SBI204: Analysis Services 2008 End-to-End
Craig Utley
Are you interested in designing, building, and deploying an Analysis Services database that follows best practices and best delivers value to your organization? This session goes through the process of optimizing cube creation through the proper design of dimensions, measure groups, aggregations, calculations, perspectives, security, and more. The areas of source code control, deployment, promotion from test to production, processing efficiency, and other areas will be discussed. Craig Utley has experience designing, implementing, and troubleshooting Analysis Services databases at dozens of companies worldwide through his more than 11 years of experience with the Microsoft BI stack. Far from a theoretical discussion, this seminar will present real-world lessons learned about what works in production environments. By attending this session, you will learn the proper design and implementation of your Analysis Services databases, allowing you to avoid common pitfalls while delivering the maximum value to your clients.

SBI206: Building a Reporting Services Monitoring System
Stacia Misner
Do you know which reports that users access most often and which reports they are ignoring? Do you know how to use performance counters and execution log data to monitor or troubleshoot activity on your report server? If you make configuration changes to the server or modify report queries, would you know whether these changes helped or hindered performance? In this session, you learn how to set up a Reporting Services monitoring system using SQL Server BI components to collect and present auditing and performance data from your report server whether you're using Reporting Services 2005 or Reporting Services 2008.

SBI203: Enabling Analysis with Excel Services
Stacia Misner
Excel Services is a great way to give users a more interactive experience with data analysis than you can provide with reporting tools, but getting the configuration just right can be challenging. Come to this session to learn how to properly set up your technical environment to support centralized worksheets that provide access to Analysis Services data through Excel Services. You will also learn how to recognize and respond to common configuration problems and how to diagnose and resolve connectivity issues.

SBI202: PerformancePoint Services 101
Craig Utley
Are you interested in PerformancePoint Services but don't know where to start? PerformancePoint Services is Microsoft's business intelligence (BI) delivery tool that focuses on two major areas: monitoring, and analytics. This session provides an overview of PerformancePoint Services by showing examples of both areas. See how to build scorecards using the monitoring server and create reports and integrate with ProClarity in the analytics portion. If your organization has already built a warehouse or is thinking about it, see how Microsoft's PerformancePoint Services enable delivery of data to a variety of users.

SBI205: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Data Visualizations in SSRS 2008
Stacia Misner
Erika Baske
The new data visualization features in Reporting Services 2008 give you a lot more flexibility in creating reports that can lead to a better understanding of the data. But with that flexibility also comes the danger of using data visualizations ineffectively. In this session, you learn not only what's new and how to best use these new features, but also how to avoid common design problems. By knowing how to apply principles of visual design, you can develop reports that communicate information clearly.

SBI207: Tips and Tricks for Building Multidimensional Reports
Stacia Misner
Erika Baske
One way to speed the delivery of information to your users is to add an Analysis Services cube to your data architecture, but once the cube is built, whats the best way to use that cube as a source for reports? Although Reporting Services (2005 and 2008) includes a Query Designer to generate the MDX required to retrieve data from a cube as a great first step, you will likely need to extend this query to satisfy more complex reporting requirements. In this session, you'll learn several tips and tricks about working with Analysis Services as a source for your reports, including how to customize an MDX query, how to handle aggregate values, how to implement cascading parameterized MDX queries, and how to use extended field properties.

SBI201: Why Data Warehousing Projects Fail (And What You Can Do About It)
Craig Utley
Is your organization planning to build a data warehouse or BI solution? Data warehousing projects, like many large IT projects, have high failure rates. While the exact rate of failure for data warehousing projects is difficult to pin down, the causes of these failures fall into a small number of categories. It is obviously possible to successfully complete a data warehousing project and deliver value to the business. Craig Utley has seen Microsoft BI solutions in various states of completeness at over 30 companies worldwide and has seen some awesome successes and some spectacular failures. This session addresses the reasons data warehousing projects fail and how you can succeed in overcoming these obstacles.

DEVELOPER

SDV301: Best Practices for Exception Handling and Defensive Programming in SQL Server 2005 and 2008
Adam Machanic
As developers, we sometimes become lax about dealing with error and exception conditions by the time our code gets down to the data level. Exceptions can feel like something that only application code needs to worry about, until you realize that in SQL Server they can have a tremendous effect on your transactions and your data integrity. Learning to properly handle them is, therefore, of paramount importance to those of us who write data-centric applications. SQL Server 2005 greatly improved exception handling options by adding support for the structured TRY/CATCH syntax, but there is a lot more to the story than just that feature. In this session, we'll delve into the ins and outs of exceptions in both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008, starting with the database engine itself: types of exceptions, when and why they're thrown, and how the server treats them. Next, learn how to configure and throw your own custom exceptions, as well as how to leverage the SQL Server exceptions infrastructure with a variety of exception handling and defensive programming techniques both with and without the TRY/CATCH syntax. Most importantly, we review the effect of exceptions on transactions, and how to take programmatic control over the outcome of your transactions in the face of an exception.

SDV304: Consistency of Reads
Itzik Ben-Gan
When you design an application that reads data from SQL Server, you need to balance performance and consistency. Your index design and choice of isolation level will have an integral impact on performance and consistency of your queries. There are some aspects of indexing and choice of isolation level that are of common knowledge; however, there are some less known aspects that could make you rethink your choices. For example, would you expect your queries to return the same row multiple times? Would you expect your queries to skip rows? This session explains the circumstances where such consistency problems can happen, and how to prevent them.

SDV305: Easy Schema Refactoring Using VSDB
Gert Drapers
If you ever need to make schema changes inside a complex schema that effected many objects, you know how hard and complex it can be. This session will guide you through how the Visual Studio Database Edition product can help you keep your schema clean and consistent, while refactoring the schema inside your database project.

SDV309: Follow the Rabbit: Wrap-up Q&A
Paul Randal
Kimberly L. Tripp
Now a conference staple, Kimberly and Paul come loaded with slides and highlights from all of their sessions of the conference. If you don't ask questions, they're start adding to the content discussed previously by diving deeper and tying in discussions they've had in breaks, after their sessions and with your questions. This is really YOUR time to ask questions! This session seems unfocused but is often not only informative but highly interactive and fun.

SDV206: Logical Query Processing
Itzik Ben-Gan
This session explains how queries are processed logically. It describes how according to the SQL language design a given query undergoes a series of logical steps until the final output is achieved. The session teaches you how to think in terms of sets, and helps you adopt the right state of mind that is needed when writing SQL code.

SDV302: Minimally Logged Operations and Other Data Modification Enhancements in SQL Server 2008
Itzik Ben-Gan
The performance of inserting data to the database can be largely affected by the amount of logging that takes place. SQL Server supports different data insertion methods, but only some of those can benefit from minimal logging, and only in certain circumstances. This session covers the various insert methods and describes the requirements to achieve minimal logging. The session also introduces enhancements in SQL Server 2008 in regards to minimally logged operations and other data modification enhancements.

SDV308: SQL Server 2008 Sparse Columns: Structures, Storage, Speed
Kimberly L. Tripp
Creating an extensible schema—extensible in terms of additional properties for a given item—usually requires a design change such as adding new rows to a name/value pairs table, using XML or a BLOB to store the column set, or just giving up on allowing extensibility. SQL Server 2008 offers a new feature called sparse columns aimed at allowing easy extensibility. However, as the maximum number of columns in a table is now 30000, this feature also seems to allow poor schema design! In this session, you will see how sparse columns work and when it makes sense to use them. In addition, you'll also see why the complimentary filtered indexes feature can provide an ideal indexing strategy for sparse columns, which allows this seemingly poor design to shine (and perform!).

SDV307: SQL Server Covering: Concepts, Concerns and Costs
Kimberly L. Tripp
Covering—using an index to cover a query—is one of the most important tuning strategies possible in SQL Server. In fact, over the past few releases many index tuning features target specifically this—covering. SQL Server 7.0/2000 started the trend with indexed views, SQL Server 2005 added “INCLUDE” to allow non-key columns to be “included” in an index and SQL Server 2008 adds filtered indexes into the mix. In this session, we'll discuss the pros and cons of covering, the different strategies possible to achieve it, when it's a good idea to consider covering and when it's a must! This session focuses on tips and tricks for specific types of queries as well as general best practices to determine what’s best to cover. This session is filled with demos – and tips you can implement immediately. If you have critical queries that just don’t perform to your expectations, this session is for you!

SDV303: T-SQL Power! Learning to Harness the Under-Used OVER Clause
Adam Machanic
First introduced in SQL Server 2005, the OVER clause is an ANSI SQL enhancement that gives you tremendous control when dealing with aggregations. By using the OVER clause, query writers can simultaneously aggregate columns based on multiple groups. The feature also enables the query engine to provide windowing mechanisms for ranking and row numbering. Leveraging these powerful language enhancements allows you to solve a surprisingly large number of difficult query problems—including custom paging schemes, data de-duplication, "top-N" problems, and complex statistical calculations. Even better, this feature can be creatively applied to help with performance optimization of certain tough queries. In this session, you will learn all of these techniques and see why, after applying the OVER clause in dozens of projects since the release of SQL Server 2005, I consider it to be one of the most powerful T-SQL features available.

SDV210: What Happened? Auditing, Tracking, and Change Monitoring Technologies in SQL Server 2008
Adam Machanic
Regulatory bodies...end-users...your boss. They all want answers. Many questions are easy enough to deal with: "Did someone drop my view?" Others are a bit trickier: "What was the previous value of this row?" And some are seemingly impossible: "Who selected the data from this table over the past week?" For many DBAs, the answer to some or all of these questions is often "Umm..." But don't blame yourself; getting this information in SQL Server has never been especially easy—until now. SQL Server 2008 ships with several new technologies designed to help you track and report on exactly what happened, who did it, and when. In this session, you will learn about SQL Server 2008's Change Tracking, Change Data Capture, and SQL Server Audit features, each of which provides a distinct set of capabilities and has specific strengths and weaknesses. Looking at each of these technologies in turn, you will see how they work and where you might want to leverage them in your SQL Server infrastructure. If you're used to saying "Umm..." get ready to say "I'll be right back with the answer."

KEYNOTE SESSION

KEYNOTE: ASP.NET 4.0 and VS 2010 Web Development
Scott Guthrie
Scott will be discussing some of the great improvements and additions that will be delivered as part of the upcoming VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 release. Expect a demo-laden talk that will get you excited about the future of Web development.

KEYNOTE: SQL Server Next Generation Data Platform
Quentin Clark
SQL Server has evolved to a complete data platform enabling rich services and comprehensive management capabilities for all types of data. From unstructured data to fully structured data models SQL Server provides a variety of data types and technologies to enable next generation applications. In this keynote session, Quentin will go over the vision for the data platform, some of the capabilities in SQL Server 2008 and how they’re being used by customers today and will provide some insight into what’s coming next.

EXCHKEY1: Users, Excellence, and Innovation – Stuff that Matters
Rajesh Jha
In the midst of launching the latest version of the world’s leading platform for messaging and collaboration, Rajesh Jha will talk to you about what makes his team tick and what his magnetic north is through the development of Microsoft Exchange. As the Corporate Vice-President of the Exchange Product Group, Rajesh leads all engineering teams responsible for the design and development of Exchange Server and Exchange Online and he’ll share with you his thinking about the importance of user experiences and the significance of the move to Software + Software as a Service. Rajesh will talk to you about some of his favorite features of Exchange Server 2010 and talk about how excellence in engineering process and a focus on architectural fundamentals have made Exchange the product it is today and will serve to maintain its stature as the most innovative, cost-effective, and flexible solution for messaging and collaboration. You’ll hear from other members of the Exchange engineering team and see demos of some of the best of what Exchange Server 2010 has to offer.

KEYNOTE: Visual Studio 2010: New Challenges, New Solutions
Dave Mendlen
Every year you face new challenges in delivering value to your customers and partners. Join Dave Mendlen, Senior Director, Developer Marketing as he talks about the impending release of Visual Studio 2010 and related new announcements. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft is bringing new tooling, platform and community offerings to help you take your ideas and turn them into impactful solutions. In this keynote, Dave will talk about how the upcoming platform release provides you with a great base upon which to deliver your ideas and will make some announcements on the future of Visual Studio. Dave will show how Visual Studio 2010 brings new innovation to the developer tool space and how the community and Microsoft partners can provide key benefits to ensure your success in creating high quality solutions.

DBA

SDB309: Automating and Analyzing with SQL Trace & RML Utilities
Andrew Kelly
SQL Profiler is a terrific tool that many of us use on a regular basis. But there are some inherent limitations and potential performance implications that everyone should be well aware of. Analyzing data directly thru Profiler can be difficult as well when dealing with large amounts of data and events. The solution is to use the built-in capability of SQL Trace along with the RML utilities from MS PSS to analyze the information you really need. This session will cover all of these aspects in detail along with sample code that you can use to get started immediately with your quest to seek out the worst offending statements in your system.

SDB305: Building the Right Backup Strategy
Paul Randal
In many situations, database backups are critical for recovering from a disaster, but there are lots of misconceptions about how backups work and what a good backup strategy is. The purpose of taking backups is, of course, to be able to restore them at some point—but that can sometimes be easier said than done, depending on what you want to be able to restore. In this in-depth session, Paul will explain how the three most common types of backups work and how they can be combined into an effective backup strategy. Paul will also cover how restore works, the three recovery options for restoring a backup, and a variety of useful examples. You don't want to find out that your backups are unusable when disaster strikes—this session provides the knowledge you need to make sure you can recover. (It is recommended that you attend the Logging and Recovery session before this one.)

SDB408: Can You Account for Your Memory?
Gert Drapers
Do you know where all your memory went? How much SQL Server is using and for what? And do you have enough or is your memory fragmented? This session will guide you through the hands-on steps of debugging and understanding your SQL Server memory usage. After this session, you will be able to analyze the memory consumption of your own SQL Server using a set of queries that drill through the memory architecture of SQL Server and expose the consumers and bottlenecks.

SDB304: Practical Performance Monitoring in SQL Server 2008
Andrew Kelly
Do you know what counters, statistics, events and other information you should be collecting on a regular basis to properly monitor your SQL Server instances? Do you know where your current bottlenecks really are or how to even look for them? Are you proactive or reactive when it comes to performance? In this session we will cover the key areas to monitor regarding the database, server and hardware that give us the biggest bang for the buck. See how a little bit of effort upfront can lead to a much better understanding of your database environment and put you in a position to spot potential issues before they become real trouble.

SDB301: Sanity Check Your SQL Server
Andrew Kelly
Do you have a good handle on just how well your SQL Server instance is currently doing? Even if you don't have errors popping up here and there, chances are you can still benefit from a little sanity check now and then. We will explore a series of proven best practices for all aspects of your SQL Server instance that will ensure you get the most out of your system. This will include, but is not limited to, discussing numerous types of best practices, metric gathering, hardware & software configurations and more. Most systems can use some form of tune up and even seemingly little things can have a big impact if they go unnoticed. Come see what you may be missing.

SDB306: Securing and Hardening a SQL Server Implementation - Notes from the Field
Ross Mistry
SQL Server is regularly targeted by hackers as it is a repository of sensitive data for organizations. If breached, hackers can gain access to confidential information including, but not limited to credit card numbers, social security numbers, and marketing information. This presentation covers topics pertaining to best practices and tips on how to secure and harden a SQL Server 2008 & 2005 implementation. Some of the security and hardening topics covered include: minimize surface area with policy-based management, encryption, advanced auditing, configuring a Windows Server 2008 firewall, applying security templates with Active Directory, and consolidating SQL Server logs.

SDB302: SQL Server 2008 Installation and Migration Strategies
Ross Mistry
Organizations are eager to install or migrate to the new and improved SQL Server 2008 database platform. However, organizations feel challenged when trying to establish the best strategies for moving forward. This seminar focuses on the different SQL Server 2008 installation and migration strategies available when upgrading from a previous version of SQL Server or when installing SQL Server 2008 from scratch. Highlighted session topics include: supported migration methodologies, hardware requirements, software prerequisites, benefits when running on Windows Server 2008 and how to use the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor. Ross Mistry, consultant, bestselling author and MVP will share real-world upgrade and migration strategies based on Fortune organizations in order to guarantee a successful installation and migration.

SDB307: Standardize, Consolidate, and Virtualize Your SQL Server Infrastructure
Ross Mistry
As organizations use ever-increasing numbers of applications to manage business processes, provide new services, and gain an insight into business performance, the number of SQL Server systems that are required to support those applications has grown significantly. This typically leads to a proliferation of SQL Server systems, instances and databases within an organization's infrastructure. However, with the advances in hardware and SQL Server technologies, SQL Server systems can significantly handle greater workloads compared to the past. Therefore, it is now possible to consolidate SQL Server databases onto a fewer physical servers, which results in better utilization, reduced hardware and support costs. This session will outline strategies of how to consolidate SQL Server systems and databases on fewer servers. In addition, it will also focus on how to plan for consolidation and outline challenges DBAs may face.

SDB303: Understanding Logging and Recovery in SQL Server
Paul Randal
Some of the most misunderstood parts of SQL Server are its logging and recovery mechanisms. The fact that the transaction log exists and can cause problems if not managed correctly seems to confound many DBAs. Why is it possible for the transaction log to grow unbounded? Why does it sometimes take so long for the database to come online after a system crash? Why can't logging be turned off completely? Why can't I recover my database properly? Just what is the transaction log and why is it there? In this in-depth session, Paul will unravel the mysteries of the transaction log—it's architecture and behavior under different recovery models—as well as how logging and recovery work in SQL Server. This is essential knowledge you need for understanding how backup, restore, log-shipping, database mirroring, and other technologies work.

SDB410: What Are You Waiting On?
Gert Drapers
Did you know that SQL Server uses a cooperative scheduler, which will wait on resources to become available and when SQL Server waits on a resource it will indicate so by setting a wait state? Wait states are a proven way of diagnosing and optimizing your SQL Server environment. This session will expose you to the underlying architecture and you will learn how to leverage this knowledge and the power of wait states and wait statistics to optimize and troubleshoot your own SQL Servers.

VENDOR SESSION

VENDOR01: Be Productive with MVC: Open Source Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC
Todd Anglin
The introduction of ASP.NET MVC offers ASP.NET developers solutions to many of the weaknesses found in ASP.NET Web Forms. ASP.NET MVC is more testable, it provides maximum developer control over rendered HTML, and it doesn't add large, unsightly hidden fields to the page. But it also forces ASP.NET developers to give up some of the productivity enjoyed in Web Forms, especially at the presentation layer. Take back the productivity of Web Forms without sacrificing MVC principles with the open source Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC. In this session, you'll learn how Telerik is helping the community define the UI extension model for ASP.NET MVC. You'll see one of the first previews of the Telerik Extensions in action and learn how easy it is to get started working with the first purpose-built reusable UI components for ASP.NET MVC. Two attendees of this session will win a Telerik Premium Collection for .NET with retail value of 1,299 USD. Must be present to win.

VENDOR02: Exchange 2010: Bigger Mailboxes, Bigger Challenges, Bigger Headaches
Danny Milrad
Exchange 2010 delivers on the promise of bigger mailboxes and greater scalability allowing you to communicate and collaborate better at work. But at what cost? Bigger mailboxes without optimization means bigger challenges for storage management, data protection and higher storage and server costs causing bigger headaches. And what about the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem…SharePoint, file servers, etc? Attend this session and hear the industry leader in Exchange backup and archiving provide practical advice on how unified information management can help you streamline Exchange upgrades, drive down costs, accelerate recovery and be proactive about e-discovery to reduce cost, risks…and headaches. One lucky attendee will win a Microsoft Xbox 360 (Must be present to win). Beer, wine & snacks will be served.

MICROSOFT DAY - SQL SERVER

SMS11: A First Look at Large-Scale Data Warehousing in Microsoft SQL Server Code Name "Madison"
Christian Kleinerman
This session provides an overview of the new Data Warehousing capabilities in SQL Server code name "Madison". "Madison" is the integration of the Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) technologies, acquired with the DATAllegro acquisition, into SQL Server. "Madison" builds on the robust scale-up capabilities of SQL Server to enable massive scale-out, into the hundreds of terabytes, for the same low TCO SQL Server delivers. In collaboration with several hardware partners, "Madison" will provide an appliance-like solution that lets customers customize the system to conform to their existing hardware environment.

SMS05: Building a High Availability Strategy for Your Enterprise Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Madhan Arumugam
Every business has mission critical applications running on SQL Server that require maximum uptime. Some application data is more critical than others and requires strict guarantees with regard to data loss. Depending on various factors, the availability strategy and corresponding technology choices will vary. As an architect or DBA it is important to develop the right HA strategy and corresponding solution which meets the availability requirement and at the same time provide the cost benefit for your organization. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Always On Technologies provide a full range of options to minimize downtime and maintain appropriate levels of application availability. Come learn how to develop a comprehensive HA solution using the Always On technologies. The session walks you through the various technologies and features, provides a cost-benefit analysis and comparison and talks about the key decision points to consider when choosing a particular technology.

SMS02: Building Distributed Applications Using SQL Server Service Broker
Luis Carlos Vargas Herring
Large and distributed database applications need a scalable, reliable and secure messaging framework. This session shows how SQL Server Service Broker as the asynchronous, scalable, reliable, and secure messaging framework integrated with SQL Server, enables you to build large distributed database applications. First, we’ll describe Service Broker and its features. Then, we'll discuss several real-world large-scale distributed applications that customers have built using Service Broker. Finally, we'll give practical tips on how to improve application performance and troubleshoot common problems.

SMS08: Developing Event-driven Applications with Microsoft SQL Server StreamInsight
Tomer Verona
In this session, we will explore how you can build event-driven applications to gain insight from high data rate event stream sources with very low latency. We will discuss the developer experience of Microsoft's new platform for complex event processing (CEP) called StreamInsight and focus on the following scenarios: (1) formulating declarative queries to express powerful analytics over event streams, (2) programming against the object model of the CEP engine, and (3) writing adapters for event stream data sources. Attendees will learn how to use familiar development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, .NET, C#, and LINQ for developing their event-driven applications.

SMS03: Inside T-SQL: Enhancements, Techniques, Tips & Tricks
Tobias Ternstrom
This session covers T-SQL enhancements, techniques, tips & tricks. The session will start with an overview of T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2008. It will continue by providing T-SQL tips as time permits for both SQL Server 2005 and 2008, demonstrating how to solve interesting problems efficiently. Examples for tips that will be covered include: calculating non-deterministic row numbers, generating a large virtual auxiliary table of numbers, enforcing uniqueness while allowing multiple NULLs, bushy join plans, date and time manipulation, sorting separated lists of values, inline scalar UDFs, and maintaining custom sequences.

SMS07: Introducing Master Data Services
Olivier Matrat
Master Data Services is a component of SQL Server 2008 R2 that will enable you to improve the quality of key data assets such as products, customers, locations, accounts, cost centers and many others. Come learn how MDS can serve a wide range of analytic (dimension management) and operational (master data management) scenarios. This session will cover product architecture and include an extensive demonstration.

SMS01: Microsoft Project Code Name "Gemini": Self Service Analysis and the Future of BI
Olivier Matrat
You most likely have already heard of Project "Gemini", the ground-breaking new BI technology shipping in Microsoft SQL Server code name "Kilimanjaro". In this session we introduce "Gemini" for both analysts and IT, in the context of Self Service BI. We look at the client capabilities of "Gemini" for Microsoft Office Excel power users, the collaboration features for teams, and the important IT tools for compliance and effective administration.

SMS09: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Warehousing by Demonstration
Susan Price
We present a sequence of five- to ten-minute segments, each of which demonstrates one of the data warehousing capabilities in SQL Server 2008. This presentation is 100% how-to instruction. We focus on how to use compression, new query syntax (MERGE, GROUPING SETS), partitioning, partition-aligned indexed views, minimally logged INSERT, and change data capture, and how to tell if data warehouse query performance enhancements are working for you. Each segment is designed to give you a practical skill you can take away.

SMS12: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Application and Multi-Server Management
Clifford Dibble
Are you missing critical utilization insights into your growing database environment? Attend this session to learn how the application and multi-server management capabilities shipping with SQL Server 2008 R2 will expose resource utilization data and help streamline consolidation management. New extensions in SQL Server Management Studio allow DBAs to quickly create SQL Server control point and enroll instances them into multi-server management. Once enrolled, DBAs can define utilization policies across applications and Database Engine instances and view resource utilization to maximize investments. Meanwhile, the introduction of a single unit of deployment helps accelerate deployments, moves and upgrades associated with consolidation management.

SMS10: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtualization Considerations and Best Practices
Madhan Arumugam
Virtualization is one of the key industry trends. Organizations are virtualizing small departmental workload to critical workload to cut cost, provide business continuity and easier management of server. In this session, learn about virtualized SQL Server deployment and some the best practices for creating a virtualized SQL Server infrastructure. We provide insights on performance tradeoffs and cover topics such as using virtualization for business continuity. We also talk about the future roadmap for SQL virtualization. Learn about all aspects of SQL Server virtualization in this session.

SMS04: Microsoft SQL Server Automation on Steroids, Including PowerShell Support
Clifford Dibble
As a DBA, performing the same tasks - day in and day out - limits how much you can meet the demands of your organization. SQL Server provides a number of tools to meet your automation needs that includes Maintenance Plans, SQL Server Integration Services, PowerShell, and DB Mail. This session will demonstrate how and when to leverage the various automation tools that are available to you. This session will also feature how you can use 3rd party tools like SQLSentry to have better control over job execution.

SMS06: Self Service Reporting. Taking Authoring and Collaborating with Reports to the Next Level
Olivier Matrat
SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 is taking reporting to a whole new level. Collaboration has never been as important, as has been the need to enable and empower an ever growing population of IWs to build their own reports and serve their own reporting needs. This session will highlight how IT department and developers can now enable their customers and users to build reports with only a few clicks combining table, charts, maps, and gauges from sources such as SharePoint lists, relational databases, and other sources. Moreover, it will highlight some of the new componentization and “Grab and Go” reporting capabilities. This session will be very demo intensive.

SQLServerCentral.com TRACK

SQS404: Darling, Your SQL is Sooo Last Season!
Joe Celko
SQL has been adding many new features to the language, but many Transact-SQL developers are really not using them to their advantage yet. In this session, we will take a look at some of these features and how they can be used. For example, CASE is an expression, not a statement; CASE is not an IF-THEN-ELSE; CASE can be nested; and how to use CASE in DDL. Multiple-level aggregates such as GROUPING SET, ROLLUP, and CUBE. And last of all, the MERGE statement, in which the following is covered: Why declarative programming is better, how [NOT] MATCHED predicates can get fancy, the best order of WHEN..THEN clauses, and watching out for the ELSE clause.

SQS208: DMVs for Performance Tuning
Grant Fritchey
Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) expose a wealth of information to DBAs. This session will show you how to gather information from DMVs for currently executing, and recently executed queries. With the information you retrieve, you can begin to expand out and see what is currently residing in the plan cache, and get the execution plan and text for those objects. I’ll show you how to aggregate information for the queries in cache so that you can determine which queries are being accessed most frequently, or which are using the most CPU. I’ll also demonstrate methods for combining this information with XML queries in order to retrieve missing index recommendations, along with many other examples. This session is focused not only on the DBA, but for anyone who writes T-SQL queries, and wants to learn how to boost query performance.

SQS202: Free Software for SQL Server DBAs
Brad McGehee
While SQL Server includes a wealth of DBA tools, there are many additional freeware tools available to the production DBA. In this session, we will take a look at many of these tools, how they work, and where to get them. They include: Performance Analysis for Logs (PAL), used to analyze performance logs; Replay Markup Language (RML) for analyzing Profiler trace files; SQLDIAG, for collecting logs, data files, and other information from your SQL Server instances; SQLIO and SQLIOSim, for testing SQL Server disk I/O; Internals Viewer, to take a peek inside the storage engine; Blocked Process Monitor, used to identify blocked processes; Response Time Analysis using Extended Events, which is used to help you analyze response time at the session or statement level, among many more.

SQS309: Introduction to the SQL Server 2008 Performance Data Collector
Brad McGehee
In previous versions of SQL Server, performance tuning was often difficult because the available tools weren’t always easy to use or interpret. In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft has introduced the Performance Data Collector. This new toolset has been designed to integrate the collection, analysis, troubleshooting, and persistence of SQL Server diagnostic information, making the jobs of DBAs much easier. In this session, you will learn what the Performance Data Collector can do, how to implement the Performance Data Collector, how to use Performance Data Collector reports, along with Performance Data Collector best practices.

SQS307: MUQT: More Unnecessary Query Tuning
Grant Fritchey
Pronounced muck, this session walks you through common but recurring coding problems, how to identify them, and how to solve them. Based on the book, SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled, this session covers the information that query developers—which includes DBAs, application developers, report writers, and other data management professionals—need to know about in order to prevent recurring problems caused by poorly written or poorly configured code. Topics include things as simple as getting the data types correct, including the schema in defining objects, and avoiding operators in search conditions. More advanced topics such as avoiding optimizer hints, nesting views, and table valued user defined functions, are also discussed.

SQS405: Naming and Modeling Data Objects
Joe Celko
Naming and modeling data objects correctly is a key component in database design. In this session, you will learn about: naming data elements, readability research, the ISO-11179 Metadata Standards, table names (sets), column names (scalars), procedure and function names (actions), encoding schemes, bad encoding schemes, enumeration codes, measurements, abbreviation codes, algorithmic codes, hierarchical codes, vector codes, and concatenation codes.

SQS201: Optimizing tempdb Performance
Brad McGehee
DBAs often don't spend a lot of time watching tempdb performance. They think of it as a black box that takes care of itself. What many DBAs don't fully realize is how tempdb performance can affect SQL Server's overall performance. In this session, attendees will learn how tempdb is used, how it works internally, how to monitor tempdb performance, and most of all, provide an in-depth look at many techniques that can be used to boost tempdb performance.

SQS306: Scouting Out Execution Plans
Grant Fritchey
This session explores a large number of ways to generate execution plans, and shows the strengths, weaknesses, and uses of each of the various types. Most people are aware of the ability to generate execution plans from Management Studio, but how many know about using dynamic management views to pull execution plans out of the plan cache on SQL Server? If you do pull out an execution plan from cache, what kind of plan is it? What sort of information can you get from it? Did you know that you can generate execution plans directly from a Profiler trace? What types of execution plans are available from a trace? And is there a cost associated with collecting them? All of this information and more will be addressed during this session, including techniques for getting more detailed information out of execution plans as you work with them.

SQS103: The Modern Resume: Building Your Brand
Steve Jones
Steve explores how you can stand out from the rest of the job seekers and update your resume to fit with the modern world by building an online brand. Drawing from his experience, Steve will talk about a variety of techniques that have helped and hurt IT professionals looking for employment.

PARTNER TRACK

PARTNER07: Best Practices for Architecting, Deploying, and Optimizing SharePoint 2010
Mary Leigh Mackie
SharePoint 2010 is poised to revolutionize how organizations connect their people, processes, and information. It will mark SharePoint’s evolution from a server application to a full-fledged platform…the world’s first “enterprise eco-system.” In this session, we will discuss how the changes coming in SharePoint 2010 will affect your platform deployment, administration, and performance optimization strategies. We will outline approaches for efficient management of both application lifecycles and multi-farm, geographically-dispersed environments, review best practices for optimizing storage resources, and conclude with an evaluation of options for consolidating and exposing your legacy content in the SharePoint 2010 platform.

PARTNER03: Exchange Disasters–the Mother of All Inventions
Troy Werelius
Exchange 2010 is the newest version of Microsoft's Messaging system and, naturally, it brings with it quite a lot of new features, functions, and capabilities to enhance usability, scalability and availability, but how did we get here? In this session, we will look at how Exchange disasters of the past helped shape and evolve some of the most innovative disaster prevention and recovery features within Microsoft Exchange. Should the unthinkable happen, Microsoft and others have also created some incredibly clever and useful utilities & methodologies for enhanced protection and rapid recovery.

PARTNER05: iPhonify Your Web App: Understanding iPhone Web Development
Chris Bannon
The iPhone has become a common device in the hands of your end users. You’ll learn everything you need to know in order to build Web applications targeted for the iPhone. This session will give you an overview of the iPhone in general including the specs, UI, and behavior. Plus, it takes a look at some popular iPhone sites as well as the tools you may use to build them. After a walk through storyboarding an iPhone Web app as a concept and developing it in ASP.NET, you will be ready to extend your site to the iPhone without ever leaving Visual Studio. One lucky session attendee will win a copy of Studio for iPhone. Retail value $800 USD.

PARTNER08: Is Traditional Tape Backup Dead?
Bob Spurzem
This session will address trends in data management for data protection, storage growth and legal discovery. Beginning with a review of email application growth, followed by Windows file share growth and finally with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), best practices for data protection and the impact of low-cost disk technology will be examined. Issues surrounding data protection will be discussed relative to end user trends and costs of downtime for each application. Issues relating to storage growth, tier-1 storage costs and application recoverability will be discussed. New requirements for records retention and search for legal discovery will be the final pain area that is examined. Can these major pain area be addressed in a unified solution that is storage efficient? New trends in archiving will be exposed and particular attention will be paid to archiving solutions that take a holistic approach to storage management, data protection and data retention. This session is useful for administrators and IT managers who are responsible for technology spending and planning.

PARTNER01: Maximizing ASP.NET Performance with Real AJAX!
Todd Anglin
While all the focus these days is on RIA platforms like Silverlight, there are still tons of new features coming in ASP.NET 4.0 that are going to make it easier than ever to build high-performance, standards-based websites that give RIAs a run for their money. In this session, you'll learn about the new client-side features coming to ASP.NET 4.0, such as client-side templates, client-side controls, and even a client-side data context, that make it possible to build an application that completely cuts-out unnecessary page PostBacks. You’ll also discover why most ASP.NET developers today are not really using AJAX in their websites- they’re using AJAH (Asynchronous JavaScript And HTML)! Using the techniques presented in this session will enable you to build highly optimized web applications that maximize the power of Ajax and deliver unprecedented interactiveness in the browser- no plug-in required!

PARTNER09: Save Money with Email Management in the Cloud
Perry Fritz
David Goldberg
Think adopting a SaaS solution can help save your business time and money? Having a hard time proving it? In this session, learn about some real-world SaaS implementations and how organizations are saving money moving email management to the cloud. Using calculations developed by a leading analyst firm they will explore how companies can prove SaaS can reduce the amount of time and money spent managing Exchange. From small single-site companies to multi-national conglomerates, cloud-based email management can help take the cost out of your messaging infrastructure.

PARTNER02: Start Planning for SharePoint 2010: Formulate Your SharePoint Roadmap
Errin O’Connor
This session will assist you and your organization in assessing your current SharePoint state and assist you in planning for an eventual upgrade to SharePoint 2010. This session will help you take into account SharePoint 2010’s functionality and how your organization can prepare your Information and Systems Architecture to take advantage of this new powerful release once your organization is ready to upgrade. Errin will cover areas such as Site Structure, Site Collections, Customizations, existing WSS 3.0 and MOSS, and even existing SharePoint 2003. Errin will also discuss how you can properly plan your current 2007 initiatives around the upcoming release so you are not wasting time and your development budget on 2007 customizations when the functionality may already existing within SharePoint 2010.

PARTNER06: Stopping PST File Nightmares with Enterprise Vault Email Archiving
Mark Olsen
Using PST files as a traditional means to archive email can have a direct impact on your storage growth, backup challenges and can introduce risks associated with data recovery, retention and e-discovery. Attend this session and learn how the workflow of discovering, collecting and managing PST files using Enterprise Vault can provide access to historic data while reducing these administrative and backup headaches. One lucky session attendee will win a Kindle.

PARTNER04: Windows Centric Data Management to Assist/Accelerate Upgrades of Exchange & SharePoint
Randy De Meno
CommVault will discuss, showcase and demonstrate Simpana and the ability to use Windows as the heterogeneous data management platform. Accelerate upgrades of Exchange and SharePoint Exchange while providing backup, granular recovery, heterogeneous content search, DeDuplication, archiving and Records Management with one Windows centric solution. This exciting session limits PowerPoint use and dedicates time to live demonstrations of:

· Archiving & recall of SharePoint & Exchange
· Storage management featuring seamless deduplication
· Content search & E-discovery via FAST
· “Release Independence” restores/recalls from previous versions of SharePoint & Exchange to newer
· Policy inspired heterogeneous records management via SharePoint’s Records Center

OPEN SPACES

SPECIAL: Open Spaces at DevConnections
Open Spaces is a great opportunity for DevConnections attendees and speakers to participate in an open forum to discuss various subjects of concern to developers and DBAs. There isn't an pre-assigned speaker and there is no canned slide deck to watch. The Open Spaces event will start with a gathering where participants will assemble and propose topics. Then we will quickly assign topics to rooms and get on with it. You learn through the conversation of your peers without as much structure as you experience in a regular conference session. You can choose to lead a session or participate from the audience. Or you can participate as an active listener. It’s your choice. If you choose to lead a session, you don’t need to be an expert or know anything about the topic other than knowing you want to learn more about it. Be passionate about a topic and share in the discussion with others. Regardless of attendees or topics, Open Spaces will contain the right people to have the right conversations whenever they start and will be exactly what could be when they end. NOTE: Snack chips and cash bar provided. Sponsored by MVP Award Program and Infragenics.