Free Virtual Expo: SharePoint – 4 Great Sessions
Register here today – The May SharePoint Expo from SSWUG.ORG is a free event, open to all. The expo will include sessions on SharePoint from top-name presenters. We’ve pulled together the best of the community-rated sessions and are presenting them here in the expo, just register, attend and learn. Check out the sessions here.
May 28, 2010 starting at 9a Pacific.
See the sessions, or register by clicking here.
Featured Article(s)
Troubleshooting SQL Server 2008 DBCC commands
In this article, Alexander Chigrik describes some problems you can have with SQL Server 2008 DBCC commands and shows how you can resolve these problems.
Accidental DBA Workshop – Register Now!
This workshop, by Microsoft SQL Server MVP Stephen Wynkoop will explore what you need to know about running your SQL Server systems. Built specifically for you if you’re looking to get your arms around your servers and managing them going forward, it’s all here.
[Find out More Here]
[Get The Workshop Outline]
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Is Microsoft Leaving the Small Business Behind?
I attended a SQL Server 2008 R2 demonstration last week. There were lots of cool new additions for those doing BI and Server Management. The PowerPivot extension to Excel took the lion’s share of the demonstration. It allows end users to select from pre-defined data sources and generate their own reports. Those reports are readily shared with other users through SharePoint.
Microsoft has added a lot of new Server Management tools as well. They added tools for monitoring server and database instances, gathering performance metrics every 15 minutes (not configurable). You can monitor up to 25 servers on the Enterprise version, and up to the max possible (not clearly defined) using the data center version.
There were some nice development integration points for communication and deployment between developers and DBA staff. The problem was that changes only implemented schema and object modifications; all data was ignored. So, if the developer modified the structure of a table, or altered a stored procedure, you could not deploy those changes on a live database from the objects returned to the DBA. This is a feature that is not quite there yet.
One observation that kept coming to the front of my mind was that for the Standard user the cost has gone up quite a bit and the features have been reduced. Granted, Microsoft still has a better price point than competing database engines. But will they lose that niche of a powerful engine between MySQL and SQL Server Enterprise?
What do you think? How do you feel about the cost changes and feature sets? Send me an email at btaylor@sswug.org and let me know.