SQL Server 2008 Beta Exams Extended, Open Invitation

Check out the details here – http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2008/07/01/sql-server-beta-exams-extended-open-invitation.aspx

Only good through the end of July, so try and register before it is completely booked.

SQL Server 2008 DBA 71-432 and SQL Server 2008 BI 71-448.

MN PASS SQL Server User Group – ‘Ask the Experts’ panel discussion

Tomorrow, July 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. I will be participating in a local SQL Server User Group ‘Ask the Experts’ panel discussion.  I look forward to discussion SQL Server and MS BI with everyone and hearing everyone’s questions.  It should be a very enjoyable time and I hope we get a great turnout.  Please bring your questions and I will be sure to stay around afterwards if anyone wants to talk more or if you need further explanation or information

I would love to talk about the new release of SQL Server 2008 coming out…will it be later this month, in August, or September.  It sounds like it is extremely close and I have been reading blogs that the pricing has already been released (apparently it hasn’t gone up). 

You can register for the MN SQL Server User Group event here or visit www.mnssug.org.

Magenic National Webinar Recording – ‘Make Better Decisions with your Data’

Aaron and I did our webinar last month and it went fairly well.  I don’t quite have the speaker phone deal worked out yet and talking to a monitor can be a little tough, but we did it.  I would have much rather been able to see everyone face-to-face, but it was a chance to evangelize and spread the good word of the MS BI Platform and talk about the BI Maturity Model.

You can check out the recording of this webinar here and if you want to download the presentation you can pull it down from my SkyDrive account here.

Microsoft purchasing Zoomix

I read Jamie Thomson’s blog here this afternoon and read the article on Zoomix’s site and Microsoft is adding more to its MDM arsenal.  Zoomix will add more MDM capabilities and add some great data quality portions.  Is this more of a move for the MDM portion or SQL Server Platform or both?  I hope that this gets incorporated into the BI Platform and adds some more to the already existing fuzzy logic and data profiling portions in SSIS.  Data quality is extremely important and there never seems to be enough time allocated to it, so having tools to help streamline the process is very helpful.

Magenic Technology Council (MTC) Summit 2008 Follow-up

Last month Magenic held its first ever MTC Summit in Chicago. I helped check people in and I was able to watch some of the great presentations by Jay Schmelzer, Rocky Lohtka, Whitney Weaver, Jason Bock, Kirstin Juhl, Michael Cummings, and Anthony Handley.  I wasn’t able to check them all out, but there was some excellent content provided and I want to thank everyone who attended and helped to make this a great event.

If you were not able to attend I have placed the presentations in my SkyDrive account here.  I would definitely recommend checking out Whitney’s presentation and T-SQL examples for accessing information with the SQL Server 2005 DMVs.  Whitney is one of our SQL Server gurus in Atlanta. 

The one thing that I really enjoyed was being able to meet and get together with the MTC members and talk about technology.  It was really great to finally meet some of the other Magenicons face-to-face.