp3 link to microsoft.com media server

Launch 2005 - Managing and Monitoring SQL Server 2005 Podcast

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:23:00 GMT

Here is the second of the Launch 2005 audio recordings. This was recorded live on November 17th as part of the Launch 2005 activities in Victoria.

If you were not able to attend the Managing and Monitoring SQL Server 2005 Session, download the mp3 version to hear what you missed. The session runs about an hour and a half.

Tags: [Microsoft] [Launch2005] [Podcast] [SQLServer]

Update: changed mp3 link to microsoft.com media server

Launch 2005 - Business Intelligence Podcast

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:20:00 GMT

Here is the first of the Launch 2005 audio recordings. This was recorded live on November 8th as part of the Launch 2005 activities in Toronto.

If you were not able to attend the Delivering Business Intelligence Session, download the mp3 version to hear what you missed. The session runs about an hour and ten minutes.

Tags: [Microsoft] [Launch2005] [Podcast] [SQLServer]

Update: changed mp3 link to microsoft.com media server

On Tour with SQL Server 2005

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:24:00 GMT

It's about 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Vancouver overlooking a very foggy harbour. We've completed four of the ten cities on this cross Canada tour.

So far, we have been to Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Victoria. This week we are in Vancouver and then Calgary. The response in all of these cities has been great, and we have been seeing lots of blog posts and photos appearing about the event.

If you are coming out to one of the upcoming events, don't forget to blog about it, or if you are bringing your camera, tag your photos and upload them to the group pool on Flickr.

There are already some great photos online, including this one that Chris took of the stuff that you'll get in your bag.

Thanks everyone for the photos and blog posts.

See you in your city.

Tags: [Microsoft] [Launch2005] [Vancouver]

Rock the Launch

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 07:45:00 GMT

Let the fun begin.

As Mark posted earlier today, the Launch activities are underway. I have posted a few behind the scenes and setup photos to the flickr group (rss), and hope to post more as the day unfolds.

Remember, get spotted wearing old launch gear, and you could win a prize.

See you at the launch events

Tags: [Microsoft][Launch2005]

Are you ready to launch...

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:59:00 GMT

Well, we're into the final few days before the first event on the SQL/Visual Studio Launch tour.

Mark Relph has been busy blogging and has a couple of posts you should really read:

Sneak Peak at the software (Yes we are giving away software)
Blog about the tour and win prizes
Wear your old Microsoft gear and win

There is still space in the following cities:

Quebec
Halifax
Winnipeg

I hope to see you on the tour.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [VisualStudio]

The Mystery of Free Software

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:37:00 GMT

For those of you that have asked questions about whether we will be handing out software at the Canadian launch events, Mark Relph has just written about this on his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/mark_relph/archive/2005/10/28/486419.aspx

Enjoy,

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [VisualStudio]

Are you attending the launch? Are you blogging about it?

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:56:00 GMT

Are you planning on attending the SQL/VS/BizTalk Launch? Are you planning on blogging about it? If you are, you may want to add your blog to the TechNet Event Bloggers site (http://techneteventsbloggers.net). As I mentioned in a previous post, you may also want to consider tagging those posts.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [VisualStudio] [BizTalk]

SQL Server 2005 features and versions

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:38:00 GMT

If you are trying to figure out which version of SQL Server 2005 has the feature that you are interested in, take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.mspx for a great matrix that should help.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer]

What does the new SQL Server release mean to ISV's?

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 20:46:00 GMT

My Colleague Ryan Storgaard has just started a series of posts on his blog that focus on the benefits of SQL Server for an ISV. http://blogs.msdn.com/stoey/archive/2005/10/14/481345.aspx

I think that Ryan hits on one of the key messages when he talks about all of the great functionality that is included with SQL Server 2005. For an ISV, having things like Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services, available to you as part of the SQL Server distribution, makes it easier to build great applications without having to license lots of different software packages.

Keep an eye on Ryan's blog for more in this series.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer]

Tag the Launch

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:25:00 GMT

Are you blogging about the joint SQL Server / Visual Studio / BizTalk launch this November?

If you are, you might want to consider tagging your blog posts to make it easy to search for anything "Launch 2005" related.

Simply tag your posts with Launch2005 by adding the following somewhere in your blog post:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Launch2005" rel="tag">Launch2005</a>

If you're uploading pictures to Flickr, you may want to join the Launch2005 group; and remember to tag your photos with Launch2005 as well.

I'll be presenting at almost all of the Canadian tour dates, so look for me in your city starting November 8th.

Update: Don't forget to ping technorati to let them know your blog has been updated.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [VisualStudio] [BizTalk]

Managing and Administering SQL Server 2005

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:15:00 GMT

Here is the second in a series of TechNet podcasts focusing on SQL Server 2005. In this podcast, the TechNet team talks about Managing and Administering SQL Server 2005.

This session runs about 45 minutes and is available both mp3 and wma formats.

I've also added my feed to Odeo: My Odeo Channel (odeo/664ed92d7d0c41cf)

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [PodCast]

On Database Performance...

Barnaby_Jeans — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 05:37:00 GMT

I have just finished reading a great blog post over on Tom Kyte's blog (http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2005/09/most-incredible-statement-i-heard-this.html) regarding database performance and the attitude to what the database should be able to deal with.

For those of you who don't know, Tom is one of the foremost experts on Oracle Database, having written the Expert One-on-One Oracle book. The interesting this here is that the comments on his blog apply equally to SQL Server.

With the launch of SQL Server 2005 just over a month away, it got me wondering how developers will really view the new features and capabilities of this version of the database.

As I tour the country talking to both developers and IT professionals, there seem to be very different views on how to best use the database as you are developing an application. On one side there is the group that wants the database to be nothing more than a place to dump data. They claim that in doing so, they are not tying themselves to one particular database and their application will be more portable. On the other side is the group that wants to use every single new feature of the database simply because it is there.

Now somewhere in the middle is probably the correct approach, but as Tom mentions, as you are designing an application, the data within the application is probably far more important than the actual application itself. If you remember this, and you can learn to leverage the database features that are most relevant, you stand a much better chance of building an application that will perform well on the intended platform.

In my last tour around the country, I demonstrated to a group of developers, just how easy it was to get data out of SQL Server formatted as XML. The response was, almost unilaterally, one of amazement. What I was able to accomplish within a single select statement, was typically implemented in many lines of code outside the database. So while the code outside the database may have been more portable, did it really perform as well as it could, in the environment that it was running in?

So remember, you need to design for performance right from the start. So if this means educating the developers, then this should be your challenge.

What do you think? Do you have developers that would rather use the database as a black box and not know anything about it? Post a comment and let me know.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer]

Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:23:00 GMT

If you are currently working with SQL Server 7 or SQL Server 2000, you may be asking yourself what you need to know in order to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 once it launches.

The TechNet team has put together an audiocast that talks about upgrading to SQL Server 2005 These audiocasts are a great way to learn about products and technologies during your commute to work, or any other time you might have to listen to them.

This session runs about 50 minutes and is available in mp3 or wma format.

Let me know if these types of sessions are useful, and I'll post some additional topics.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [PodCast]