CDNUG Event Review – July 15, 2010 – Windows 7 Development / SQL Server 2008 R2

A great CDNUG event took place on July 15, 2010! As it was the last event before summer holidays, it was a celebratory one of course!

After having some sweets and Greek frappé coffee, the event started!

Due to the nature of this event, we had two sessions. The first session, dedicated to Windows 7 Development was presented by my good friend and CDNUG member Ioannis Stavrinides (MCP, MCTS) – (Blog, Twitter). The second session was presented by me and it was dedicated to SQL Server 2008 R2, where I introduced the main features shipped with this release both for Developers and IT Pros.

Ioannis started his presentation by first introducing to us WPF. Then he showed with many live demos how developers can use WPF and the Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework through Visual Studio 2010, thus being able to build Jump Lists, Progress Bars, Tabbed Thumbnails and Tabbed Toolbars. Also, we saw how we can make use of the Icon Overlay feature.

Right after Ioannis’s great session, my session started taking place. During my session I talked about some of the amazing new features shipped with SQL Server 2008 R2.

Main Features

Database Engine – Manageability Enhancements

• • Connectivity to SQL Azure.

• • Data-tier Application Upgrade.
  • SQL Server Utility.
  • The VIA protocol has been deprecated.

Service Broker

• • Option to turn on and off poison message handling on a queue.
  • A queue that has poison message turned off will not be disabled after consecutive transaction rollbacks.

Master Data Services

• The technology, tools, and processes required to create and maintain consistent and accurate lists of master data.

StreamInsight

• A powerful platform that you can use to develop and deploy complex event processing (CEP) applications.

Reporting Services – Features

• “Grab and Go” reporting experience enabled through the Report Part Gallery.
• Support for maps and geospatial visualizations with integration to Bing maps and support for SQL spatial data types.
• Additional visualizations including indicators, sparklines and data bars.
• Support for consuming SharePoint lists and PowerPivot models as data sources.
• Support for Madison and SQL Azure data sources.
• Render any report as a data source to PowerPivot or other applications through ATOM data feeds.

Report Builder 3

• Integration with Bing maps.
• …and much more!

SQL Server PowerPivot

• An Add-on for Excel 2010 / SharePoint 2010.
• Brings the full power of SQL Server Analysis Services right into Excel.
• In-memory column based compression.
• Millions of rows of data can now be stored, sorted & aggregated.
• Support for a wide variety of sources.
• Rich set of mathematical functionality.
  • Existing functions already in Excel
  •                    +
  • Data Analysis eXpressions (DAX)

Along with the presentation I performed many demos, showing live how developers / IT Pros can take advantage of these new features and be more productive with even less effort. Some of the live demos included SQL Server Utility Explorer, Data-Tier Applications design and deployment, Master Data Services, and of course, the series of demos could not be considered as completed without showing a live demo of SQL Server PowerPivot!

The event was a success and we really enjoyed it!

See you at another event soon!