Epicenter on Wed 26th August

The largest Irish conference/ expo is starting this wed. the list of speakers and events is definitely worth checking out https://epicenter.ie/  It event combines four previous events in one: Java, Open Source, Microsoft and Web Technologies.

I'll be presenting two sessions and be at the speaker dinner on Thursday evening. I'll also be hanging out at the event on Wed and Fri. if anyone wants to chat about SQL Server or Business Intelligence over a pint, give us an email.

Microsoft BI Overview:
This will be a nearly 100% demo based walkthrough of the Microsoft BI stack covering end user reporting, end user analytics, web based analytics, portals, scorecards and dashboards. I'm also checking with the powers that be if I can show the next generation business intelligence client - project Gemini which comes with SQL 2008 R2 and office 2010. This is set to make a huge storm in the Irish Business Intelligence industry when it hits.

SQL Server 2008 Virtualisation Considerations and Best Practices
I'm chatting to lots of customers at the moment about virtualisation. Both from the planning aspect as part of a consolidation strategy and from the troubleshooting aspects when things aren't working out so well.

This session explores the recommended practices for virtualizing SQL Server using the Microsoft Hyper-V product. We will discuss the following:
- Where does virtualization fit into a consolidation strategy
- Capacity Planning for consolidation
- Tools to get started
- Resource sharing and control
- Storage configuration
- Performance considerations
- Monitoring Strategies
- Zero touch provisioning

Hope to see you there!