Microsoft has made available SQL Server appliances and reference architectures that allow customers to deploy data warehouse (DW), business intelligence (BI) and database consolidation solutions in a very short time, with all the components pre-configured and pre-optimized. These appliances include all the … Continue reading →
As a consultant or contractor, you can sometimes be faced with the decision when taking a new contract of whether to go 1099 or W-2. Essentially, the question is in what manner will you be paid by your client. Having faced that decision a … Continue reading →
First off, they don’t work for Microsoft. A Microsoft Regional Director (RD) is an unbiased third-party evangelist of Microsoft products and services. Regional Directors are members of an elite, worldwide group of technology thought-leaders known for their national and international speaking … Continue reading →
I’m sure in your travels in the field of IT, you have seen or heard of companies being called a “Microsoft Partner”. If you were like me, you had no idea what that really meant. Was it something a company … Continue reading →
All the videos for the sessions at 24 Hours of PASS are available for free. Check the session schedule for a complete list. Some great stuff!
Continue reading →Frequently I see a bit of confusion from business users when using an analytic grid on a dashboard in PerformancePoint. The confusion comes when you right-click on the analytic grid and see a context-sensitive menu. When you right-click on any … Continue reading →
Imagine you join a company, and there is an existing SSAS database that contains a few cubes that are working nicely. You are asked to add an enhancement to one of the cubes, so you poke around in source control for the … Continue reading →
If you are a developer and are on your own, or working for a company that does not have an MSDN subscription and you are looking at using a bunch of Microsoft tools, you can wind up spending a ton of … Continue reading →
With CTP3 for SQL Server 2012 (code name of “Denali”) available, a lot of us want to play with all the new cool features, as well as the new tools, such as Crescent and Juneau. The steps below are what I took to … Continue reading →
As a SQL Server DBA, usually the largest databases in size and in number of users that I had to manage was an ERP database, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX. And because these types of database typically have a lot of users, database blocking … Continue reading →
I was having a problem getting the display folder to work for a calculation in SSAS. Turns out, it will only work if you select “Measures” as the Parent hierarchy: The display folder (“Acct Calc – Supply Chain”) shows up correctly … Continue reading →
Over the years, I have accumulated a set of questions that I usually ask the placement firm about a contract or consulting position (W2 or 1099) that I am looking at taking. Many of these questions will also apply if … Continue reading →
Because the relationship between application development and the IT operations teams is critical, Microsoft has released a CTP of a new connector between System Center and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 that helps the coordination between development and operations. The connector … Continue reading →
This is a quick tip to help quickly solve a problem I run into sometimes, and now that I am writing a blog about it, will be able to solve it in no time (a big benefit of blogging is to never … Continue reading →