What is SQL PASS?
A few weeks ago I asked a colleague, who is a DBA, if he was going to the SQL PASS Summit. He had no idea what PASS was. It then occurred to me that there are probably thousands of DBAs, BI … Continue reading →
James Serra
James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last ten years. Before that he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. Check out his book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh.
Salaried employee vs contractor
Are you a salaried employee looking to switch to a W-2 or 1099 contractor? (For an explanation of W-2 and 1099, click Consultants: 1099 or W-2?) If so, what hourly pay rate would you need to at least match your … Continue reading →
Miss SQLBits 9? No problem, all videos are online
All the videos for this popular conference are online or will be soon (48 of them). Take a look at the recorded sessions at http://sqlbits.com/content/Event9. All are free to watch! The one’s on my list to watch (because I’m interested in SQL Server … Continue reading →
SQL Server Analysis Services Performance Guide published
Another must read white-paper: Analysis Services 2008 R2 Performance Guide. This white paper describes how business intelligence developers can apply query and processing performance-tuning techniques to their Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services OLAP solutions. It applies to SQL Server … Continue reading →
Miss TechEd Australia 2011? No problem, all videos are online
As you may know, the TechEd in the U.S. is not the only one. There have been many all over the world, and it 2011 there have been one’s in New Zealand, Australia, and next month in Russia. The Australia and New … Continue reading →
What is Microsoft TAP and RDP?
Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) are ways for Microsoft to get early feedback on new products or product updates as well as give important customers a heads-up on what Microsoft is up to. Participation is by … Continue reading →
SSIS – Can’t Enable/Disable within Data Flow Tab
This is my biggest gripe with SSIS: I have a data flow task, and within that I’m pulling data from multiple sources into multiple destinations, with a few performing data flow transformations. While testing, I want to disable some of … Continue reading →
Microsoft and HP’s Database Consolidation Appliance
Microsoft and HP have announced another appliance, called the Database Consolidation Appliance (DBC) (see my blog about the other two appliances). In short, this appliance consolidates databases into a single, virtual environment. In more detail: Many customers continue to struggle with … Continue reading →
Performance tips for SSAS
Over the past few years I have developed a list of ways to improve performance in SSAS and in two of the tools that use it: ProClarity and PerformancePoint. Below are those performance tips along with other important items to be … Continue reading →
Formula engine and storage engine in SSAS
In SSAS, to improve query performance, it’s important to understand what happens inside analysis services when a query is run. Analysis Services is made up of two engines: Formula Engine (FE) – It is single-threaded. It processes the MDX queries, determines what data is needed … Continue reading →
SQL Server 2012 and other PASS announcements
Some announcements and notes from SQL PASS Summit 2011, going on this week: It was announced that the official name of the SQL Server “Denali” product is SQL Server 2012 and will be released in the first half of the year 2012. There … Continue reading →
Error configuration in SSAS
In SSAS, there is an Error Configuration object that is central to the management of data integrity errors. The following picture shows the ErrorConfiguration properties for a cube: There are numerous objects where you can specify the error configuration via … Continue reading →
Sometimes temp tables can be your best friend
Here is a quick example of when using temporary tables will give you a big performance gain. I recently was given this query to improve, as it was taking over 15 hours to run: SELECT * FROM ( SELECT * … Continue reading →
Denormalizing dimension tables
When building a SSAS cube, you typically have a star schema containing dimension tables and fact tables. For dimension tables, you generally model these as one table per object. Building the dimension in the ETL system involves joining the various … Continue reading →
Microsoft’s Data Warehouse offerings
If you are the decision maker in your company and you are tasked with purchasing one or more servers to be used solely for SQL Server and solely as a data warehouse, be aware there are options outside of the usual … Continue reading →
Want to browse the web faster?
In our day-to-day activities, browsing the web is one of the most important aspects of our job. Whether researching for an answer to a problem, reading our favorite blogs, checking LinkedIn, or using a web application, it’s used so much … Continue reading →
Microsoft SQL Server Reference Architecture and Appliances
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 →
Consultants: 1099 or W-2?
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 →
What is a Microsoft Regional Director?
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 →
Microsoft Partner Network explained
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 →