Hey everyone, if you haven't had a chance to play with Performance Point Server yet, you really should give it a try. Here are a couple of videos to help introduce you to this technology. The first is a walkthrough the product by one of the product managers and the second is a more in-depth video on performance management using Performance Point Server. Enjoy!

--Gus, speakTECH

Quick Demonstration of Performance Point Server
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gxW07AdejA

Performance Management 101 with Performance Point Server
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032323902&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

For those of you who read my earlier post (SQL Server Data Services, Part Uno!) and have signed up for the beta program (SSDS Beta Signup), here are a few pointers to sample code you can use to try out SQL Server Data Services (SSDS).

First, check out CodePlex. This page has source code for a few sample applications such as a Guestbook client and Tasklist application which utilize SSDS.

Another good link is SSDS Examples. It includes most of the above samples, but with more details on how each sample works and information on what areas of SSDS each sample showcases.

Download the samples, check them out, and check back with this blog in a few weeks. I'll dissect the code in some of the samples by then and blog about what I find. SSDS is shaping up to be a great platform for building SQL Server applications without the need for building up your own data center first! These samples are just the tip of the iceberg and greater and more comprehensive sample code is surely coming down the pipeline. Stay tuned!

Hi everyone, with SQL Server 2008's launch just around the corner, Microsoft has announced 2 new certification exams:

Beta Exam 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Beta Exam 71-450: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution

The exams are currently in beta so Microsoft is offering them for free at the moment (while seats are available). Just visit http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp and sign up for one of these above tests. On the final screen where you are prompted to pay for the test, simply enter one of the promo codes below to take the test for free:

Beta Exam 71-452: Promo Code is 3568C
Beta Exam 71-450: Promo Code is 239F4

To get ready for these exams, read the study guides below

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-450.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-452.mspx

If you need some motivation and want to find out why you should get certified (besides the fact that it's free!), read this:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/faq/benefits.mspx

Finally, you might be asking yourself "how the heck am I supposed to take a certification test for SQL Server 2008 when I've never even used SQL Server 2008?". Well, you're covered there too. Read my earlier blog on signing up for a free account that allows you to access a virtual machine with SQL Server 2008 installed:

http://blogs.officezealot.com/speaktech-bi/archive/2008/04/15/try-out-sql-server-2008-the-easy-way-by-gus-collazo.aspx

Happy testing everyone! :)

SQL Server Data Services is Microsoft's exciting addition to their Software Plus Services strategy! It's an on-demand data storage and retrieval service that will offer customers data access from anywhere on the Web. A few good points about this new service (as of the time of this writing):

• Microsoft has placed no limits on the amount of data that can be stored!
• It will support the XML standards-based Representation State Transfer (REST) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interfaces
• Microsoft will provide VB.Net and C# client libraries to access the service.
• Microsoft will support Language-Integrated Query (LINQ)-based data access to the service.
• Microsoft will store the data on their own servers and will provide geo-redundant data for disaster recovery. You'll always have access to your data!
• All data transfer between the client and the service will be secured via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

The above is just a quick summary I gleaned from http://www.sqlmag.com/ (98881), but you can learn more by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx as well. The service is in beta now, but you can signup now for it and start exploring the service!

Stay tuned for more updates as I dive into this latest offering from Microsoft.

Hey everyone, Happy 4th fo July! I ran across this nice article by Microsoft with detailed solutions to some of the more common T-SQL problems you may encounter. Check it out!

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SQLExamples