Hi everyone,

Fancy some complimentary online training, delivered by expert guest speakers?

Well you're in luck...there's another TechNet LIVE session coming up soon, this time focused on the topic of SQL Server 2014.

Dr Greg Low, a SQL Server MVP and Microsoft Regional Director will be stepping up to the mic to give an overview of the enhancements you will see in the upcoming release.

Join us on Friday November 29th from 11am-12.30pm on Lync, to find out about clustered columnstore indexes, memory-optimized tables, natively-compiled stored procedures, hybrid scenarios and more!

We hope to have you join us! Register now to attend.

Hi everyone,

As you would know, Jeffa and Andrew have been out of the office recently doing IT Camps, so we invited in Shashank Pawar and James Crawshaw from Microsoft to deliver a TechNet LIVE session in their absence. They gave us a great technical overview last week on Cloud OS for Databases, focusing on how the new technologies in SQL Server, Windows Server and System Center work together to enable you to run demanding SQL Server workloads, consolidate sprawl, and reduce costs.

You can watch their session on-demand now over at TechNet Video - by either streaming it, or downloading a copy for offline viewing.

During the session, the guys also shared these helpful links:

Cloud OS Server and Cloud Platform

Learn at Microsoft Virtual Academy

Watch and get updates at Channel 9

R2 Wave Product Download:

• System Center 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

Microsoft Private Cloud Reference Architecture information

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

Be sure to check them out for more information on the topics discussed. You can also follow Shashank on his blog SQLman here. Thanks to the guys for taking the time to share their expertise!

I'll be posting later this week about our upcoming TechNet LIVE events so stay tuned for more details...

Cheers,

Katherine.

As Brad Anderson explained on his blog last week, the IT industry never slows down, with the virtualization world going through a big inflection point. As result of this, as demand for Hyper-V grows, it is advantageous for virtualization professionals to be "bilingual" i.e. comfortable with Microsoft and VMware platforms.

Jeff has already done an excellent job covering the announcement, but for those of you who haven't heard yet, there are now two brand new resources available from Microsoft to help get you skilled up on Hyper-V and "future-proof" your career. Firstly, there is a new Microsoft Virtualization Certificate that has been designed around Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V and System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager - this is designed for those of  you that already have skills in VMware technologies or may have a VCP.

Secondly, you should check out Virtualization², a brand new website which also has some great, free resources that Microsoft has developed to help IT pros who are VMware experts build their expertise in Microsoft virtualization.

This new certification comes with a new way to prepare for your certification exam. To get certified you can train with Microsoft LPs (like with any of our other certifications), or you can take the free online training with Microsoft technical experts via Microsoft Virtual Academy. And in great news, if you complete the on-demand MVA training, you will receive a voucher to take the Microsoft Virtualization Certification exam for free (equivalent to $150 USD value!)

This is a big opportunity, and we're excited to support you as you create the broadest possible skill set!