Several years ago, I worked for a company where I felt my potential wasn’t being tapped into. I didn’t feel challenged and quite frankly, I felt underemployed. My husband had mentioned to me that he knew about a company, by the name of Pragmatic Works, that gave away a free week of I.T. training to people who were interested in getting into a new career of Business Intelligence. To be honest, I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but it had already sounded better than what I was currently doing. You had to meet certain criteria to even apply: military veterans, unemployed or underemployed.

After submitting the required information, I was accepted into the Foundation. Now, I figured it would be incredibly challenging considering that extent of my experience with computers consisted of checking email and using company software. It took me 1 hour to drive to this little office out in Green Cove Springs. When I showed up on the first day of training, there were about seven other people standing around this little conference room table. You could see that some of the students felt just as apprehensive as I did. We really had no clue what were getting ourselves into.

Our instructor, Devin Knight, whom I might add was best suited for all of us newbie’s, patiently waited for us to get settled in. Devin covered the agenda for the week, which was around T-SQL and Reporting Services. To be honest with you, I think that it could have been the first time most of us heard those words. As the morning progressed, I realized that this would be a challenging week. During a break in the class, I spoke to my husband about booking a hotel for the week so I didn’t spend 2 hours a day on the road traveling back and forth to the office. I wanted to use that time to focus on studying and really just throwing myself into this great opportunity.

Even though I was just scratching the surface in my knowledge for TSQL and Reporting Services, I felt pretty good about what I had learned and I definitely felt like it would be a career path that would consistently push me forward and not allow me to become complacent like other positions I’ve held. Shortly after the Foundation class ended for me, I interviewed for a junior position within Pragmatic Works and received the position. Now let me fast forward a bit.

In my position, I was growing rapidly. A lot of it had to do with an enormous amount of late night studying and really just committing myself. I focused on growing my TSQL and Reporting Services skills and by the time the company was ready to hold another Foundation class, I asked if I could teach it. I felt so blessed and honored to have received that opportunity and it made such a huge difference to me personally and professionally, that I wanted to be a testimonial for other people who were also feeling the way I felt when I first arrived to the Foundation.

On the very first day of the Foundation class that I taught, as I told my story, all the students were shocked that in less than a year, I had sat on the other side of that table as a student myself. After the class ended that week, I felt such a high. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to share my experience and what some of the possibilities are with commitment, drive, passion and enthusiasm.

We are now at our present date and time. The Foundation has been going strong for 3 years now. The demand how grown so much that we went from teaching the class, 2 times a year, to quarterly, to bi-monthly and now monthly. After the conclusion of the weeklong training, students have the option of doing an internship to receive additional training. We have had over 100 students participate in the Foundation and over half of those students have found full time work in either a DBA or BI role.

The Foundation still sticks by its core values:

As individuals and as a company, we have received many great, unexpected opportunities. It is our responsibility socially, to pay that forward to individuals who might not expect to receive those very same equal opportunities. For the men and women who have served our country, you will have first rights to our training opportunities, for we cannot say thank you enough for the daily sacrifice that you are making.

For more information about the Pragmatic Works Foundation, please visit http://pragmaticworks.org.

Sherri McDonald
Business Development Manager
Pragmatic Works

The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event kicks off on March 7, 2012 starting at 8:00AM Pacific (-8:00 GMT) with keynotes from Microsoft Executives including: Ted Kummert, Corporate Vice President, Business Platform Division and Quentin Clark, Corporate Vice President, Database Systems Group. Following the keynotes, you’ll have access to over 30+ sessions to learn about the new capabilities of SQL Server 2012 at your own pace, on your own schedule.

The following sessions below are recommended for all DBAs and IT Professionals that want to learn all about the exciting New World of Data with SQL Server 2012. During the first 24 hours of the virtual launch event, you’ll be able to live chat with members of the SQL Server team to help answer your questions.

Register today at www.sqlserverlaunch.com for the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event and start adding the recommended sessions below to your calendars.

Breakthrough Insights Sessions:

Rapid Data Exploration: Powerful Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot
Get a taste of what's new in PowerPivot, the self-service BI experience that enables information workers to build their personal and team BI applications within the familiar environment of Excel: This session will provide a quick introduction to PowerPivot, followed by demos highlighting the top 5 new modeling features delivered with the release of SQL Server 2012.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Julie Strauss, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft   

Credible, Consistent Data: Improving Data Quality with the New Data Quality Services
No matter how brilliant your BI tools are, it's garbage-in-garbage-out. This session will give an overview on the new Data Quality Services product in SQL Server 2012. Come watch this important scenario to learn how to position, sell, and demo the new DQS product.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Ashvini Sharma, Principal Program Manager Lead, Microsoft

Credible, Consistent Data: Improving Data Quality with the New Data Quality Services
No matter how brilliant your BI tools are, it's garbage-in-garbage-out. This session will give an overview on the new Data Quality Services product in SQL Server 2012. Come watch this important scenario to learn how to position, sell, and demo the new DQS product.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Gadi Peleg, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Why Should Oracle DBAs Consider Microsoft SQL Server
Today’s medium and large enterprises are complex entities, built on a wide range of technologies. The biggest challenge emerging for IT implementers is cross-platform database management. In a recent survey on DB trends, a third of the respondents said they expect more DB platforms to be introduced in their organizations next year. Learn why Oracle DBAs should consider becoming bilingual DBAs and how Microsoft can help them grow and advance their IT careers.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Bill Ramos, SQL Server Workstream Manager, Advaiya Inc

Mission Critical Confidence Sessions:

Required 9s and Data Protection: Introduction to SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn, New High Availability Solution
This session provides an overview of AlwaysOn and explains how you can build a high availability solution using the new features and capabilities. You will learn how to deploy an AlwaysOn solution, how to utilize your secondary hardware for better return of investment and how the new solution simplifies deployment, management of high availability in your environment. The session will also describe how to manage application connectivity of your primary OLTP applications and reporting applications in an AlwaysOn environment.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Santosh Balasubramanian, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Required 9s and Data Protection: Protect Data with Higher Chance of Recovery - Includes Recovery Advisor
In this session we will look at new backup and restore capabilities in SQL Server 2012 in order to enhance database protection for customers.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Kevin Farlee, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Blazing-Fast Performance: A Technical Best Practices Tour with ColumnStore Index
Go behind the scenes with SQL Server engineers for a quick technical tour of the ColumnStore Index feature and an introduction to best practices for achieving astonishing performance with your ColumnStore Indexes.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speakers:
Susan Price, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
Eric Hanson, Principal Program Manager Lead, Microsoft

Blazing-Fast Performance: Explore FileTables, Full-Text Search and Semantic Search for Faster, More Meaningful Results Across Unstructured Data
80% or more of the data produced and stored are so called unstructured documents and are often not stored in the database, but often need to be managed in conjunction with relational data. In order to facilitate the storage and management of unstructured data, SQL Server has evolved from storing blobs to providing a sophisticated integration with the Windows Filesystem and provides rich services over such data to provide an interesting and compelling application development experience. This presentation introduces the new unstructured data processing capabilities of SQL Server 2012 that provide full Windows application-compatible file management over files stored in SQL Server as well as the services to unlock the information in such data such as the extensions and improvements to Full-Text Search and the introduction of semantic similarity search.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speakers:
Il-Sung Lee, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
Jack Richins, Senior Developer Lead, Microsoft

Cloud on Your Terms Sessions:
Big Data Analytics with Apache Hadoop and SQL Server 2012
In this session we will explore Apache Hadoop on Windows Server and Azure and powerful insights we can generate integrating with SQL Server.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Saptak Sen, Senior Product Technical Manager, Microsoft

Optimized Productivity: T-SQL Enhancements
SQL Server 2012 comes with an impressive addition of T-SQL functionality. These enhancements cover a range of topics such as ease-of-use, performance and improved metadata discovery. In this session Tobias will give an overview of these features and dive a bit deeper into some of them using live-coding demos.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Tobias Ternstrom, Senior Program Manager Lead, Microsoft

Synchronizing Data “From On-Prem to Cloud” or “Cloud to Cloud” Using SQL Azure Data Sync
We’ll take a look at SQL Azure Data Sync and see how it can be used to provide an on-going data synchronization for various scenarios like hybrid applications (on-prem to cloud), scale out (cloud to cloud), geo distribution (cloud to cloud across data centers) and so on. We will also show you how SQL Azure Data Sync can be used with other Azure platform capabilities like Azure Reporting Services.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Mark Scurrell, Senior Program Manager Lead, Microsoft

Scale on Demand: Optimizing SQL Server 2012 for Private Cloud
In this session we will cover key private cloud enabling features in SQL Server 2012.
Duration: 20 Minutes
Speaker: Xin Jin, Program Manager, Microsoft

Register today at www.sqlserverlaunch.com to meet the new Microsoft cloud-information platform, SQL Server 2012!

Many developers have argued persuasively that each database developer in a team needs to work as sole user of a dedicated database-development environment whilst creating or updating databases. I'm not so sure. Are we in danger of trying to change database development practices to try to cure a problem that is far easier to solve by proper system design?

You are a SQL Server DBA, and I know what you are going through.

You are frustrated at having to correct other people's work. You are tired from being woken at odd hours, or needed to work on weekends.

And the better you get at your job, the more likely you cannot advance in your career because they need to keep you and your skills right there in that cube. You feel stuck.

We've all felt that way. And I'm here to tell you the three things you can do RIGHT NOW that will help you give your database career the jump start you've needed. Separately each one will help to provide you a boost in some way. When done in unison the benefits (both immediate and long-term) will result in an amazing transformation for your career.

So what are you waiting for? Get started by...

1. Downloading SQL2012

Have you ever been with a senior administrator and thought "wow, they sure know a lot of stuff"? Well I am here to tell you that they weren't born with all that knowledge. No, they acquired it over time. And often they learned it while it was still new. Guess what? You have that exact same chance right now! With SQL2012 comes new features such as AlwaysOn and Columnstore indexes. You can learn all about features such as these and in three years people will look to you as the expert. Trust me.

2. Joining PASS

The Professional Association for SQL Server is a group of individuals who are dedicated to the use and care of SQL Server as well as each other. PASS members are always looking to connect, learn, and share with one another information about current in-depth Microsoft SQL Server content. Through knowledge sharing and peer-based learning PASS members find themselves growing their careers by leaps and bounds as database professionals.

Joining PASS is free. and chances are you can find a local PASS chapter or SQL Server user group close to where you live or work right now. Before I joined PASS I used to think that the day-to-day struggles I faced were unique due to the fact that I was working alone. After joining PASS and connecting with other individuals I found out that I wasn't alone, and I found lots of great resources to help me be more effective in my role as a DBA.

3. Joining Twitter

If you have not yet joined Twitter, there is still time. if you don't believe in the value of joining Twitter then try an experiment. Register and set up a Twitter account and post a question during a weekday afternoon. You only get 140 characters, so you'll need to be brief, and (this is most important) use the following 'hashtag' at the end of your tweet: #sqlhelp. When you do you will find dozens of people available to help answer your question, in real-time. And often these folks are the top tier of SQL pros out there, such as Paul Randal (blog | @PaulRandal) or Jonathan Kehayias (blog | @SQLPoolboy).

Beyond the use of Twitter to answer questions you will find a community of folks that are just there for each other. Think of it as a virtual watercooler where you can go for a quick conversation on whatever topic of choice you want or need. For folks who work alone (from their homes) or for database professionals that work on small teams (or just by themselves in a cube somewhere) the ability to reach out and share your experiences with others makes your world a little less lonely.

What are you doing here, still reading this blog post? The sooner you get started the sooner you can reap the benefits.

Thomas LaRock
Vice President of Marketing
Professional Association for SQL Server
Blog: http://thomaslarock.com/
Twitter: @SQLRockstar

I've been working on a team with Roger Doherty building parts of what's now become the SQL Server 2012 Early Adoption Cook Book . So, if you work on the bleeding edge of SQL Server and are keen to get your head around what's coming, this is a seriously...(read more)

To ensure atomicity of transactions, we can use XACT_ABORT ON or wrap the transaction in TRY block and rollback in CATCH block. In some cases, the XACT_ABORT ON approach uses noticeably less CPU. I am posting repro scripts. Please run them, tweak them,...(read more)

Wrapping related changes in a transaction is a good way to ensure data integrity. Besides, in some cases it just runs noticeably faster, using less CPU. As usual, I am posting repro scripts, which you can run, tweak, and see for yourself. Environment...(read more)

We all appreciate that, in general, XML documents or fragments are held in strings as text markup. In SQL Server, XML variables and columns are instead tokenised to allow rapid access to the data within. This is fine, but can cause some odd problems, auch as 'entitization'. What, also, do you do if you need to preserve the formatting? As usual Rob Sheldon comes to our aid.

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) v5.2 is now available. SSMA simplifies database migration process from Oracle/Sybase/MySQL and Microsoft Access to SQL Server and SQL Azure. SSMA automates all aspects of migration including migration assessment analysis, schema and SQL statement conversion, data migration as well as migration testing to reduce cost and reduce risk of your database migration project. 

• The new version of SSMA - SSMA 5.2 provides the following major enhancements:
• Support conversion of Oracle %ROWTYPE parameters with NULL default
• Support conversion of Sybase’s Rollback Trigger
• Better user credential security to support Microsoft Access Linked Tables

Reduce Cost and Risk of Competitive Database Migration
Does your customer have Oracle, Sybase, MySQL or Access databases that you like to migrate to SQL Server or SQL Azure? SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) automates all aspects of migration including migration assessment analysis, schema and SQL statement conversion, data migration as well as migration testing. The tool provides the following functionalities:

• Database Migration Analyzer: Assess and report complexity of the source database for migration to SQL Server. The generated report include detailed information on the database schema, percentage of the schema objects that can be converted by the tool, and hours estimate for manually migrating those schema objects that cannot be converted automatically. The information can be used for your to decide and to plan for migration. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Schema Converter: Automate conversion of schema objects (including programming code inside package, procedure, function) into equivalent SQL Server objects and T-SQL dialect. The tool provides ability to customize the conversion from hundreds of project setting options according to your specific business requirements. A report will be generated at the end of conversion for any object statement not supported for automated conversion. You can drill down to each of the migration issues and obtain side-by-side comparison between the original source code and the converted source code as well as make necessary modification directly from SSMA user interface. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Data Migrator: Migrate data from the source database to the SQL Server using the same conversion logic and type mapping specified in the project setting during schema conversion. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Migration Tester: Facilitate unit testing of converted program in SQL Server.

Simplify Migration to SQL Azure
Customers can simplify their move to the cloud with the SSMA. You can migrate from competitive database directly to SQL Azure. The tool reports possible migration issue to SQL Azure, convert schema, and migrate data to SQL Azure database. SSMA supports SQL Azure migration from Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Sybase.

Receive FREE technical support and migration resources.
Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) provides free email technical support for SSMA. SSMA product web site and SSMA team blog site provides many resources to help customer to reduce cost and risk for database migration.

Download SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) v.5.2
Launch the download of the SSMA for Oracle.
Launch the download of the SSMA for Sybase.
Launch the download of the SSMA for MySQL.
Launch the download of the SSMA for Access.

The arrival of the (MAX) data types in SQL Server 2005 were one of the most popular feature for the database developer. At the time, there was a lot of discussion as to whether this freedom from having to specify string length came at a cost. Rob attempts to give a final answer as to any down-side.

Occasionally, when you install identical databases on two different SQL Server instances, they will behave in surprisingly different ways. Why? Most likely, it is down to different configuration settings. There are around seventy of these settings and the DBA needs to be aware of the effect that many of them have. Brad McGehee explains them all in enough detail to help with most common configuration problems, and suggests some best practices.

On March 7, 2012 we are hosting the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event (VLE), to share the latest on SQL Server 2012 and the evolution of the Microsoft data platform. Through our VLE, anyone, anywhere in the world can simply log in and be a part of this amazing experience – consuming content at your own pace while still experiencing all the benefits of a tradeshow event.

What are some great reasons to check out our VLE experience?

You want to learn from SQL Server insiders
Learn more about the new features of SQL Server 2012 through access to more than 30 sessions. Our experts will demonstrate how your business can go further, forward, faster by capitalizing on mission critical capabilities, new features that drive true business insights and the most cloud-ready SQL Server ever.

You want to engage with Partners and Customers
Visit our Partner Pavilion to discuss how partner and pioneer customer solutions integrate with SQL Server 2012.

You want to chat live with product experts and MVPs
Chat live with product experts and MVPs to get the inside scoop. Our team will be on hand to answer questions about SQL Server 2012 and network in the virtual lounge.

You want to engage with the community – and maybe win a prize!
Participate in virtual launch activities like the keynote speech, technical demos and networking lounge, and collect points to earn cool prizes such as cash gift cards, SQL Server Gear, and Xbox systems. The more points you earn, the bigger your prize could be!

Register today at: www.sqlserverlaunch.com

We talk a lot about the features and technical “how to” behind SQL Server, but our favorite topic is showing real-world examples of how it helps our customers achieve their goals and save millions of dollars. One great example of this is The Co-operative Group and their switch from Oracle to SQL Server.

The Co-operative Group operates 5,000 retail stores, and is one of the world’s largest member-owned businesses. The Group’s top strategic priority is expanding its membership base, and they set an aggressive goal to grow to 20 million members by 2020.

But instead of helping the Group achieve its goals, technology and licensing models were a barrier to success. The Group’s previous membership system was an Oracle solution, hosted by a provider that charged per member – a situation where scaling membership would have cost the company tens of millions of dollars. “It would have been financial suicide if we had tried to use the existing solution to accomplish our growth goals,” said Chris Sproston, the head of software development at The Co-operative Group.

To realize the company’s goals, The Co-operative Group turned to SQL Server 2008 R2 and a variety of other Microsoft products and services. Working with Microsoft partner HCL Infosystems, they developed a solution that stores account information, records transactional data and supports web-based self-service account management.

Using this new solution, The Co-operative Group improved member services with enterprise-wide reporting and analysis tools, and increased the security of customer information with highly specific access privileges and transparent data encryption. As a result, the company’s IT department can now spend time innovating and adding features, instead of using its resources to manage new reports or queries.

“Because SQL Server 2008 R2 is so scalable, we can expand from 6 million to 20 million members for 10 percent of what it would have cost on our old solution,” said Chris Sproston, head of software development for The Co-operative Group.

By implementing the Microsoft system, The Co-operative Group will be able to reduce the cost of its long-term growth goal by tens of millions of dollars. And that’s the kind of success story we love to be able to share.

For more information about The Co-operative Group’s solution and how they plan to save millions by switching from Oracle to SQL Server, check out the case study.

On March 7, 2012 we are hosting the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event (VLE), to share the latest on SQL Server 2012 and the evolution of the Microsoft data platform. Through our VLE, anyone, anywhere in the world can simply log in and be a part of this amazing experience – consuming content at your own pace while still experiencing all the benefits of a tradeshow event.

What are some great reasons to check out our VLE experience?

You want to learn from SQL Server insiders
Learn more about the new features of SQL Server 2012 through access to more than 30 sessions. Our experts will demonstrate how your business can go further, forward, faster by capitalizing on mission critical capabilities, new features that drive true business insights and the most cloud-ready SQL Server ever.

You want to engage with Partners and Customers
Visit our Partner Pavilion to discuss how partner and pioneer customer solutions integrate with SQL Server 2012.

You want to chat live with product experts and MVPs
Chat live with product experts and MVPs to get the inside scoop. Our team will be on hand to answer questions about SQL Server 2012 and network in the virtual lounge.

You want to engage with the community – and maybe win a prize!
Participate in virtual launch activities like the keynote speech, technical demos and networking lounge, and collect points to earn cool prizes such as cash gift cards, SQL Server Gear, and Xbox systems. The more points you earn, the bigger your prize could be!

Register today at: www.sqlserverlaunch.com

Be careful: unlike most other languages, T-SQL does not limit variables' scope to the block where the variable has been defined. For example, the following snippet compiles and runs: -- @to is not in scope yet -- the line below would not compile --SET...(read more)

If you just assume that your application's slowness is the fault of the database, then that is a quick route to a smug DBA if it later turns out you’re wrong. Far better to know for sure how much of your applications time is spent waiting around for the database to do something, and how many round-trips to and from the database it makes.

ConcurrentQueue is, like ConcurrentStack, a lockless collection, in that it is implemented without using any locks at all. However, the semantics required for a queue impose a quite different approach; unlike ConcurrentStack, which has a single point of concurrent contention, a queue can be changed at both the head and tail.

We're currently trying to build a service that lets developers silently update their application. We want desktop developers to enjoy all the same advantages as those who code for web. Desktop software shouldn't become a second class citizen just because it's too slow to adapt.

Over the next few months, we'll be asking various well-known DBAs to describe their worst disaster caused by a mistake they made. To kick off the series, we asked Phil Factor to confess. He came up with a classic: The mistaken belief that a backup WITH CHECKSUM guaranteed a good backup that could be restored, and the ensuing disaster.

If you have Chinese friends, it's time to say 新年快乐 to them! (Xīnnián kuàilè -> Pronounced like Shin Nien Kwai Ler) They are welcoming in the year of the dragon....(read more)