Microsoft TechNet Ireland Blog : SQL Server

SQL Event in Cork on 4th June

endaf — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:32:00 GMT

Reporting Services 2008 Architecture and End User Reporting

Summary

The first part of this session is a detailed look at architectural changes to the Reporting Services 2008 product and how they might benefit your reports.

The second part of the session is a demo based walk through of the new Report Builder 2.0. Focusing on the flexibility of the Tablix Format and end user charting.

We will also be taking a sneak preview of some of the new map based reporting capabilities to be introduced in SQL 2008 R2 shortly.

Speaker: Bob Duffy

Bob Duffy is a 16 year veteran of database technologies having worked closely with many enterprise customers in Ireland and Europe around SQL Server, Business Intelligence and dot.net and chalked up over 250 successful projects. Bob is currently one of eighteen Microsoft Certified Database Architects Globally, is an active speaker for SQL Server and is on the working group for the new SQL 2008 “master” examination syllabus.

Date: 04 June 2009 19:00 - 21:00

Location: Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork

Register and learn more here

Microsoft Community Tech Days

ieitpro — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:47:00 GMT

The countdown is on for MS Community Tech Days!...only two weeks until Galway and Cork at the time of posting this (Galway 10th and Cork 12th March). Blindingly good technical content to be caught! Learn more and register @ http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/technet/techdays.aspx.

Tech Days are a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the IT Pro community to re-deliver the highlights of Tech Ed Conference to IT Pros across Ireland. Register now to avoid disappointment! The core content will focus on Infrastructure, BI and Unified Comms & Collaboration. Most of the sessions will be delivered by a combination of Microsoft and Community technical presenters and we promise they will involve as much time spent demoing the technology, as possible.

March will see the four-city tour stop for evening events in Galway and Cork, with full day events in Dublin and Belfast. Our special guest speaker in Galway, Dublin and Belfast is Rhonda Layfield, who was voted one of the best technical presenters @ Tech Ed Europe and North America. Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to get up-to speed on the latest Microsoft technology (technical level 300) at no cost! We hope to see you there. Learn more and register here.

We are also running ‘Microsoft @ Home’ sessions in Dublin and Belfast in March, the timing of which line up nicely with the Tech Days. These sessions will look at Home Networking, Windows 7, Securing your Home and Digital Photography. So if you’re someone who has even thought about, using your Xbox 360 as a media extender for example, then you’ll certainly like this session. Learn more and register here.

Enda

SQL for the Oracle DBA - great trainer over from the UK

ieitpro — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:58:00 GMT

This is great cross-training on SQL for Oracle DBAs! In fact, I think the content would be of use for all DBAs and the trainer is top class.

It is a half day of training taking place in Dublin the afternoon of January 22nd. See here for details and how to register.

The objective of this training is to give an experienced Oracle DBA a basis for understanding SQL Server and an understanding of the key differences between SQL Server and Oracle together with a basic knowledge of how to administer an installation of SQL Server.

Agenda

Why SQL Server and not Oracle
Structural Differences
Getting Started with SQL
Day to Day Tasks
Monitoring
Security

Advanced topics

High Availability
Migrations

Register now

Please Note: Event starts at 1.30pm, Lunch will be provided from 1pm

Speaker Bio

Kevin Ashby joined Microsoft EMEA in January 2005 as an Enterprise Technology Strategist in the CATM team focused on any database related issues.
He has been involved with database platforms for more than 20 years and has performing many roles including development, DBA, technical design and account management. In recent years Kevin has worked as a infrastructure and database architect designing numerous database infrastructure solutions for both high and low end systems. Many of the designs have been for 99.999% availably systems including designing for true fault tolerance and high performance
Kevin’s Oracle background starts with Oracle 5 as a developer, and he became a DBA in Oracle 6, designing infrastructures solutions with Oracle 8 which included 99.999% availability via operating system clusters and Oracle parallel server, running through to 9iRAC and 10g Grid for in house developed solutions and Oracle based commercial applications included Oracle Applications, Oracle Collaboration Suite, 9iAS, 10gAS. He has even talked at OracleWorld a number of times and has been involved with the Oracle community in the UK for many years.

SBS 2008 BusinessSpeak and GeekSpeak with Harry Brelsford & Philip Elder LIVE SBS 2008 Server-side Setup

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:15:00 GMT

Your chance to see the SBS 2008 server-side setup process, learn more about the pre-requisite step of configuring your router\firewall.

6pm December 7^th, location tbc. Please register to receive updates. You must be logged in to register for this event.

There is a 5euro charge for this event; all money raised is to be given to charity, decided by attendees. To register click the lick, become a member of the site and register for the event here: http://www.partneroutreach.com/Events/tabid/54/ctl/Details/Mid/373/ItemID/4/Default.aspx?selecteddate=12/7/2008

SQL Server Ireland User Group: Kimberly Tripp presents SQL Server 200x: Optimizing Procedural Code

ieitpro — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:56:00 GMT

Incredible!!...lightning does actually strike twice! Kimberly Tripp is visiting Ireland for the second time in three months and Niall Flanagan was not going to let an opportunity like this pass the SQL Server Ireland User Group. Those of you who attended her presentation last September will appreciate why she is constantly called out as the world's #1 speaker in SQL Server today. See the presentation abstract here.

6pm-8pm Dec 4th, Microsoft Atrium - Block B, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate
Register here (you will have to sign up to the user group first - free of course)

IT Professional Training at reduced rates - places still available!

ieitpro — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:11:00 GMT

03/11/2008, Dublin (BT): Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

10/11/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge ): Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Virtualization in Depth
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

13/11/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge ): Introduction to Installing and Managing Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

17/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Applications
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

17/11/2008, Cork (PFH): SQL Server 2008 Implementation and Maintenance
5 days, €1,000. Register Your Interest Here

19/11/2008, Belfast (New Horizons): Implementing and Administering Windows® Small Business Server 2008
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

19/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Customization and Configuration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
2 days, €267. Register Your Interest Here

21/11/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Installation and Deployment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
1 day, €133. Register Your Interest Here

24/11/2008, Belfast (BT): Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Virtualization in Depth
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

24/11/2008, Cork (PFH): Implementing and Administering Windows® Small Business Server 2008
3 days, €600. Register Your Interest Here

01/12/2008, Belfast (BT): Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

02/12/2008, Cork (PFH): Advanced SharePoint Development
4 days, €799. Register Your Interest Here

08/12/2008, Galway (New Horizons): Updating Your Skills from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

08/12/2008, Dublin (New Horizons): Visual Studio 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

15/12/2008, Dublin (Global Knowledge): Managing System Center Operations Manager 2007
3 days, €400. Register Your Interest Here

15/12/2008 Dublin (New Horizons): Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
4 days, €533. Register Your Interest Here

SQL User Group

ieitpro — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:55:00 GMT

More great speakers coming to Ireland for the SQL User Group Meetings!

On November 10th, Arun Justus will hold a "Technical BI Workshop" in the Auditorium in the Atrium building at 18:00. Arun is a BI technical advisor for Microsoft in 12 countries. Registration for this event is here http://sql.mtug.ie/Events/EventInfo.aspx?ID=97175f34-dc28-4fa6-94ff-aa344e2fea29.

Finally, Kimberly Trip is returning to Ireland on December 4th to speak in the Auditorium in the Atrium at 18:00. I have no details on the presentation yet. However, you can still register at http://sql.mtug.ie/Events/EventInfo.aspx?ID=166a7fcc-6003-4980-aaa0-efe7641875f3. As you know, Kimberly is considered to be the #1 speaker in SQL Server today.

Kimberly and Paul Short Interviews

ieitpro — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:40:00 GMT

Bob Duffy (SQL Ranger and friend of TechNet), got a chance to pose some probing questions to SQL gurus Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal, on how they felt about their experience in rainy Ireland last week and their opinions on the best bits of SQL Server 2008. Here are some short video interviews you can click into by topic (you may have to jack up the volume a bit).

Rain & Guinness

Book Fetish

2 in the Morning

SQL Server 2008 Best Bits

Watch this space for more interesting and informative interviews with technical subject matter experts coming your way soon!!

Try SQL Server 2005 (180 days) with some powerful migration tools!

ieitpro — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:08:00 GMT

Try SQL Server 2005 Free for 180 Days

Find out why the world's largest businesses are turning to SQL Server 2005 for mission-critical tasks.

SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access

Automates database migration from Access to SQL Server 2005.

SQL Server Migration Assistant for Sybase ASE

Automates database migration from Sybase ASE to SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Event: Kevin Kline on Stored Procedures & Bare Metal Tuning

ieitpro — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:43:00 GMT

SQL Server Event: Kevin Kline on Stored Procedures & Bare Metal Tuning

Date: 02 May 2007 18:30 - 21:30
Location: Morrisson Hotel, Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 (http://www.morrisonhotel.ie/)

For more detail and registration: http://sql.mtug.ie/Events/EventInfo.aspx?ID=cf355084-72d9-4f8f-980a-04fb15620b39

What’s Covered at this Event:

Stored Procedure Best Practices
Tricks and techniques needed to make SQL Server stored procedures achieve top performance. Numerous tips will show you how to make your stored procedures run faster, with fewer errors, and with better reliability.

Bare Metal Tuning for SQL Server
Choosing and configuring the bare metal server, CPU, memory, networking, and disks for a major SQL Server installation can be daunting, especially if you've never done it before.

Speaker Biography: Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline is the Director of Technology for the SQL Server Solutions Group at Quest Software. He is a recognized SQL Server expert and author of the O'Reilly titles SQL in a Nutshell and Transact-SQL Programming, both going on their second editions. With more than 18 years of experience in the IT industry, Kevin has worked on large-scale database projects at Deloitte & Touche, NASA and the U.S. Army. He is currently the president of the international SQL Server user's group, PASS. In addition to being a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, Kevin is a regular contributor to database technology magazines, Web sites and discussion forums.

Get SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 - Here!

ieitpro — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005 has just been released - Get it Here!

Dublin Business Intelligence Event - In Depth for IT Professionals

ieitpro — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Microsoft TechNet Business Intelligence Event - In Depth for IT Professionals

Microsoft Business Intelligence offers a complete, end-to-end integrated solution for business performance management, consisting of SQL Server as the Business Intelligence platform and Microsoft Office as the information delivery platform.

In this one-day technical expert seminar join members of the SQL Server and Microsoft Office product teams Grant Dickinson and Kristina Kerr (biographies below) - the people who designed and implemented the Microsoft Business Intelligence Solution. Gain technical insight of how the integrated components work together, as well as how to efficiently design, manage and deploy enterprise Business Intelligence solutions.

What: Microsoft Business Intelligence - In Depth for IT Professionals
When: March 7th
Where: Dublin, Morrison Hotel, The Printworks room Click here for Directions

Click here to register: Event Registration Page

Agenda:

08:45-09:15 Registration and light breakfast.
09:15-09:30 TechNet Update
09:30-10:45 Microsoft Business Intelligence overview
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-12:15 Creating High Impact Data Warehouse with Integration Services and Analysis Services
12:15-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:15 Enterprise Reporting with SQL Server Reporting Services
14:15-15:30 Office 2007 Business Intelligence Capabilities
15:30-15:45 Break
15:45-17:00 Designing and Deploying Performance Management Applications with Office OBA

Topics covered:
• Using Integration Services to solve large scale data integration and transformation challenges.
• Best practices for upgrading to SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.
• Design your Analysis Services objects for enterprise scalability and performance.
• Best practices for upgrading your reports and the report server to new version.
• Tips and tricks for running reporting in an enterprise environment.
• Overview of new Business Intelligence capabilities of Sharepoint and Excel.
• Interaction of Sharepoint, Excel Services and Excel with Analysis and Reporting Services.
• Building and managing scorecards with Business Scorecard Manager.
• Enabling advanced analytics with Proclarity Analytics Server.
• How PerformancePoint Server will integrate scorecarding and analytics with budgeting and planning capabilities.

Kristina Kerr (Office BI/OBA)
Short Bio
Kristina Kerr is a Product Manager in the Office Business Applications group at Microsoft. Her primary focus is on promoting and educating people on the value of Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) through sales and partner training events, customer campaigns, customer consults, the 2007 Office system launch, and various other channels. Kristina joins Microsoft from Business Objects SA (formerly Crystal Decisions) where she was responsible for product line product marketing for strategic alliance partnerships such as SAP and Oracle. Kristina graduated on The Dean's List from the University of Victoria (Canada) business school.

Grant Dickinson (SQL BI)
Short Bio
Grant Dickinson is a seven year veteran of Microsoft. He was a Technology Specialist for five of those years helping global to medium sized business accounts, as well as partners, evaluate and implement multi-terabyte business intelligence solutions. In his current role as Program Manager in SQL Server, Grant focuses on improving the performance and scale of Integration Services (SSIS) as well as helping key customers and partners adopt innovative solutions built on the platform. Grant was born in Zimbabwe and spent much of his youth in Southern Africa; he has rafted the great Zambezi river, swum with Sharks off the coast of Zululand and been chased by elephants at Victoria Falls. He gained a BSc Computer Science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and today he lives in rainy Seattle with his wife and two daughters.

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition

ieitpro — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:11:00 GMT

Hot off the press - Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition has just been released and can be downloaded from this website.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is the next version of SQL Server Mobile adding the desktop platform. SQL Server Compact extends the SQL Server Mobile technology by offering a low maintenance, compact embedded database for single-user client applications for all Windows platforms including tablet PCs, pocket PCs, smart phones and desktops. Just as with SQL Server Mobile, SQL Server Compact is a free, easy-to-use, lightweight, and embeddable version of SQL Server 2005 for developing desktop and mobile applications.

Download SQL Server 2005 Samples and Sample Databases

ieitpro — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:06:00 GMT

This is a really useful resource from where you can download over 100 samples and three sample databases for SQL Server 2005.

The downloads demonstrate the following components:

Database Engine, including administration, data access, Full-Text Search, Common Language Runtime (CLR) integration, Server Management Objects (SMO), Service Broker, and XML
Analysis Services
Integration Services
Notification Services
Reporting Services
Replication

Microsoft beats Oracle in security showdown

ieitpro — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:11:00 GMT

I heard talk of this before but it's the first time I've seen an independent report on it.

See the Microsoft Oracle Showdown here: Microsoft beats Oracle in security showdown