Great Webcasts on DMVs and SharePoint
Don’t miss Quest’s instructive webcasts on SQL Server and SharePoint management, hosted by expert Brent Ozar. In “DMVs – What are They and Why Should I Care,” you will find out how to interpret the various performance metrics shown through the Dynamic Management View (DMV) and resolve issues faster. And in “The Converging Paths of SQL Server and SharePoint – Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late,” you will understand how knowing the features that SharePoint and SQL Server share — for configuration, security and management — can save you time.
Initial LINQ Feedback
The emails so far have been largely "we’re playing with it" without moving forward with production systems quite yet. Most have mentioned that the LINQ and Entity Framework pieces seem nice, but developers that wrote are hoping for more features and more optimization of the tools. Most all of the messages were in test/development environments looking to better understand the "why" of the tools and then the "how" to deploy/implement. Clearly still in the undecided column.
Abstract Thoughts About Learning/Keeping Up with SQL Server
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how people best keep up with the changes in SQL Server. From BI tools to development technologies to Power Shell to … well, you get the idea. There are so many aspect so SQL Server. This isn’t really a "you can’t keep up overall any more, you have to specialize" conversation, but rather a question how best to keep up with the track you’ve selected as your focus even.
It seems in talking with people that more and more people are focused on the current release they are supporting and so many are really only looking up to see new features and functionality when they are forced to in the context of an upgrade project or new software installation that forces the issue. This can make it really difficult to keep up, but at the same time, I get it. Everyone is really busy, shrinking staff, etc.
I’m concerned however, that the tornado of movement on features, best practices and such is being missed by a huge number of people. There really are better features, more functionality, better tools – built in and in third party applications. But knowing about, and mastering those features, is really tough. A perfect example of this are the data capture reports in SQL Server. Full reporting on performance, troubleshooting and such – all at your fingertips. Knowing about it is one thing, but having the time to both master it and tweak it, create new reports, use it… that’s another.
What’s your philosophy on this? Do you wait for reasons to experiment? Do you set aside time to keep on the curve? Are things irrelevant until needed?
Featured White Paper(s)
Top Ten Steps to Secure Your SQL Server
In most organizations today, business critical and confidential data increasingly resides in Microsoft SQL Server databases. … (read more)
The Keys to Recoverability, from ESG
ESG Analyst, Lauren Whitehouse, discusses Double-Take Software’s concept of “recoverability” – which involves layers of prote… (read more)