Chris Vidotto's Blog

HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance

cvidotto — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:20:43 GMT

HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance

The Microsoft and HP Business Data Warehouse appliance Optimized for SQL Server 2008 R2, provides the best performance possible for data mart and small data warehouse workloads with data volumes of up to 5 TB. The appliance helps reduce the time and cost of implementing a data warehouse through deployment of an optimized, pre-configured solution that has been designed, tuned, tested by Microsoft and HP.

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/solutions-technologies/Appliances/HP-bdw.aspx

SQL Server Denali – Launch Site…

cvidotto — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:15:17 GMT

www.sqlserverlaunch.com - Includes:

Fourth Largest US Stock Exchange, Direct Edge, Looks to SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse for Big Data Needs

cvidotto — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:55:17 GMT

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2011/06/03/fourth-largest-us-stock-exchange-direct-edge-looks-to-sql-server-parallel-data-warehouse-for-big-data-needs.aspx

Recent tests on their data showed dramatic gain in performance, with up to 163 times improvement in query performance and data loading speeds of up to 1 TB per hour
In addition, their testing data shows the solution generates reports in under 15 minutes, for what used to take over four hours

Also posted on information week - http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/info_management/229900133

SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 R2 Operations Guide

cvidotto — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:29:20 GMT

Released on MSDN - The Analysis Services 2008R2 Operations Guide

New MS.COM SQL Azure website and free trial

cvidotto — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 06:20:38 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/default.aspx

SQL 2008 R2 and PowerPivot Training in Aus – May/June 2010

cvidotto — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:16:49 GMT

Peter Ward and Wardy IT have launched some upcoming training courses: This is from there newsletter:

SQL Server Training Schedule

It is not too late to register for our Q2 training courses, including Australia’s first PowerPivot training courses. WARDY IT Solutions has developed the following exclusive SQL Server courses including the first PowerPivot training course to be delivered in Australia:

Brisbane - 12th May - SQL Server Developer Essentials
Brisbane - 14th May - SQL Server Business Intelligence Launchpad
Brisbane - 18th May - SQL Server Reporting Services
Brisbane - 21st May - Integrating SQL Server with SharePoint
Brisbane - 25th May - SQL Server 2008 R2 Step-up
Brisbane - 26th May - SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot
Sydney - 8th June - SQL Server 2008 R2 Step-up
Sydney - 9th June - SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot
Melbourne - 15th June - SQL Server 2008 R2 Step-up
Melbourne - 16th June - SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot

For more details and to register for these courses email contact@wardyit.com.

Windows Azure Platform AppFabric now commercially available

cvidotto — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:39:59 GMT

ATTENTION: Windows Azure platform AppFabric has transitioned to commercial availability on April 12th 2010, and is now a fully SLA-supported paid service. Customers who use AppFabric will be notified of their usage, as charges have begun accruing as of 11:00 PM (UTC) on April 12, 2010.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/appfabric/

SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM

cvidotto — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:37:09 GMT

It’s somewhat old new now but in case you were unaware SQL 2008 R2 has Released to Manufacturing (RTM). Official press here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/sqlserver/

“Welcome to the Microsoft SQL Server News Center! We are excited to inform you that SQL Server 2008 R2 has released to manufacturing, meaning customers will get it through our distribution channels in the next few weeks! SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers breakthrough capabilities for organizations that want enterprise-class scalability, improved IT and developer efficiency, and self-service BI. To experience the launch virtually, please visit the SQL Server 2008 R2 Digital Tour at www.sqlserverlaunch.com.”

Maintaining High Availability for the Microsoft.com site

cvidotto — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:49:04 GMT

Wow, some interesting stats here. Check out the technet post at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff467943.aspx

BizTalk 2006 R2 Service Pack 1

cvidotto — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:37:41 GMT

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974563

AMR Research Doc on PowerPivot

cvidotto — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:23:08 GMT

Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel:
Unleashing the Business User

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/bi/docs/amr_powerpivot.pdf

Find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/bi/Default.aspx

Gartner positions MS in leader quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms

cvidotto — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:20:27 GMT

Further validation of the great BI platform we’re driving to market…

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/bi/Default.aspx

Free 1/2 Day SQL 2008 R2 Seminar in Mel, Bris, Syd (Jan 2010)

cvidotto — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:47:01 GMT

Peter Ward (Wardy IT) will be running some free SQL 2008 R2 seminars at the end of January. Email from Peter:

I just wanted to let you know about the SQL Server 2008 R2 Hot Lap which WARDY IT Solutions will be running in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney at the end of January.

The SQL Server 2008 R2 Hot Lap will be the first SQL Server 2008 R2 workshops held in Australia. They are a ½ day catered workshop and they are free to attend.

A Hot Lap is a quick and concise way of finding out what is new in SQL Server 2008 R2 and how these changes will improve database operations, developer efficiency and enable self-service Business Intelligence solutions.

Dates

27/01/2010 - Melbourne – 1:00pm – 5:00pm

28/01/2010 - Brisbane – 8:00am – 12:00pm

29/01/2010 - Sydney – 8:00am – 12:00pm

Email: contact@wardyIT.com

Power Pivot site from Rob Collie

cvidotto — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:55:18 GMT

One of our program managers in Redmond has a great site showcasing Powerpivot. http://powerpivotpro.com Email from Rob: “For those of you who have not seen it, I thought it was worth mentioning here, since it seems people are finding it in semi-random ways. There are case studies, how-to’s, videos, and observational posts about trends and best practices. It’s a pretty informal site, so you will also see a liberal dosage of movie quotes that help illustrate certain points”

Great job Rob!

Bring the FIFA World Cup to Australia!

cvidotto — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:12:56 GMT

Those of you that know me – know how much I enjoy the round ball game :-) Whilst not strictly related to my MS role – please bring the FIFA world cup to Australia!

http://www.australia2018-2022.com.au/

BizTalk 2004 Mainstream Support is retired in July 2009

cvidotto — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:49:34 GMT

Hi all,

If you still have BizTalk 2004 in your environment, mainstream support ends in July 2009. In Australia, we have a partner who can do an assessment for you on what it may take to upgrade (if necessary). Email me if you want more info.

BizTalk Adapter Pack Migration Tool…

cvidotto — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:20:19 GMT

Migration tool released – if you want to consider using the BizTalk WCF adapters.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e68b8fd1-5c8a-499a-8237-4dc23a8342c5&displaylang=en

Overview

The WCF-based adapters shipped with the BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 are the recommended solutions to integrate various LOB systems with BizTalk Server. The Adapter Pack consists of LOB adapters for SAP, Siebel, Oracle DB, Oracle EBS, and SQL Server. They are built on the WCF LOB Adapter SDK framework. However these are not the first adapters to be released by Microsoft for integration.

The BizTalk Adapters for Enterprise Applications is a suite of adapters based on the older BizTalk Adapter Framework and was released with BizTalk 2006 and BizTalk 2009. Among others, this suite has adapters for SAP, Siebel, and Oracle DB systems. BizTalk Server has a native SQL adapter.

With the release of BizTalk 2009, all these adapters are deprecated in favour of the WCF-based adapters in the Adapter Pack as the latter set has more features and support more LOB versions.

Using Bing… it’s already growing on me

cvidotto — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:35:51 GMT

Have you tried Bing yet?

www.bing.com

Watch this now – XBOX 360!

cvidotto — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:33:12 GMT

http://www.neowin.net/news/gamers/09/06/01/microsoft-introduces-controller-free-gaming-project-natal

SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP

cvidotto — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:42:48 GMT

Microsoft "Oslo" - May 2009 CTP Release

cvidotto — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:34:52 GMT

It’s a busy month ;-)

Overview

"Oslo" is the code name for Microsoft’s next generation modeling platform. This CTP includes:

"Quadrant" – a visual modeling tool
"M" – a modeling language
Repository – a SQL Server 2008 database to store models
UML domain models and a loader to import UML diagrams in XMI format into the repository
CLR domain models and a loader to import .NET assemblies into the repository

New in this CTP:

The "Quadrant" modeling tool. Use Quadrant to browse and edit models in a repository database.
Domain models for the UML 2.1 specification encompassing Use Case, Activity, Class, Sequence, Component diagrams, profiles and templates.
An XMI importer supporting the 2.1 specifications, and covering the diagrams identified above.
A domain model and loader for System.Runtime.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=827122a5-3ca0-4389-a79e-87af37cbf60d&displaylang=en

BizTalk 2009 Hyper V Guide

cvidotto — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:30:47 GMT

Just noticed that we had released to web the BizTalk 2009 guide for Hyper V. Get it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0582bc67-0bef-4a0a-99cf-4408a111c4e3

Let me know what you think….

Visual Studio Team Suite Upgrade in Aus - 45% off….

cvidotto — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:47:40 GMT

From my MSDN subscriber blast….

Dear MSDN subscribers,

End of Financial Year Special

45% off on Team Suite Upgrade

Conditions Apply

Update: Team Suite is cheaper in June*
Benefit from a 45% discount* if you purchase a Step up license from Visual Studio Team Edition (Developer, Tester, Architect or Database) to Visual Studio Team Suite.

*Only available in Open Value, Select and Enterprise Agreement. Existing promotion scheduled to End 30th June, 2009.

How to use the current visual Studio Team System promotions*

Step 1: you are already using part of the Team System solution and you are thinking to use more. Jump to Team Suite now using the 45% discount*.

Visual Studio Team Suite is the full set that contains the 4 team roles editions and will help you to cover most of your needs around quality checks and testing tools. With Team Suite, you will be able to

· Control you code quality (with unit test, code coverage, profiling, code analysis..)

· Control and manage your database (schema & data versioning and reverse engineering, store procedure unit testing ...)

· Build and automate tests (functional testing, load testing, regression testing, campaigns attached to the build ...)

· Use the benefit of Visual Studio Team System 2010 with no additional cost

o UML modelling, UI testing (client and web), Lab management ...

Step 2: if you are still using Visual Studio professional, get 30% off and step-up to Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition (or any other Team System Edition) with MSDN Premium.

Please visit our website at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/aa700832.aspx
Or contact the Microsoft developer team directly

Jihad Dannawi (for enterprise accounts)jihadda@microsoft.com

Arabind Coomaraswamy (SMB accounts and partners)arabindc@microsoft.com

MS now officially supports SQL Server failover clustering in a VM

cvidotto — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:33:46 GMT

Our local SQL Tech Specialist Ron alerted me to a change in policy. http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/05/19/sql-server-support-policy-for-failover-clustering-and-virtualization-gets-an-update.aspx

Melbourne BizTalk 2009 Hands on Day – Sat 30th May

cvidotto — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:05:35 GMT

See the User Group site: http://www.melbiz.org/Home/tabid/79/EntryId/82/BizTalk-2009-Hands-on-Days.aspx and register!

Agenda: