One of our strongest early adopters in the UK has been Conchango - with a special focus on the replacement for DTS, Integration Services. They have produced an extremely good paper which compares SSIS with Informatica . I would recommend it as a bed time...

I commonly get asked by my early adopters about which versions of SQL Server 2005 and VS.NET 2005 to use. Well, let me have a go at keeping it simple: ISV just looking at SQL Server 2005 : (using VS.NET 2003 or ealier) - use the June CTP of SQL Server...

Get yourself a cup of tea, put on your headphones and sit back and watch Steve in action. Wish I had so much energy! http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=85529#85529 (and ... this is him calm - give him a crowd of 5000 and he explodes!...

My colleagues in the USA have been running some great application compatibility labs with our early adopters - and part of that lab has involved using a new tool which has now been made available for all. The SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor can be used...

We have a great range of training available at the moment - and free through to November 1st. Everything from Adminstration to BI to Programming. Check out https://www.microsoftelearning.com/sqlserver2005/

Many of my ISVs have already invested in SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services - and for them guidance of moving to the new 2005 version is super important. We have a webcast late today on just that. Well worth checking out. http://msevents.microsoft.com...

Our replacement for DTS is Integration Services - extremely powerful and flexible..... and..... extensible. I just came across this small component that improves on the sort performance in the beta (NB: We may well improve upon this ourselves by RTM)...

We have just made available the Beta 1 of our SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver. This allows Windows and Unix Java clients to talk to SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2005/jdbc.mspx for details and how...