I spent last Thursday at Black Marble’s Architect Forum and my slot was on SQL, NoSQL, some SQL. It went down very well but I used OneNote on my tablet not PowerPoint and like all modern art my drawing needs a bit of explaining.. Databases were originally used to store transactions which are highly structured, … Read more
I am in the middle of SQL relay this week, but I just realised that you might like to have a copy of my Denali slide deck, which I have now posted to SkyDrive. You are welcome to have a look at it even if you couldn’t make one of the four venues I am… Read more
l forget sometimes that installing SQL Server isn’t that straightforward, in part because it is now so much more than the database engine, that was SQL Server 7 when I started. I also think its important that you understand the choices you are making when installing it although many of these can be undone by… Read more
Many of us would associate the the term critical with the Register, so when I was asked by Tim Phillips their broadcast and commercial editor to join a discussion titled “Going Critical” I was a little nervous. The title refers to some Register commissioned research by Andrew Buss at Freeform Dynamics on what Register subscribers… Read more
The voluntary sector is a actually quite similar to the rest of business it’s just that the profits are then used to drive the aims of the not for profit or charity rather than benefitting shareholders or partners. So the challenges of market share and operational efficiency are just as relevant to the voluntary sector… Read more
My diary is solid for the next few weeks as there seem to be a lot of events on. This is good for me as the best bit of my job is swapping ideas and stories with like minded individuals, not to mention the odd lively debate. I also get the impression that many of… Read more
I saw a discussion the other having a go about the fact that it is possible to create KPIs in a number of Microsoft tools and how confusing that can be and I thought it would be good to understand why there is a choice at all. Firstly the term KPI mans key performance indicator,… Read more
One of the capabilities of SQL Server is the ability to create and publish rich reports on your data. One of the capabilities of SharePoint Server is the ability to store, manage and provide a portal to documents. Those documents could be your reports. So you have one system letting you create reports and the… Read more
User groups should be run and managed by Microsoft users, so I am really pleased to see SharePoint experts Tony Pounder, Brett Lonsdale and Mark Macrae , taking a lot of time and effort to run the first SharePoint Saturday in the UK. I have seen how successful SQLBIts has become and how it compliments… Read more
This might be a strange topic given that the release of SharePoint 2010 is just around the corner, but I wanted to respond to a couple of questions and debates I have been involved with in my temporary role in the partner team. I would like to start by going back to the early days… Read more