Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Live Event

This Friday, Tobias Ternstrom (Microsoft Principal Program Manager Lead) and Brian Alderman (CEO and Founder, MicroTechPoint) will be the instructor team for this 8 hour Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) Jumpstart event. The purpose of this course is to help you prepare for the MCSA Exam 70-461. Even if you are not interested in taking the exam, I suggest attending to get some more insight into the power of queries and T-SQL.

Course Outline

   - Introduction to SQL Server 2012

   - Advanced SELECT statements

   - SQL Server data types

   - Grouping, aggregating and modifying data

   - Table expressions and SET operators

   - Programming with T-SQL

   - Retrieving SQL Server metadata

Event details

Date: September 13th 2013

Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm (PDT)

 

Register TODAY

 

 

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SQL Server 2012 Certification at SBCS

The Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): SQL Server 2012 and the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Data Platform certifications are being offered at the School of Business and Computer Studies (SBCS).

The MCSA: SQL Server 2012 certification is designed to validate a set of essential skills and knowledge in SQL Server 2012. 

 

Earning the MCSE: Data Platform certification will showcase your skills in building and administrating data solutions both on-premises and in cloud environments and will qualify you for such jobs as database analyst and database designer.

 

The schedule for both certifications:

 

 

For more information or to register for the course contact Natasha Beckles.

 

 

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Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Partner Training‏

Tomorrow I will be presenting at the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Partner Training! This is a Microsoft Trinidad and Tobago event and is for Microsoft Partners only.

 If you are interested in attending or need more information about the event, please contact Rose Nath at v-rosen@microsoft.com or Indera Ghanesh at v-inghan@microsoft.com.

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SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 CTP4

The Microsoft SQL Server Team recently announced the release of the SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview 4. Unlike the CTP3 which primarily focused on BI functionality, CTP4 focuses on SQL Server functionality across the board.

The new and enhancements features are listed on Books Online and the download page.

SQL Server 2012 SP1 CTP4

SQLServer 2012 SP1 CTP4 Express

SQLServer 2012 SP1 CTP4 Feature Pack

 

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TTSSUG Event: SQL Server 2012 Presentations

Last week, members of the TTSSUG committee presented at two events to highlight the new and improved features of SQL Server 2012.

The presentations as well as scripts and videos can be downloaded here:

What's New in SQLServer 2012 for Database Administrators - Nigel Sammy

What's New in SQLServer 2012 for Developers - Mitra Sinanan

SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services - Jason Deyalsingh

PowerPivot - Hasani Holder

Useful links:
SQL Server 2012 Trial
SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide

Links to the TTSSUG Facebook site, Twitter account and LinkedIn group are available on the second-to-last page of each presentation.

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New SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Book

If you are interested in understanding SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services' architecture and BI fundamentals then the 'Professional SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services' book is the resource for you. This book covers the capabilities of the new reporting platform as well as the new BI capabilities introduced in SQL Server 2012 including semantic model design, enhancements to Report Builder, PowerPivot for Excel 2012 and SharePoint 2012, and Power View.

This book was written by esteemed authors: Paul Turley, Robert Bruckner, Grant Paisley, Thiago Silva and Ken Withee. It is also the first book that I worked on as a technical editor along with Joe Salvatore and Chris Albrektson. This as well as the SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide is what kept me extremely busy for the last few months hence the lack of blog posts. Thanks to Paul Turley, my colleague at SolidQ, and Wrox Press for this great opportunity.

It is currently available from Wrox.com, Amazon & other resellers in paperback and electronic editions.

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TTSSUG Event: SQL Server 2012 In-Depth Sessions

The Trinidad and Tobago SQL Server User Group (TTSSUG) will be hosting two (2) SQL Server 2012 In-depth Technical Sessions on 13th and 14th June at Microsoft Office in Chamber of Commerce Building, Westmoorings.

Session 1: What's new in 2012 for DBAs and Developers

Date: 13th June 2012

Time: 9am -11am

Presenters: Nigel Sammy and Mitra Sinanan

Session 2: Business Intelligence Solutions 2012

Date: 14th June 2012

Time: 9am -11am

Presenters: Hasani Holder and Jason Deyalsingh

Seats are limited so book your space early! 

To register for each event, please contact:

Anand Singh: events@ttssug.org – 868-356-4090

Please specify if you will be attending one or both sessions.

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SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide

Microsoft has recently released the SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Whitepaper. This technical guide takes you through the essentials for upgrading SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2 instances to SQL Server 2012. Administrators, developers, business intelligence professionals and project managers planning to upgrade environments and solutions to SQL Server 2012 will find it very useful.

The very detailed and in-depth 454 page guide was written by SolidQ members and technically reviewed and published by Microsoft. I am extremely happy that I was able to contribute to this guide. This is the first time my writing was published and I would like to thank SolidQ and Microsoft for the opportunity.

Congratulations to the SolidQ Authors: Ron Talmage, Nigel Sammy, Allan Hirt, Herbert Albert, Antonio Soto, Danilo Dominici, Régis Baccaro, Milos Radivojevic, Jesús Gil, Dejan Sarka, Johan Åhlén, Simran Jindal, Paul Turley, Craig Utley, Larry Barnes, Pablo Ahumada.

List of Chapters:
Chapter 1: Upgrade Planning and Deployment
Chapter 2: Management Tools
Chapter 3: Relational Databases
Chapter 4: High Availability
Chapter 5: Database Security
Chapter 6: Full-Text Search
Chapter 7: Service Broker
Chapter 8: SQL Server Express
Chapter 9: SQL Server Data Tools
Chapter 10: Transact-SQL Queries
Chapter 11: Spatial Data
Chapter 12: XML and XQuery
Chapter 13: CLR
Chapter 14: SQL Server Management Objects
Chapter 15: Business Intelligence Tools
Chapter 16: Analysis Services
Chapter 17: Integration Services
Chapter 18: Reporting Services
Chapter 19: Data Mining
Chapter 20: Other Microsoft Applications and Platforms
Appendix 1: Version and Edition Upgrade Paths
Appendix 2: SQL Server 2012: Upgrade Planning Checklist

DownloadSQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide

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T-SQL Tuesday #29: The Talented and Impressive Mr Power View

SQL Server 2012 has many useful new and improved features so it was difficult to choose one to talk about for this T-SQL Tuesday event. But "the host" said choose one so I decided to highlight the feature known as Power View (formerly known as “Project Crescent”)since it impressed me four (4) times before the RTM: PASS Summit 2010, PASS Summit 2011, the BareMetal Workshop and the last time is NDA (Sorry).

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T-SQL Tuesday #029 - Let's have a SQL Server 2012 party

Yay!! It’s time for T-SQL Tuesday and this month I am hosting the party. I had another topic in mind when I asked to be a host but since the RTM occurred in March I thought it would be best to pick a topic focusing on SQL Server 2012!

I have been playing around with 2012 for some months now and I know for a fact that I don't know all the new or improved features. As for the features that I actually do know, I cannot say that I am 100% sure that I fully understand all of the benefits that they provide. I don’t think that I am the only person who feels this way so I decided to pick a topic to help improve everyone knowledge of SQL Server 2012!

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SQL Server 2012 BareMetal Workshop

In the last week of January I attended the SQL Server 2012 BareMetal workshop at Microsoft in Redmond. Dandy Weyn (blog | twitter), Microsoft Technical Product Manager,  brought together MVPs,  MCMs, Microsoft employees and a few regular guys like my  myself for a special Train-the-Trainer event. This 2-3 day workshop focused on the key pillars of SQL Server 2012 through Hands-on-Experience!

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