I am doing a type of post I usually don’t really do.  My blog is devoted to technical information but I really wanted to make an exception this time, because I think it is worth it. David Merzel is one of my colleagues, he is the country manager...

SQL Server Denali CTP3 comes with a lot of improvements in all areas but some areas are more visible than others.  Some of the improvements in SQL Server Management Studio in the restore area are quite useful however.  Lets look at some of these...

Yesterday we have announced the availability of SQL Server Code-named Denali.  Obviously exciting times for everyone in the SQL Server business.  As a result there is so much information being published on blogs and other locations that it might...

  Register now with extended Early Bird pricing Discover new technologies and increase your knowledge about current technologies on April 26, 27 and 28 at Metropolis, Antwerp. Do you want to attend at a discounted price? We have good news for you...

Last week a customer asked us if he could help users to start a PowerPivot file from an existing template.  For this specific environment some analysis was to be done on content stored in SharePoint Lists.  Using SharePoint 2010 and PowerPivot...

Building out an infrastructure that supports your web service or application can be expensive, complicated and time consuming. Whether you need to forecast the highest possible demand, build out the network to support your peak times, getting the right...

  I did a post on the new features in Excel / Excel Services 2010 from a BI point-of-view but notice that people also want to know this for SharePoint 2010.  So apart from the Excel Services improvements which are mentioned here let me try to...

Microsoft Belgium and Luxembourg proudly announces its first Microsoft Demo Day . Please join us on Wednesday, 2 nd of June, 2010 at Microsoft Belux for a day packed with exclusive demo sessions on a wealth of Microsoft offerings. Forget about lengthy...

Now that the SQL Server 2008 R2 trial is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx , many people want to know whether the trial version can be upgraded to a full version once you have a key.  The answer...

A very common question I get is “What is actually new in Excel 2010 for BI?”.  As you all know Excel is a wonderful BI client and many reports eventually end up in Excel.  As a result we obviously invest a lot in the BI capabilities of Excel...

Twitter as it is described on their website: "Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now." If you want to know more about Twitter check out http://twitter.com...

One of my colleagues, Rob Collie, has created a new FAQ for PowerPivot @ http://powerpivotfaq.com/ . We will try to answer as much of the questions on PowerPivot as possible. This can only be achieved because of the great volunteers who moderate this...

Yesterday the official name for Project Gemini was announced during the keynote of the SharePoint Conference, as of now Project Gemini will be known as PowerPivot (for Excel). Personally I feel this name is very well chosen since it really expresses what...

The Belgian SQL Server User Group is organizing the second SQL Server Day on the 3rd of December. Last year about 200 people gathered for this event and of course we hope to have even more this year! Please visit http://www.sqlserverday.be for more information...

We are very pleased to announce the first public CTP (Community Technology Preview) of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Availability for non-subscribers is planned for August 12th. This is the first public CTP so it is...

The third cumulative update package for SQL Server 2008 SP1 is now available @ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971491 . This will take you to build 10.00.2723. People using the auditing function will probably be interested in the following fix http...

I think we can all agree that Data Compression is a great new functionality in SQL Server 2008. I know many of you have been experimenting with it but there was one little catch I wanted you to be aware of. When you apply page compression to a table the...

The second cumulative update package for SQL Server 2008 SP1 is now available @ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970315 . This will take you to build 10.00.2714. And do not forget the "Lock Pages In Memory" change ( here )!

Today at Tech Ed North America 2009 we have officially announced the new name for SQL Server code-named Kilimanjaro. The official name will be: SQL Server 2008 R2 ! More information can be found @ http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/r2.aspx...

The Belgian SQL Server User Group is organizing another great technical evening. I am looking forward meeting you there. From their website: This evening will be split into 2 sessions as follows: Session 1: Overview of Visual StudioTeam System 2008...

Until now "Lock Pages In Memory" was an option only available to SQL Server Enterprise Edition customers. Very simply put it prevents SQL Server from paging out the memory it has allocated (a deep explanation can be found in the references below). We...

Wow, the guys in the SQL Server team are working really hard. The first CU for SQL Server 2008 SP1 has already been released and will take you to build 10.00.2710. More information here .

We are very proud to announce the release of the first service pack for SQL Server 2008. With the release of SQL Server 2008 we have also made great investments in the installer. I am sure you have all noticed that the setup experience is completely...

The guys that deliver the CUs sure do a great job, yet another one delivered on time. This one will take you to build 10.00.1798. More information here .

The next SQLUG evening will take place in our Microsoft Belux offices. So please feel free to drop by and ask your nasty questions or just have a chat with me ;-) From their website: MDX, from zero to hero. This session is brought to you by Franky Leeuwerck...