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Vendor Management Systems
A vendor management system (VMS) is a web-based application that acts as a mechanism for businesses to manage and procure staffing services (temporary and permanent) as well as outside contract or...
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SQLBits XI videos online
All the videos for this popular conference are online (69 of them). Take a look at the recorded sessions at http://sqlbits.com/content/Event11. All are free to watch!
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Presentation Slides for Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture” at the Houston Area SQL Server User Group Monthly Meeting. The abstract is below. I hope you enjoyed it!...
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Microsoft Certified Master program killed
The Certified Master and Architect community was collectively notified Friday, August 30, at 10PM PST that the Certified Master (MCM/MCSM) and Certified Architect (MCA) programs are dead. The email...
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SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) – August 2013 update
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) has a new update: VS 2010: August 2013 version: 10.3.30822.0, June 2013 version: 10.3.30618.1, December 2012 version: 10.3.21208.0, November 2012 version: 10.3.21101.1,...
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Power BI for Office 365 preview released
I first blogged about Power BI for Office 365 two months ago (see Power BI for Office 365) when it was announced. Microsoft has started inviting participants subscribed to the Power BI for Office 365...
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Data Warehouse vs Master Data Managment
Sometimes I see confusion on the difference between a data warehouse (DW) and master data management (MDM). Below is a good list of how they differ. Note the typical scenario is the data in a MDM...
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SQL Server 2014: Partition Improvements
SQL Server 2014 has enhancements to two common database maintenance operations:Partition Switching and Online Index Rebuild. This will greatly increase enterprise application availability by reducing...
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I’m a Microsoft SQL Server Most Valuable Professional (MVP)!
I have been honored to be chosen a Microsoft SQL Server Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Here is a video on my reaction: I’m a Microsoft MVP and I feel great! The Microsoft MVP Award is an annual...
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Does Business Intelligence equal Data Warehousing?
I have seen many times at clients where the terms business intelligence and data warehousing are used interchangeably. In reality, these are two separate disciplines. This is especially true for...
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Data Warehouse Maturity Model
I have talked about the Business Intelligence Maturity Model (see Business Intelligence Maturity Assessment), but I wanted to dig further into one area and talk about the Data Warehouse Maturity Model....
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PASS Summit 2013
The PASS Summit 2013 is almost here! Check out all the great sessions and speakers. I feel very fortunate to be able to speak alongside many of the experts in the industry. I will be arriving Sunday...
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Presentation Slides for Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture” at the PASS Summit 2013. The abstract is below. It was a packed room with many people having to stand....
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Presentation Slides for Transitioning to a BI role
Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Transitioning to a BI role” at the PASS SQL Saturday Charlotte. The abstract is below. Another packed room with a number of people standing! Here is the...
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Recording Audio of Meetings
As a consultant I am often starting from the ground floor on a new data warehouse/business intelligence project, and usually one of the first tasks is to interview business users from various groups....
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Microsoft releases SQL Server 2014 CTP2
Microsoft has released SQL Server 2014 CTP2 (download): What’s new in SQL Server 2014 CTP2? New Mission Critical Capabilities and Enhancements Enhanced In-Memory OLTP, including new tools which will...
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PASS Summit 2013
Not much news came out of the PASS Summit 2013 from last week, but boy did I have a blast! I met over 100 people who were presenters or bloggers (I counted). I made an effort to find them as I...
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SQL Server Data Tools for SQL Server 2014 CTP2 now available
From Microsoft, SSDT is now available for SQL Server 2014: We’d like to announce the availability of SSDT that supports SQL Server 2014 databases. SQL Server Data Tools for SQL Server 2014 CTP2 is...
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Windows Azure SQL Reporting discontinued
Windows Azure SQL Reporting was the new name of the reporting services component (which was formerly known as SQL Azure Reporting Services) that went live June 12, 2012. However today, October 31,...
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Fast-Track Data Warehouse for Windows Azure
Microsoft has introduced an image into the Windows Azure Virtual Machine Gallery that is pre-optimized for a Fast Track Data Warehouse (FTDW) workload. FTDW is a reference configuration optimized for...
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