Day 5: Thursday Summit Keynotes 2011, PRIVATE OLTP Cloud Appliance Announced!

Hello Again Dear Reader.   I'm at the Blogger's Table today!  The Keynote has started and I'll jump right in.

Update 9:55

We are discussing the Hybrid IT view that Microsoft is pushing.  The integration between all of their products and the Cloud is very apparent.  The code bases are merging, and this will only continue as we progress.

They want to streamline the UI tools, make it so all the products "Just Work" together.  This has been a very interesting Keynote.  Not as big as the announcements yesterday, but some subtle announcements that I think will have HUGE impact over the next couple years.

Quentin Thanks us and leaves the stage as we watch a video playing on the Appliances.  Now on to the Sessions!


Update 9:45

Nice demo the Azure Platform is being used to provide content for Samsung TV in order to have live web applications pushed down to your webenabled  TV's

Cihan Biyikoglu is taking the stage to talk about Federations for SQL Azure.  This allows the Sharding Patterns to be brought to SQL Azure.  This will allow us to access 100's of Nodes and scale out for large scale applications.

Example Blogs 'R' Us, and the unpridictable traffic and continously changing hardware requirements.  We can re-partition this on the fly. 

Hope you like the Windows phone 7.  Azure Market Place, Windows 8, all have a consolidted UI.  You can add capacity and re-align your Cloud Based Database Instances on the fly to support user patterns.  This is some very interesting stuff.

150 GB Azure Databases and Federation before the end of the year! 






Update 9:35

We have a lot of e-books on a drive, we have a full-text index set up on them using sematic search.  We are now getting a closer look at how quickly we can retrieve articles, and weight for returned terms.  This changes the way we will make internal searches for our Intranet Applications.  This is a very powerful tool for anyone looking to utilize that kind of functionallity to their companies internal network.

Next up Juneau & Optimized Productivity.  The goal is to unify deployment across Database & BI.  They just announced that there is a plug in to deploy the SQL Engine of Express Edition with .NET application code, within the same application deployment.

Now we are onto being able to Scale on Demand.  We are now going to get a Demo from Nicholas Dritsas Principal Program Manager for the SQL Server CAT Team on SQL Server Azure.   We are using SSMS 2012 to connect and deploy to SQL Azure.


There are differences in Azure between billing, size, and usage for Business and Web Editions.  For the Demo we are using Web Edition.  To Access this we can use the Web interface for Azure Manager, which Nicholas is demoing now.

We just got a Cloud Database opened in SSMS, the icon is slightly different very cool!  Backup and restore from the Cloud to your Datacenter!?  Yep, just announced.




Update 9:25

This is a game changer, Pragmatic Works, Verizon, and Accenture are all early adoptors.  Deep dive on this appliance right after the Keynote.  I just changed the session I'll be attending.

PDW's performance is imporving why?  Because it uses a Rules based Optimizer, where as the rest of SQL Uses a cost based optimizer.  Dr. David Dewitt has been helping them impliment a Cost Based Optimizer.  Big changes are a-comming.

They just announced Linnux driver support for SQL Server 2012.  Change Data Capture for ETL from Oracle to SQL Server 2012 and support for that is now announced!

We are now getting a Demo for semantic search.







Update 9:12

To discuss SQL Server Appliances Britt from the product team is coming up on stage.   To figure out the best black box to create.  We are now taking a look at the Dell Parrallel Data Warehouse.  We are discussing the way queries are Hashed and sent to Compute Nodes, accross multiple nodes and over 450 Cores.

We are also looking at the HP PDW machine.  With multiple racks this system can handle over 700 TB's of data.  We are looking at the HP Business Decision Appliance that comes pre-built with Sharepoint.  I've seen this first hand it takes 4 clicks to have up and running.  It is amazing.

We were just introduced to the HP Consolidating Appliance, it will be available in the next month.  This is the first Private Cloude appliance available on the market.  400 Disk Drives, 4 TB of RAM, over 300 cores.  This is a beast!







Update 9:07

We have cleansed our data and pushed the clean data back into the Date warehouse.  Now we reload the report and it only takes 1 second.  It was amazing the difference.

Now we are discussing Data Alerts in Reporting Services.  We pick our big customers, we pick customers that are over 1.5 million dollars in gross sales, every 1 day so we can send out Thank You's.

Now we are discussing Organizational Compliance.   The two bullets are Expanded Audit aka User defined Audits, Filtering and User-defined Server Roles.  This allows you to seperate DBA rights, from Auditing components.  

Now we are talking about Peace of Mind, Production-simulated Application Testing, using System Center for monitoring.


Update 8:57

We are about to get a demo for Data Quality Services.  It looks like we may get a ColumnStore Demo after all.

We get a view of a web application, the users are complaining about the performance.  It took about 30 Seconds to load.

Now we are creating a ColumnStore Index to fix performance.  But there is a still data issue.  For that we will be using Data Quality Services.  DQS uses Knowledge Bases in order to cleanse your data, you can create your own, or you can go to the Azure Marketplace and get a Knowledge Base to cleanse your record.  A quick example you may want to use is Address CASSing.




Update 8:52

Next up is Blazing-Fast Performance.   We have enhancements in RDBMs, SSAS, SSIS, and ColumnStore Indexes.  Quentin is now talking about the use of Vertipaq Compression, and how it is the backbone of ColumnStore Indexes.  You see that in place PowerPivot, and it will now be in SSAS and in the SQL Engine for use.

ColumnStore's will be treated as an additional Index type.  ColumnStore will always be a Non-Clustered Index.

Now we have moved on to Rapid Data Exploration, PowerView + PowerPivot, Administration through Sharepoint, and Reporting Alerts in Cresent/PowerView.   Self-Service BI and empowering the users are theme of this.

Now we are onto the BI Semantic Model, this is the model that actually runs for PowerView/Cresent and that PowerPivot utilizes.   We are now discussing Data Quality Services, next up Master Data Services.


Update 8:47

The Availability Group is completed, and the Dashboard is pulled up so you can see they way it is managed.  It integrates Policy Based Mangement to determine and display the health of the AlwaysOn Availability Groups.

Paul is now ebabling the 3 Active Secondaries, and enabling Read Only Secondaries, and showing how in an SSRS report he can set Application intent so the report would automatically go to the read only secondaries effectively offloading the read activtey for reporting with a couple click's.



Update 8:42

Bob is discussing their mission critical application that covers all the in's and out's (litterally) of their orginization.  And how essential it is to their company, and to governments.  Because they communicate with the Port Authority for each country, other wise an outage can backup ports all over the world.

Paul from the Product Management Team for SQL Server is invited to the Stage to tell us about the technical solution that Mediterranean has in Production. 

Paul is showing us a datacenter in NJ, and a particular SQL 2012 Instance running multiple database.  He's setting up an Avaiability Group between New Jersey and New York.    New Jersey is the Primary and New York the secondary, (not in real life). 
Update 8:37

Quentin said this is the largest release ever for SQL Server.   He cannot talk about all of the different features so he is picking his favorites. 

• Required 9s & Protection (Always On)
• Blazing-Fast Performance (Column Store)
• Rapid Data Exploration (Data Explorer)
• Managed Self-Service BI

He is discussing the architecture of AlwaysOn with Availability Groups.  Bob Erickson Executive VP from Mediterranean Shipping Company in over 142 Countries, over 184 Vessles in their fleet.  They are the #1 for Import and Export in the US and #2 in the World.





Update 8:32

Quentin Clark Corporate Vice President of SQL Server for the Microsoft takes the Stage.   He recaping the way that SQL 2012 fits into the overall dataplatform Vision that Microsoft has, that was discussed by Ted yesterday.

The Vision

• Any Data, Any Size, Anywhere
• Connecting with the World's Data
• Immersive Experiences Whereever You Are

Foundation for the Future

• Mission critical Confidence
• Breakthrough Insight
• Cloud on Your Terms

Update 8:27

Bill is reviewing the budget numbers for PASS.   They have started a feedbacksite for PASS and are taking suggestions.  The PASS Elections are comming up. 

Bill introduces Quentin Clark our Microsoft Keynote Speaker.   A video is showing of attendees talking about what we've learned and what we are hoping to bring back from the Summit.




Update 8:22

Lori Edwards was just announced as our PASSion Award Winner for 2011.   Great job Lori!!!

Update 8:17

Bill Graziano takes the stage today is SQL Kilt day.  Bill says Hi to his Mom and Dad that are watching, he had the SQL Kilt wearers.

We are recognizing Outstanding Volunteers.

Tim Radney

Jack Corbett

Both are amazing men and I'll need to come back and write more later about this.

Day 4 Summit Keynotes Live, DENALI HAS A NAME! SQL Server 2012!

Hello Dear Reader, this is my first live blogging.  I'm going to do this a little different, I'll be writting in reverse.  I owe you a blog on Day 3 and another lesson in Compression for SQL U, and they will be coming but for now the Keynote is about to begin for the opening day .  This will stay at the top, but I'll be bloggin in reverse order, so start from the bottom and scroll up to see the updates as they are posted.

Update 10:03

Ted is wrapping this out, he talks about how the community is essential to move this forward.  About how we could take the worlds data and use it immedieately.

1st half of the next Calendar we will have SQL Server 2012.  He plugs the next two days of Keynote sessions. 

Thank You to everyone for comming that wraps it up


Update 9:58

The Windows 8 Tablet is being demoed showing PowerView/Cresent!  It is completely Dynamic and internactive.

Ted thanks Amir for taking the stage.

Update 9:53

Amir starts talking about how if you use your data properly you can use it to tell a story.  That story is what is going on in your business, and that every business would want to know their own story by the data.

Yesterday they confirmed that they would be able to do Export to PowerPoint from Cresent/PowerView!

Now Amair is showing that Cresent/PowerView is going to work on a Windows 7 Phone, and it is fully functional! 

Wow so if your company goes with a Windows 7 phone you can use your self service BI on the Windows phone.  Now he is Demoing a PowerPoint on the IPAD 2.  He is now demoing PowerView on the Android Samsung Tablet.



Update 9:48

We continue on the Demo, there are a lot genera's to hop from, and it is very interestign to see how internactive this data is.

Amir said Samuel Jackson is no Tom Hanks, but Samuel L Jackson has the most gross ever, Ted cringes.  He doesn't know who Alan Richman is and why he is in so many high grossing power house movies.  He uses the data to show Alan is in all the Harry Potter and the first Die Hard movie.

Samuel L Jackson has twice as many movies as most actors.  The only Actor with more movies than Samuel L Jackson John Wayne.  Ha!  Nice funny demo with good interplay.



Update 9:43

Our Demo is going to come from Real Data with Cresent/Powerview from BoxOfficieMojo.com, one of my favorite movie sites, and they are owned by IMDB.com.

He is showing the Cresent out lyers for what the number of movies and their sales in a scatter chart.   The top 2 outlyer's Computer Animation kids, and Comedy.  He uses the highlighting function in PowerView, and in comedy Meet the Focker's is the #1 comedy of all time according to the data by sales & profit.  He does a breakdown of the evolution of comedies by year and timeline.   He does a slicer that on different sales go tive us a card deck view by different profit margines.  

He shows how profit margine increases as Hollywood adopted BI, and could look at data like this, drawing quite a few laughs.

He shows how when Toy Story launched from 1995 on computer animation ruled the roost.  The most impressive thing is he did all that without touching the keyboard.  PowerView is very dynamic on what the user can do with the data.



Update 9:38

Because Data Explorer is a service and the data follows us in the Cloud, this data is mobile and available very quickly. 


tim and Nino leave the Stage and Ted returns.  Just an FYI this is code named "Data Explorer" in Azure Labs. 

Ted is talking about how this ties into Microsoft's Vision for Empouring all users through the tools they use every day.   We are discussing Self Service BI, how delivering this to the end user empowers them, and gives IT a greater roll in Governance.

He is building towards an anouncment, refrencing Cresent/Power View, PowerPivot, and mobile devices.  Ted is talking about how he used his mobile Windows Phone to look over his slide deck for today last night while he was out getting a coffee. 

He welcomes Amir Netz Technical Fellow to discuss Unlock New Insights, Anywhere.  Ted is discussing what it means to be a Technical Fellow.  Amir has a distingusihed career in BI.  "He was in BI  at Microsfot before we had a BI Stack."   With that Ted leaves the stage and turn's it over to Amir.



Update 9:31

They are now discussing what the datasets are that were brought in.  There are Bing Services will add refrence data for phone books, they are overlaying the number of High Schools within a 1 mile radious because teenagers like frozen yogurt.

I get the demographic information, however people are laughing because a demo where you track High Schooler's and where they are is a little creepy.   I get it professionally, but they should have done a different age segment.

The point is they are showing how actual Service Calls to Microsoft Applications will be able to be used to provide demographic information to provide analysis on the Azure Market Place.

Now they are using PowerPivot to pull down the information and using Sharepoint to make this available to many different users.  They were able to pull disparet datasources to determine the Shopping Centers that teenagers are most likely to shop at, and that is where the targeted location of the store should be.




Update 9:23

The demo is Hontoso Frozen Yogart to figure out the best location for their next store.   They got a SQL Azure Databae and got a normalized score about how their Stores are performing by profit.

They are extracting the data and they will use the Data Explorer to interface with that data, and then return highly relavent recommendations of what they should do next.  

He added an Excel spreadsheet of a list of Shopping Centers for the area.   He hit a button called Mashup, that will overlay the data on top of one another and start making comparisions.  There is a rank field called relative performance value.

Tim explains to us that Overlays are to the business world what Joins are for us DBA folk.  The Azure Marketplace has recommended some data that would show demographic information that would help with the decision.  Another Overlay/Join is done, and we now are starting to get recommendations.

We made a 3 way join against Excel, Azure, and the Marketplace in very little time.

Update 9:18

Ted is talking about how we integrate media from disparet sources.  Data Quality Services, Family Data, reference Data, Weather & Climate, Health and wellness, and much more all available via the Azure Marketplace.

Microsoft's Vision, being able to Enrich your data with the world's data using "Decision Engines", Empower developers to build new services and applications, offer a Vibrant marketplace ecosystem for the World's Data.

Our next demo is SQL Data Explorer.  He welcomes Tim Mllalieu and Nino Bice to the stage.   We are looking at SQL Azure Labs, it looks a lot like Windows 8 or the current Windows Phone.





Update 9:13

Scenerio

He is a web admin who wants to monitor his trafic.  The solution, Hadoop on Windows Cluster.  He starts showing us HiveQL a query that is similar to Java that will run against Hadoop on Windows Server.  

The Hadoop console is basically the command line.   He's telling us about the millions of rows that his multi-node cluster is processing along.   He wants to figure out a better way to see this data.  His connector of choice?  PowerPivot for Excel using the Hadoop conectors that are available now.

He pulls it all down, and shows us one of the workbooks that are coming with PowerPivot Denali.  He's joining this data against SQL Server, and Azure Market place data.

He's showing us the data about people hitting this website, by language.   He now switches over to Sharepoint to show us the server that he is running.   The report refresh took an hour, he is demoing how when you write a report and post it on Sharepoint, it will continue to refresh from disparet datasources and become something a business can rely on.


Ted Thanks Denny and Denny leaves the stage.




Update 9:08

Horton Works is taking the experts that help Google solve it's problems and brought them together.  He believes that Hadoop could be storing 1/2 the world's data in 3 years.   He is discussing working with other companies and that hortonworks will be working to expand this use.

This is an Open Source Community project.  Eric is very excited that they SQL Server community and all of our activitiy could be providing feed back to this project.


Eric Thanks us all and leaves the stage.

Now Denny Lee, a Principal Program Manager for the SQL Server team, is coming on stage next to discuss Activating New Types of Data. 

Denny takes the stage and ask's if we are ready for some Demo's!  YES! He says not yet.





Update 9:03

He is talking about participating in the Apache Program.  To make sure that SQL interfaces with it in the best way.

Announcements

• Apache Hadoop-based distribution for Windows Server and Windows Azure
• ODBC Driver and Add-in for Excel, both for Apache Hive
• JavaScript Framework for Hadoop
• SQL Server and SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse connectors for Apachee Hadoop

The other Announcement, they have formed a partnership with Horton Works.  He just welcomed Erick Baldeschwieler the CEO of Horton Works to the stage to talk about the partnership.

Where would you see or know Hadoop, that is the back end for Google!  This is big!


Update 8:58

He is pointing out

• 40% Data growth rate
• 15 out of 17 business sectors have more data sotred per company than the US Library of Congress

The vision going forward is in 3 points.


Manage and Process all types of data, mission criticle scale from on premises to cloud, Common management and development between SQL Server and SQL Azure.

We are discussing Big Data now.  Here is how he is defining it.

• Large Data Volumes
• Traditional and non-traditional data sources
• New technologies and New Economics
• New Insights

He points out that Microsoft because of Search, Email, and all thier other offerings they have over 700 PB's of DATA! 



Update 8:53

"We believe the Cloud is a hybrid work place.  You will want to keep things in your data center on the ground, and there are things you will want in the Cloud."   He just announced very slyly that they are MERGING the code base for the Cloud and Denali.  A move forward in that is SSRS in the Cloud, and features that they are delivering in Denali.
They are delivering in 3 area's

• Mission Criticle Confidence
• Breathrough insight
• Cloud on your terms

Those 3 area's in Denali AlwaysOn for High Availability, Column Store Indexes for Denali first introduced in PowerPivot, Cresent which will be Power View in Denali.  Thoughts of the Cloud in what they do Juneau will be SQL Database Tools when Denali is released.

He points to some of the customers that have database's in production in Denali: Dell Pilot, Great Western Bank, and others.

DENALI HAS A NAME! SQL Server 2012

Update 8:48

Ted is talking about what we will cover today, Denali and demos.

He is Thanking PASS for all we do to spread the word about SQL Server.  He points out that we offer over 400,000 Technical Hours, 79,000 Members, 300 Microsoft MVP's, and 233 SQL PASS Chapters.  This is the largest PASS Summit Ever!

"It's been a busy year since we last got together."  Yes it has.  Choice is a big theme, he is pointing out the advances made in releases for Hardware Devices like Parallel Data Warehouse, the releases in SQL Server 2008 SP 3, 2008 R2 SP 1, the Cloud, Azure Marketplace, Management Portal for SQL Azure.




Update 8:43

He is thanking Microsoft Dell, CA, EMC, Expressor, Fusion-IO, and HP for being sponsors for the Summit.  AND A BIG THANK YOU INDEED!  We have the largest collection of vendors ever at a PASS Summit.

We are talking about the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2 Book that has been on sale exclusively at the Summit.  Next week it opens up every where over 53 MVP's contributed to this.  One of the great things about this book is that the MVP's do not recieve a dime for this book.  Every penny spent goes to Operation Smile to provide dental work for children in 3rd world countries.  Great Cause.

Rushabh's rapping up now, and introducing Sr. Vice President of Business Development Platform Division Ted Kummert, he owns all the applications from the Database, Application, and the way they integrate.  From the Cloud to the Ground.

Ted said that SQL Server is the most widely adopted Database platform in the world, from Ground to Cloud.  Quick dig at Oracle who just hit the cloud, and Microsoft has been ther 18 months already.  Nice.

Update 8:38

A picture of our bloggers that are at the blogger table today is posted.  a lot of amazing people, Denny Cherry, Brent Ozar, Andy Warren, Jorge Segarra, just an amazin number of people.

I'll try to get the full list out later with links to thier blogs and twitter handles.

We are talking about Twitter and the way that we use that so heavily, some of the # Hashtags, or search terms that we have created.  

Right now he is posting information about the SQL CAT Team the clinic hours that they have open, and the different sessions that they have.  At PASS this year we have.

• 93 MVP's
• 11 MCM's
• 57 Microsoft Employees
• 11 SQL CAT Presentations

The importiance of Community and building connections has been a common theme throughout the Summit.  The First Timers Program and the session with Don Gabor (Awesome and I haven't done the recap yet), had over 800 people attend it yesterday evening until 8 pm.





Update 8:28

This year PASS has given 430,000 hours of free traing, we have 80,000 members and 1 Global Region.  The goal is to get to 1 Million hours of technical training, 250,000 members and 5 Global Regions.


To help achieve this goal 3 international Board of Director seats were added to help influence this from Denmark, Germany, and I missed the third.    PASS was a partner in SQL BITS in the UK and they felt that was a very large success.

Update 8:23

Rushabh Mehta the PASS President just took the stage.  Apparently Twitter is tipping over!


Rushabh is thanking the Board of Directors, the Committie members, and making sure we know these are the people that we should approach with ideas.

PASS Summit Day 2: Monday Pre-Con

Our instructor is Maciej Pilecki (@DrHouseofSQL).  I’m familiar with Maciej because of MagicPASS, the SSUG I call home.  He did a presentation to us on the memory cache back in June.  It was amazing and I had promised to write a blog on that, and have not gotten that one published yet.  However this one will go first and what a day it has been.  Maciej is an MCM (Microsoft Certified Master), and a SQL Server MVP.  He has presented at conferences like the PASS Summit, Tech Ed North America, and many many more.

We spent the first half of the day discussing the SQL OS and the way that SQL Server uses CPU’s.   The second half of the day was all about Memory, and we’ve got some big changes coming in Denali.  So of particular interest is not just how we work now, but how we are going to be working in Memory in the future. 

WHAT IS THE SQL OS

SQL Server has it’s own Operating System.  WHAT!?!  Yep you heard me. 

“But Balls”, you say, “You install SQL Server on Windows right?”

Yes Dear Reader you do!  However Windows and the way that it handles processing is very different than how we would like processing to occur within SQL Server.   Windows uses Pre-emptive Scheduling.  Each Thread, work that is being done on your CPU/Processor, is given a quantum of time.  Windows as an Operating System must manage that time and make sure everybody get’s a turn. 

This is similar to having multiple sugar infused children, all of them run up to you wanting to tell you something.  You let one go, and depending on how much they are jumping over one another you may need to stop one before they are done, and have another one start to tell their story.  You’ll get back to the first one, but your job is to make sure everybody get’s a turn.  Windows will stop your Threads as they are working before they are finished, they will let them have another turn, but they need to make sure all the kids get a chance to talk.

SQL OS is a Cooperative Scheduling OS, it is a bunch of orderly Kiddo’s lining up to take turns telling you a story.  And if one needs to Wait and think they go to the back of the line and let the next one speak.  They Cooperate to make sure that things happen as orderly as possible, but most importantly if you are telling your story, your Thread is working, no one stops it until it is ready to stop.

“But Balls”, you say, “When did this change occur, this is huge?”

Yes Dear Reader it is huge!  But take heart we have all been using the SQL OS since version 7.0.  It has been maturing over the years and we see a lot of benefits of that today in 2008 R2 and we will see even more in Denali.   We spent the rest of the morning talking about how CPU’s work within the SQL OS, and I learned more that I have time to write.  This was an incredible day of training, and I can’t wait to apply some of what I learned.

LUNCH

Some times you just have to smile at how things work out.  At the lunch break I went down a little later than the rest of the group.   I was walking down  and I saw my friend Eric Wishdal (@EricWisdahl | Blog), and I asked if I could join him.  Eric is a veteran of many SQL Saturday’s and PASS events in Florida.  He is a great guy and has a very sharp wit.  So Thousands of miles from home I meet up with a friend who is just up the road.

As we waited through the line and got our food, great meal and props to the folks at PASS, we arrived at the end and I struck up a conversation with Brent Ozar (@BrentO | Blog) and along walks Jeremiah Peschka (@Peschkaj | Blog).

If you are reading my blog more than likely you’ve heard of these guys, they’re kinda a big deal around here.  We all sit down at a table as we are eating we are joined by Mike Hilwig (@mikehilwig | Blog).  I met Mike at SQL Saturday 79 in South Florida, and he is awesome.   It was really nice lunch with great company, as Stan Lee would say ‘Nuff Said!

MEMORY, RESOURCE GOVERNOR, AND EXTENDED EVENTS

We spent the second half of the day learning about how Memory and Buffers work and are managed within the SQL OS, how Resource Governor works internally, how you can bind SQL to multiple ports and affinity each port to a specific set of CPU’s, what Maciej called a poor man’s Resource Governor, looked at Extended Events, and some of the new features coming up in Denali.

This was an absolutely wonderful day, and I learned a lot about a portion of SQL that I had only just started to scratch the surface on.  

The rest of the evening was spent writing and in the room.  There is a lot to do this week, and I’m looking forward to some of the social activities tonight, but I wasn’t feeling up to going out.  I got a pizza and sat down to do a lot of writing.

And now on to day 3!

Thanks,

Brad