Data Platform Insider

Day 3 at PASS Summit 2009

ErikaS — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:31:48 GMT

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).

Day 2 at PASS Summit 2009

ErikaS — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:47:06 GMT

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

Tom Casey PASS Twitterview

SQL Server Team — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:40:00 GMT

Today at the PASS 2009 Summit the spotlight was on business intelligence (BI) with a keynote from Tom Casey, general manager, SQL Server BI at Microsoft. Tom noted during his keynote that more than 30 percent of PASS attendees this year noted BI as a priority track. To respond to the increasing interest in BI, Tom conducted a Twitterview after his keynote, answering questions from attendees. If you didn’t have a chance to follow the Twitterview live, below is a transcript. (Follow Microsoft SQL Server on Twitter @MS_SQL_Server)

Q) What was that word for Amir's new feature? (as shown in the keynote demo)

A) The underlying technology is called VertiPaq

Q) 100m rows running in Excel 2010 with PowerPivot is remarkably fast, but I want to know how much memory his laptop has?

A) 8GB but we had SharePoint, SQL Server running as well. Client side had 100m rows, runs well on 2GB netbook too.

Q) There is a tight integration of PowerPivot w/ Excel, but also Sharepoint. What if you don't want SharePoint?

A) SharePoint required for server side features. Can use Excel alone for client.

Q) Nobody said BizTalk at PASS is it dead?

A) If you are asking about BI, BI and BizTalk still go well together in process automation.

Q) How much of this can be done with just the Standard Edition SKU of R2?

A) Excel add-in required for Excel 2010. SharePoint add-in comes with Enterprise Edition.

Q) What were the data extensions on Reporting Services in R2 that you showed?

A) Reports, SQL Azure, SharePoint lists can be data feeds. Plus any traditional data sources in your environment - use what you choose.

Q) Should I wait until next week to release, or do it today?

A) Get started now, others have

Q) What is the purpose of the SQL Server utility control point (UCP)?

A) UCP is central repository for config and perf data collected for all the instances enrolled in App & Multi-Server Mgmt group.

Q) In PowerPivot, what two Excel features do you use to visualize the results?

A) You can use PivotChart and PivotTable

Q) Is there a feature in PowerPivot enables you to associate data in one table with data in another table?

A) Automatic and manual relationship creation are options

Ted Kummert PASS Twitterview

SQL Server Team — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:53:00 GMT

Ted Kummert, senior vice president of the business platform division at Microsoft, spoke yesterday to a live audience of more than 2,000 attendees at the PASS 2009 Summit in Seattle, Washington. After his keynote he answered questions from attendees on Twitter. If you didn’t have a chance to follow the twitterview live, below is a transcript. (Follow Microsoft SQL Server on Twitter @MS_SQL_Server)

Q: How does Parallel Data Warehousing edition compare to what customers can do now with SQL Server 2008?

A: SQL Server delivers great scale up today to 10s of TB. PDW will scale out to hundreds of TB.

Q: When will SQL Server Management Studio work against SQL Azure?

A: That is a supported feature of SMS in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Q: How are you making Application and Multi-Server Management features available?

A: StreamInsight will ship as part of SQL Server 2008 R2.

Q: Where is Oracle on cloud-based offerings?

A: Oracle is not yet visibly embracing a public cloud solution.

Q: When does StreamInsight ship?

A: StreamInsight will ship as a part of SQL Server 2008 R2 as well as Master Data Services.

Q: What about SQL Azure availability?

A: Feature complete CTP is available now. We will start billing for the service after the first of the year.

Q: When is the next CTP for R2?

A: The November CTP will be available in a few weeks and we are basically feature complete.

Q: When is the planned release date for Project Madison?

A: Formerly known as Project Madison, Parallel Data Warehouse Edition will release in the first half of 2010.

PASS Summit Day 1 Keynotes

ErikaS — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:53:10 GMT

From the blogger’s table at PASS: Bob Muglia got the energy going in the room (and the AC/DC helped). He remembered the early days of SQL Server, saying “we’ve come a long way, baby.” After Bob, Ted Kummert took the stage and has been joined by various demoers (is that a word?) to show how SQL Server 2008 R2 is increasing efficiencies and improving ROI.

See even more information by following us on Twitter (MS_SQL_Server) and becoming a fan on Facebook (MS SQL Server).

Enterprise scalability one focus for PASS 2009 Summit

SQL Server Team — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:51:00 GMT

This is a long post, but there is so much happening at PASS!

During the opening keynote at the PASS 2009 Summit, Ted Kummert, senior vice president of the Business Platform Division, highlighted Microsoft’s continued commitment to mission critical workloads, announcing the upcoming delivery of the November CTP of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. Microsoft also announced two new premium editions of SQL Server for high-end, mission critical scenarios, SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse and a new partnership with IBM for SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse version 2.0.

SQL Server 2008 R2 is the next generation information platform, delivering a trusted scalable platform, increased developer and IT efficiency and managed self-service BI. Several customers, such as Premier Bankcard Inc., Mediterranean Shipping Company, Caregroup and BigHammer are already taking advantage of the key benefits of R2 including:

· Managed self-service business intelligence. Expanding powerful BI tools to all users with SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel and empowering a new class of business users to build and share powerful BI solutions with little or no IT support, while still enabling IT to monitor and manage user-generated BI solutions

· Greater IT and developer efficiency. Enabling administrators to centrally monitor and manage multiple database applications, instances or servers, accelerating the development and deployment of applications and providing improved support for virtualization through Hyper-V with Live Migration in Windows Server 2008 R2

· A trusted and scalable platform. Supporting data consistency across heterogeneous systems through SQL Server Master Data Services, enabling high-scale complex event-stream processing through SQL Server StreamInsight, and supporting scale-up scenarios for the largest available x64 and Itanium hardware (up to 256 logical processors)

The two new editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 include:

· Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter together with Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, provide a foundation on which to build enterprise-class solutions, with support for 256 logical processors, unlimited virtualization, high-scale complex event processing, and application and multi-server management.

· SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse (formerly Project code-named “Madison”) extends Microsoft’s leadership in data warehousing by offering massive scalability for the 100+ terabyte data warehouse at low total cost of ownership.

Microsoft is also excited to announce IBM as the newest partner offering three hardware configurations as a part of SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse version 2.0. HP, Bull and Dell also announced new configurations for version 2.0. Fast Track Data Warehouse version 2.0 will continue to enable companies to accelerate their data warehousing projects, and achieve high scalability at a low total cost of ownership (TCO). For more information visit www.microsoft.com/fasttrack.

Lastly, this morning, Microsoft announced three new benchmarks with partners Unisys, IBM, and Intel demonstrating the enterprise scalability of SQL Server 2008 R2:

· A new world-record TPC-E benchmark result running on a Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R Enterprise Server set a performance record of 2,012 tpsE (transactions per second for the TPC-E benchmark) on a 96-core Xeon platform, the first result on a server with more than 64 cores.

· The same Unisys server achieved 102,778 QphH (queries per hour) on the TPC-H 3TB benchmark, showing data warehousing performance 70 percent higher than the previous record on Windows.

· A Microsoft Dynamics CRM benchmark run on IBM System x3650 M2 servers with Intel Solid State Drives demonstrated 20,000 concurrent users across 20 xRM applications on Microsoft Dynamics CRM with an average response time of 0.10 seconds.

SQL Server 2008 R2 feature complete CTP will be available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in November. Microsoft remains on track to ship SQL Server 2008 R2 in the first half of calendar year 2010. More information about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/how-to-buy.aspx.

The PASS 2009 event is currently being held through November 5^th in Seattle, Wash. To learn more about PASS, please click here: http://summit2009.sqlpass.org/. To view the event press release, please click here, http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/nov09/11-03pass09pr.mspx and to visit the SQL Server PressPass site, please click here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/sqlserver/default.mspx.

You can also find us on Twitter @MS_SQL_SERVER, where we will be hosting a Twitterview with Ted Kummert following his keynote. He’ll answer ten questions submitted to him @MS_SQL_Server following his keynote at 10:30 a.m., so “twitter-in” for that or view the entire Twitterview, which we’ll be posting to the Data Platform Insider blog shortly after: http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/default.aspx. The Twitter hash tag for the event is #SQLPASS.

Transaction Processing Performance Council (www.tpc.org) benchmark results as of 11/02/09. Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R Enterprise Server; TPC-E: 2,012 tpsE, 958.23 $/tpsE; TPC-H: 102,778 QphH@3TB, 21.05 $/QphH@3TB; available 5/6/2010.

PASS Summit 2009 Has Started

ErikaS — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:33:52 GMT

Wayne Snyder kicked things off this morning and now Bob Muglia is on stage taking us through the history of SQL Server and how working together, we will solve business problems. Ted Kummert takes the stage next….

There are about 13 bloggers here during the keynote. Search for #sqlpass on Twitter to see all the conversations.

Tom Casey ‘Twitterview’ on Wednesday!

ErikaS — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:27:12 GMT

Mark your calendar! Now we have Tom Casey, General Manager, SQL Server BI, doing a ‘Twitterview’ on Wednesday, November 4 after his PASS Summit keynote! Tom will answer 10 of your questions via our Twitter account (MS_SQL_Server). Just send your questions to @MS_SQL_Server by 10:00 AM PDT on November 4 and he will reply via tweets.

Learn more about the keynotes and PASS Summit here.

‘Twitterview’ with Ted Kummert Tomorrow!

ErikaS — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:15:00 GMT

You can ask Ted a question! Senior vice president of the Business Platform Division at Microsoft Corp., Ted Kummert, will answer 10 questions from an audience via Twitter at 10:30 AM PDT tomorrow, November 3. The interview with Ted comes after his keynote at PASS Summit.

To participate, go to the SQL Server Twitter page. Simply tweet your question to @MS_SQL_Server. And make sure you write in your questions before 10:00 tomorrow morning.

“See” you tomorrow!

Windows Azure Platform Launch Update

sunnyjc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:01:42 GMT

In October 2008 at our Professional Developer Conference we opened the Community Technology Preview (CTP) for the Windows Azure platform (Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services). The CTP has been invaluable in terms of shaping many aspects of the Windows Azure platform.

PDC 2009 is an exciting event for all of us who are working on the Windows Azure platform as it’s our opportunity to show you the work that we’ve done over the past year, including some brand new features. Concurrent with the conference we will begin the Windows Azure platform’s transition from a CTP to a business. For your planning purposes, this post maps out the key stages of that transition that you should be aware of.

- At PDC 2009, on November 17^th, 2009, a number of new features in Windows Azure will be made available for the first time. The CTP will remain open through December 31^st, allowing you to experiment with the full feature platform and to give us any final feedback.

- Beginning January 2010, new customers will have to sign up for an offer to access services on the Windows Azure platform. Usage during the month of January will be at no charge, so you can see your exact usage while still enjoying free service.

- On February 1, 2010, we will begin charging customers for using the Windows Azure platform.

Making the transition in these three steps accomplishes a few goals. First, it gives you a chance to explore our full feature set for free. Second, it allows our team time to get your feedback on the new features and address any issues that arise. Finally, it lets you preview exactly how billing will work before you need to start paying.

We’d like to thank everyone who has participated in our Community Technology Preview so far. Your feedback has really shaped the platform, and we’re looking forward to sharing our launch with you next month at PDC 2009!

Updated 10/30/2009: Clarified that January is free of charge.

Get Your Game On During PASS Summit 2009

ErikaS — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:48:57 GMT

Just announced: Microsoft SQL Server Appreciation Event. Join PASS and Microsoft to eat, drink, and play. Open to all PASS attendees. Let’s celebrate PASS Summit 2009!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 7:00pm-10:00pm at Gameworks, 7th and Pike (Across from the Convention Center).

At SharePoint Conference, Project “Gemini” name officially revealed as Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel

SQL Server Team — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:09:00 GMT

The Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 got underway in Las Vegas this morning with keynotes from Steven Ballmer and Jeff Teper kicking off the conference. The SQL Server, ADO.NET Data Services, and Sync Framework teams are all there in force, and had a number of exciting announcements. Be sure to check all three team blogs for information on announcements, activities, and sessions at the SharePoint Conference this week.

Project “Gemini” Name Revealed

Today, Microsoft announced the official name of Project “Gemini,” now Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel. PowerPivot for Excel helps drive timely and informed business decisions by empowering end users to access, integrate and analyze massive amounts of data on the desktop and share information using the familiar Microsoft Excel tools.

In addition, PowerPivot provides IT departments the ability to monitor user generated solutions by integrating seamlessly with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. With PowerPivot, users and IT departments can:

Integrate massive amounts of data on the desktop from virtually any source
Perform lightning-fast calculations and analysis on large data volumes
Share and collaborate on user generated analysis through integration with SharePoint
Monitor user generated applications

With powerful analysis capabilities delivered through agile and familiar tools like Excel and SharePoint, organizations can expect faster end-user adoption, lower training time and reduced costs. For more information on PowerPivot for Excel, visit http://www.powerpivot.com .

Microsoft Sync Framework Now Integrated in SharePoint

Also today, the Microsoft Sync Framework team announced that Microsoft Office 2010 is replacing the internal synchronization engine that ties Groove Workspaces to SharePoint with the Microsoft Sync Framework. This change supports synchronization for larger numbers of users sharing Groove Workspaces – up to 28 times the currently enabled number of users.

Using this Sync Framework integration, API’s within SharePoint Server have been exposed, allowing the ISV community to easily create third-party solutions that work with SharePoint Server. Maxim Lukiyanov, program manager, SharePoint Server at Microsoft, says, “The Sync Framework will greatly reduce the amount of code that an ISV needs to create, and this represents probably the most painful code that they otherwise would have had to write.” Ultimately, this will enable users to benefit from the zero latency of working on their own computer using the rich client software of a Groove workspace or the ISV software. For more details on Microsoft Sync Framework for SharePoint, visit http://blogs.msdn.com/sync/ .

ADO.NET Data Services Simplifies Access to SharePoint 2010

Finally, the Microsoft ADO.NET Data Services team announced that, starting with SharePoint 2010, all SharePoint sites are automatically exposed as RESTful data services that follow the ADO.NET Data Services convention. Now, any client with an HTTP stack can read and write to SharePoint just by using simple HTTP methods and Atom (XML) or JSON formatted data. Also, clients can post documents and read documents easily by using the HTTP interface. Since SharePoint exposes full metadata through the service, all Data Services tools such as Visual Studio, .NET client, and cross platform clients (e.g. PHP, Java clients recently announced) will work out of the box with SharePoint. Furthermore, all the Silverlight support for data services will work as well, making it straightforward to front SharePoint sites with Silverlight applications that directly access SharePoint data without the need of server-side code. By enabling a standard based REST-style interface, ADO.Net Data Service greatly simplifies the programmatic access to SharePoint sites. For more details, visit the ADO.NET Data Service team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/.

Get ready for SharePoint Conference Next Week!

SQL Server Team — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:57:00 GMT

The Microsoft SharePoint Conference kicks off next week at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nev. next Monday, October 19^th. Steve Ballmer and Jeff Teper will get things started at 9:00am Pacific, and for those not attending the conference in person the keynote will be streamed live at http://www.mssharepointconference.com and available on demand beginning Monday afternoon. The SQL Server, ADO.NET Data Services, and Sync Framework teams are planning to be there in force, with a full roster of announcements, sessions and activities. We don’t want to spill the beans on the news just yet, but keep an eye on this site on Monday morning as we’ll be posting news and links to keep you informed.

At the show, the teams will be hosting several breakouts highlighting some of the exciting new technologies coming out of the Data Platform group in the next few months. Some of the featured sessions include:

Planning, Deploying and Administrating Excel Services and Project "Gemini" in SharePoint Server 2010
SQL Server Best Practices for SharePoint Deployments
The New SharePoint RESTful data service interface

We’re very excited to share the next wave of data platform innovation with you – stay tuned for next week’s news!

SQL Azure October CTP is feature complete!

sunnyjc — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:36:31 GMT

Today, the SQL Azure Database October CTP (CTP 2) is available and includes the complete feature set that will be delivered at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on November 17th - 20th, 2009 in LA. Please see the latest SQL Azure Database blog for more details.

PASS Summit Speakers Chat about Their Sessions

ErikaS — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:27:00 GMT

From Channel 9: Senior Data Platform Technology Specialist Buck Woody stopped by the Channel 9 studio to talk to Michael Rys, Principal Program Manager in SQL Server Engineering Team (Azure), and Liam Cavanagh, Senior Program Manager, about upcoming sessions that should not be missed this year’s PASS Summit conference.

Buck also chatted with Julie Strauss, Program Manager in SQL Server Engineering Team, and Herain Oberio, Group Product Manager about their sessions.