Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
As announced today Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, a must read for all partners and customers out there.
This upcoming release of SQL will definitely bring value to the EPM farms out there. Some quotes from the book to wet your appetite an will make you want to seriously consider SQL 2008 R2 for your future Project Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 deployments:
Because this version is Release 2 (R2) of SQL Server 2008, you might think the changes are relatively minor—more than a service pack, but not enough to justify an entirely new version. However, as you read this book, we think you will find that there are a lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2008 R2 that will have a positive impact on your applications, ranging from improvements in operation to those in management. It is definitely not a minor release!
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Master Data Services (MDS) is another new technology in the SQL Server family and is based on software from Microsoft’s acquisition of Stratature in 2007. Just as SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is an extensible reporting platform that ships with ready-to-use applications for end users and administrators, MDS is both an extensible master data management platform and an application for developing, managing, and deploying master data models. MDS is included with the Datacenter,
Enterprise, and Developer editions of SQL Server 2008 R2.(…)
If you thought Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services introduced a lot of great new features to the reporting platform, just wait until you discover what’s new in Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008 R2. The Reporting Services development team
at Microsoft has been working hard to incorporate a variety of improvements into the product that should make your life as a report developer or administrator much simpler.(…)
PowerPivot for Excel gives analysts a way to integrate large volumes of data outside of a corporate data warehouse, whether they are creating reports to support decision making or prototyping solutions that will eventually be part of a larger BI implementation. To provide multiple users with centralized access to reports developed with PowerPivot for Excel, information technology staff can implement PowerPivot for SharePoint. This server-side PowerPivot product provides the necessary infrastructure to manage, secure, refresh, and monitor these PowerPivot reports efficiently.