My name is Brian Swan. I’m a fan of both PHP and Microsoft technologies, and I work in the
SQL Server organization here at Microsoft as a content publisher. I’ve started a new blog, http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_swan, to follow Microsoft’s endeavors into PHP interoperability and to provide PHP developers with technical content that helps them write PHP applications using Microsoft technologies. Sounds interesting, right? So please subscribe to my blog and tell your friends and colleagues that might be interested. You can also follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brian_swan.
In case you didn’t know, Microsoft has taken some BIG strides in the last few years (and even the last few months) toward making Microsoft technologies easily accessible via PHP (the increasingly popular open source server-side scripting language). SQL Server is no exception among those Microsoft technologies. In August of 2008 and October of 2009 versions 1 and 1.1 (respectively) of the SQL Server Driver for PHP were released. Microsoft was a major contributor to the Azure SDK for PHP which was released in November of 2009. Other recent projects include IIS improvements for PHP apps, the Toolkit for PHP with ADO.NET Data Services, the Web Platform Installer, the WinCache Extension 1.0 for PHP…again the list goes on. For many of those projects, the source code is freely available; in the case of the WinCache Extension, the source code has been contributed to PECL. But I digress, I hope you check out my PHP blog!
Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Roger Doherty, Sr. Technical Evangelist for SQL Server. I joined Microsoft in 1991 from Sybase and I’ve evangelized every SQL Server release since the Microsoft / Ashton-Tate / Sybase SQL Server version 1.0 from 1989. I’m excited about SQL Server 2008 R2 and its improvements so the team and I worked like crazy to bring you the first installment of some great developer training content.
My cohorts and I (you’ll meet them later) have built a SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit. This kit is filled with videos, presentations, demos and hands-on labs. The content is great for developers, training partners, and consultants who need to understand and talk about SQL Server 2008 R2.
We gathered the information contained in the training kit from the folks who built SQL Server 2008 R2. We will continue to launch more content in the following weeks, so keep an eye on my blog for more updates. Soon I will be announcing a companion training course on Channel 9.
I hope you are one of the first people to download the training kit and use it to start building a SQL Server 2008 R2 solution. This training kit is brought to you courtesy of Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism. Happy learning!
Microsoft has been positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems (Gartner, Inc., January 28, 2010).
The Magic Quadrants depict Gartner's analysis of how Data Warehouse (DW) DBMS vendors measure against specific criteria within the marketplace. Microsoft takes Gartner’s findings as further indication that the company is delivering on its commitment to provide full, competitive and comprehensive DW solution.
Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems
To learn more, please read the full Gartner report.
We believe SQL Server 2008 is the data management and business intelligence platform of choice for customers of all sizes who want enterprise-class benefits with the highest levels of security, reliability, and scalability for the lowest possible Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Enterprise companies taking advantage of data management and BI capabilities, such as Acosta, Samsung Electronics, Raymond James, Xerox, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Beth Israel Deaconess/Harvard Medical Center and others, are running their mission-critical line of business applications with SQL Server 2008.
More information on SQL Server Data warehousing.
Microsoft’s vision is to deliver an information platform enabling all businesses to gain strategic value from information. Companies are looking to compete and grow by reducing costs and identifying the highest value opportunities for their business. Microsoft is moving forward rapidly to address these challenges with new capabilities in manageability, business intelligence, and data warehousing with the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008 R2 and Parallel Data Warehouse.
For more information visit:
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 28 January 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
The Magic Quadrant graphic was published by Gartner, Inc., as part of a larger research note and should be evaluated in the context of the entire report. The Gartner report is available upon request from Microsoft Corp.
Ready to put your Excel and PowerPIvot skills to the test? Take the Excelerators Quiz to see what kind of Excel user you are. Then check out the Alpha Geek Challenge with Donald Farmer for a chance to win a $250 shopping spree or an all expense paid trip to the BI Conference in New Orleans!!!
http://www.exceleratorsquiz.com/challenge.html
Check out a new video with Ted Kummert, SVP for the Microsoft Business Platform Division, outlining how Microsoft and its partners are trying to help customers realize the key benefits of SQL Server consolidation.
As customers try to reduce costs, they are looking at SQL Server consolidation. To reach significant cost savings customers should follow a strategy most suited to them with the right hardware and software infrastructure. Some customers realize savings right away while others struggle.
The SQL Server product team recently published prescriptive guidance for SQL Server consolidation. The guidance helps customers choose the best options for their situation. Some say the most useful part of the guidance whitepaper is a decision tree that helps customers arrive at the right consolidation choice. The guidance document also explains the different application attributes that customers need to consider while making these types of decisions. The sample case study provides an illustrative example. .
As Ted mentions in the video there will be guidance from our hardware partners as well, enabling customers to choose the hardware solution that is best suited for their needs.
View the video and read the whitepaper.
For additional resources, visit Server consolidation page on www.microsoft.com/sql
Today, SQL Server 2008 R2 received an official release date. It will be listed on Microsoft’s May price list, and will be available by May 2010.
SQL Server 2008 R2 showcases Microsoft’s continued commitment to business intelligence and mission-critical workloads. Since we made this release available as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) in August 2009, it has been well-received by the community with more than 150,000 downloads. Key customer benefits include:
· A trusted and scalable platform with high availability, Master Data Services supporting data consistency across heterogeneous systems, StreamInsight enabling high-scale complex event processing, and support for high scale applications with up to 256 logical processors.
· IT and developer efficiency through central management of multiple database applications, instances or servers, accelerating the development and deployment of applications and providing improved support for virtualization and Live Migration through Hyper-V™ in Windows Server 2008 R2.
· Managed self-service business intelligence empowering a new class of business users to build and share powerful BI solutions with little to no IT support, while still enabling IT to monitor and manage end-user generated BI solutions with the new PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint
“SQL Server 2008 R2 is freeing up our IT departments to focus on bigger challenges while keeping control of our most valuable asset, our information,” said Fabio Catassi, CTO Mediterranean Shipping Company. “Using Excel and PowerPivot as an interface for Self-Service BI, we are modeling, analyzing and pivoting millions of records in memory and publishing our BI solutions to SharePoint in few minutes. This also allows our geographically remote office branches to access them from a URL at a fraction of the time, and our IT department to centrally manage and monitor information.”
Customers with Software Assurance can upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 and take advantage of the new features without incurring additional licensing costs.
There’s still time to download, preview, and provide feedback!
Go to http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx to get more information and to download the November CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2. And let us know what you think: connect with the SQL Server 2008 R2 Development Team and provide feedback.
| As CIOs and companies look back at 2009 and forward to the opportunities and challenges in 2010, Microsoft’s CIO Tony Scott shares his thoughts in both a written piece and a video interview. Tony talks about how Microsoft has cut costs and utilized technologies such as Windows 7, virtualization, cloud computing, unified communications and more. He also talks about the evolving role of the CIO as IT continues to move into an ever more critical role within businesses. The video can be viewed at this location and the written piece is located here. |
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HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced an agreement to expand on their 25-year partnership with a $250 million investment that will simplify technology environments.
The companies plan to deliver new solutions built on a next-generation infrastructure-to-application model, advancing cloud computing by speeding application implementation, eliminating management complexities and automating manual processes to lower the overall costs of IT. As a part of the agreement, HP and Microsoft will provide, jointly architected and pre-configured packaged solutions on HP hardware across online transaction processing (OLTP), business intelligence and data warehouse workloads that speeds time to deployment for customers with push button simplicity. These solutions will be available in a broad range of configurations that will be suitable for tier 1 enterprise environments and in configurations suitable for SMB environments.
Microsoft Corp. and HP are hosting a teleconference today at 8:15 a.m. PST, where Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, and Mark Hurd, chairman and CEO of HP, will take questions regarding a new joint agreement and joint investment to prepare customers for the next generation of business computing. To listen to the audio teleconference, interested parties should visit http://hpbroadband.com/program.aspx?key=SKPNSKDIKG. To participate in the audio teleconference, interested parties should call (800) 369-1191 (U.S., toll-free) or +1 (212) 519-0829 (international, toll). Passcode is 3022632.
For more information, including a playback of the teleconference and videos with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and HP CEO Mark Hurd, visit the Virtual Press Room; or read the Microsoft Blog to read Brad Anderson’s entry about the news. You can also follow the announcement and submit your questions on Twitter using the hashtag #HPMSFT.
Microsoft recently announced the first CTP of a SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL v1.0, which automates aspects of the migration process to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 & 2008 including SQL Azure Database.
SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL is the newest migration toolkit, others include Oracle, Sybase, Access, and an analyzer for PowerBuilder. The toolkits were designed to tackle the complex manual process customers deal with when migrating databases. In using the SQL Server Migration Assistants, customers and partners reduce the manual effort; as a result the time, cost and risks associated with migrating are significantly reduced. Our recent SSMA survey showed that 94% of SSMA downloaders would recommend the tool to others.
Since the SQL Server Migration Assistants for Oracle became available in June of 2005, Microsoft has seen more than a 250,000 downloads across all of the SSMAs. Motorola, Simon & Schuster, Sony Ericsson and Artesia are just a few of the customers that have downloaded and used the SQL Server Migration Assistant toolkit to move to Microsoft SQL Server.
SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL is available for free download and preview at SSMA 2008 for MySQL v1.0 CTP1 and will be generally available in the summer of 2010. Customers and partners can also provide feedback via ssmateam@microsoft.com.
| Buck is re-reading the "Fourth Paradigm" book by Microsoft Research. He is particularly intrigued by data design section. Read Buck’s entire blog post on his Carpe Datum blog. Looking for something to read in the next couple of weeks? Check out the book. |  |
Last week, we announced the availability of the SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP. Today we are excited to share that the SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot downloads for Microsoft Excel 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 are now available!
To download PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, please go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx
PowerPivot for Excel provides non-expert BI users the ability to create powerful BI solutions using Excel. PowerPivot for SharePoint facilitates the online hosting, sharing and collaboration of these BI solutions in SharePoint while providing the IT department greater visibility and manageability.
Analysis of sales data using Microsoft Excel 2010 and PowerPivot for Excel
For end users, PowerPivot for Excel delivers unmatched computational power directly within the application they know and love—Excel. Leveraging familiar Excel features, users can 
transform enormous quantities of data from virtually any source with incredible speed into meaningful information. Combined with PowerPivot for SharePoint, users can also securely share their findings seamlessly in the browser through Excel Services.
For the IT department, PowerPivot for SharePoint enables administrators to monitor and manage user generated solutions that are published to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.
Enable Sharing and Collaboration using SQL Server PowerPivot Gallery
For additional resources, visit www.powerpivot.com and please let us know what you think: connect with the SQL Server 2008 R2 Development Team and provide feedback on the November CTP.
SAP issued a press release today announcing the Microsoft support of SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC) version for the Microsoft platform. This relationship gives us another option to meet customer and partner demand for a budgeting & planning application built on top of the Microsoft platform. The application leverages Microsoft Office, including tight integration with Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Here’s the press release: http://www.sap.com/usa/about/newsroom/news-releases/press.epx?pressid=12263
At the PASS Summit 2009 last week, Ted Kummert announced the soon-to-be-delivered November SQL Server 2008 R2 Community Technology Preview. We’re happy to announce that it is available today for MSDN and TechNet subscribers and it will be available to the general public on November 11th. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx to get more information and to download!
The November CTP is “feature complete” so we encourage you to try out the new features in this CTP release which include: 
Enhancements to the capabilities delivered in the August CTP:
- A Control Point Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio for central multi-instance and application utilization management.
- Built-in wizards to help you quickly set up and enroll instances and Data-Tier Application components into central management.
- Dashboard viewpoints for quick insight into application and instance utilization.
- StreamInsight core technology engine for Complex Event Processing.
Your feedback is important! Once you’ve had an opportunity to check out the release, click here to provide feedback.
*The PowerPivot downloads for Excel and SharePoint will be available soon. Keep checking back here for an update.
David Dewitt presented today’s keynote. He promised to be detailed and he delivered! The tweets were all about the great info he presented and if his presentation would be on the PASS Summit DVD. David drilled into a level of detail and people were eating it up (they also want to see his presentation again so they can take it all in).
Drum roll, please……David’s keynote WILL be included on the PASS Summit 2009 DVD set. David’s presentation was so interesting that some of his followers stayed after the keynote for an impromptu Q&A.
David Dewitt’s Keynote | 
David Dewitt stays after his keynote to talk with PASS attendees |
Appreciation Event at Gameworks
 On Wednesday night, PASS attendees were invited to join PASS and Microsoft at Gameworks for some games and fun. Ted Kummert announced prize winners for various contests happening during the summit. There was one list of winners that were not announced last night, so I wanted to recognize them now – the winners of the SQL Server Twitter contest.
Again, drum roll please…..I am excited to announce the three winners of Xbox 360 Elite consoles. - Mike Collins (from East Hartford, CT)
- Richard Baumet (Vancouver, BC)
- Kevin Guinn (Austin, TX)
Congratulations! We will ship your Xbox 360 to the address on your contest form. To keep up with the happenings of the SQL Server team, follow us on Twitter (MS_SQL_Server) and Facebook (MS SQL Server). |
Tom Casey took the stage and dazzled the crowd with PowerPivot demos. You could hear the mad clicking of keys as the bloggers wrote about what they saw. The expo hall was hopping as attendees chatted with Microsoft reps about the SQL Server technologies. And as day two comes to a close, everyone is getting ready for the fun event at Gameworks tonight.
If you want more information about keynotes, check out the online videos.
Attendees gather around for a demo at the Product Pavilion | Val Fontama talks with a PASS Attendee about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse 
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