Microsoft out of windows into the open

Microsoft is getting into the OPEN in a big way.
First week of March this year Microsoft announced the availability of SQL Server on LINUX for both on-premises and the cloud. The core RDBS capabilities are now in preview but will be available mid-2017. The above image from Microsoft site.


More details here:
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing-sql-server-on-linux/

All the very best on Windows will be available for LINUX as well such as:
Mission-Critical Performance
Industry-Leading TCO
The best in best security
Plus all the hybrid cloud innovations
These all available out-of-the box.

Microsoft is not just for Windows but is truly cross-platform.
The preview is available as of the announcement.
Sign-up here to get more as the preview is limited to a select initial group:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/sql-server-on-linux.aspx

Hands-on Learning Event in Honolulu 1 : Introduction to Structured Query Language

The above course will be offered again (April 14-May 17, 2016) as a non-credit course by the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training.

Course summary:

Databases, organized repositories of information, have become indispensable and in fact even more relevant despite the emergence of Big Data in today's world.

In this introductory course you will learn about relational databases and the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL) including sorting; grouping result sets; using DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL. All SQL statements will initially be written for one table. Most practical, modern and relational databases will include a large number of tables and SQL queries have to access information from several tables. This course will then introduce you to querying more than one table. With this skill you will be able to query two or more tables in a database. This is a hands-on course which will take you from installing SQL Server 2012; learning the ins and outs of SQL Server Management Studio and of course a full dose of SQL.

During each meeting the students will be assessed for their knowledge, competency and proficiency in SQL.

New this session:
SQL Azure Database: SQL Server in Microsoft Cloud
Windows PowerShell for SQL Server

My sincere thanks and best wishes to the January batch of students.

HPE's Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS Standard is hybrid cloud ready

Following the recent announcement of preferring Microsoft Azure for its Public Cloud, HPE (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise) has a box ready to hook up to the Cloud. Dell is also offering a similar system, but the focus is on service enablement and provisioning.

The specifications are here if you are interested (lifted directly from the specifications sheet here). These are highlights but you can get the complete specs at the link above.


It is fast, simple and efficient:
Fast:

• Pre-configured appliances are easy to buy, manage, deploy, and scale
• Accelerated time-to-value with workload optimized mobility and cloud solutions
• Scalability to meet ever-changing business needsSpeed troubleshooting and problem resolution
• Ability to deploy in minutes using HPEOneView InstantOn wizard

Simple:

• One integrated infrastructure with modular building blocks 
• Easy expansion; deploy up to four appliances in the same cluster 
• Familiar management console
• Single-vendor accountability, global support

Efficient:

• Purpose-built for virtualization
• Built-in proven resiliency
• Improved operational efficiency
• Support for a wide range of workloads and environments
• Flexible expansion; open and extensible to heterogeneous environments

Here is the HPE Hyper Converged 250 box

Read regarding Cloud Platform System here. 

Read regarding Dell Hybrid Cloud system for Microsoft here.

Whose property is data in the Cloud?

The recent gains by the cloud vendors may soon evaporate into unimaginable losses if this question is not properly tackled. Going forward investors may want to take a wait and see attitude.

I am a citizen of country X, can country Y ask to look into my data for whatever reason? just because it is on a physical server in country Y. Data on the cloud is geographically dispersed in several countries and I could have my data on several data centers around the world.

This question is easy enough to answer. If I placed the data on the cloud it belongs to me.  This should absolve the cloud services answering requests from national entities. The best place is to go to the client who owns the data. What if they cannot ask the question to the owner of the data forever reason?

The central question is:

"Is privacy a fundamental human right?"

Much of the gains in cloud business would depend on how this question is going to be handled.

Read some recent posts on this:

http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2015/10/20/the-collapse-of-the-us-eu-safe-harbor-solving-the-new-privacy-rubiks-cube/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-privacy-rights-safe-harbor,30379.html

Things you can you learn about Database and Analytics at Visual Studio Live!

If you do manage to attend you can get some new information and brush up on some old stuff. It should be interesting to track the developments.

These are the session details in the Database and Analytics area.

SQL Server of course is center stage. Topics under SQL Server 2014 covers the following:

• SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
• Reporting Services for Developers
• Memory-Optimized Tables and Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2014
• Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Topics
TH03 Implementing Data Warehouse Patterns - Attendees Choose
10/01/2015   8:00am - 9:15am
You will learn:
•Techniques for Populating Fact Tables and Dimension tables using T-SQL MERGE statements
•Special considerations for managing Type 2 Slowly Changing dimensions
•Tips for implementing many of the patterns found in the Kimball methodology
TH07: Power BI 2.0: Analytics in the Cloud and Excel
10/01/2015   9:30am - 10:45am
Get to speed quickly on what Power BI has done since version 1 and what's new in Version
Try to read up on my posts in blogs and you might have already learnt a lot!

TH11: Busy Develoepr's Guide to NoSQL
10/01/2015   11:00am - 12:15pm
You will learn:
•About NoSQLs
•What NoSQLs offer that the RDBMS don't
•When and how (and when not) to use them

TH15  Big Data and Hadoop with Azure HDInsight
10/01/2015   1:30pm - 2:45pm
 Learn what Hadoop is, how it works, what to do to get it running on the Azure cloud and how to integrate it.
Learn how to integrate it with SQL Server BI, Excel and third party tools

TH19  Predictive Analytics and Azure Machine Learning
10/01/2015   3:00pm - 4:15pm
You will learn:
•Learn the fundamentals of predictive analytics, including which algorithms work best for specific scenarios
•Learn how to build Azure Machine Learning experiments and models
•Get exposed to the R programming language and see how to integrate R code into Azure ML experiments

W19  SQL Server Reporting Services - Attendees Choose Topics
[This presentation takes some of the more complicated topics and offers them as choices that attendees can pick for the session.]
You will learn:
•About advanced SSRS features "in action", as implemented in actual SSRS client applications
•The implementation of mass-automated report delivery of data driven subscriptions in SSRS (and also see .NET code used in SSIS scripts for customized delivery of reports)
•A general understanding of Microsoft's current and future offerings for SSRS in the Cloud

W15  Transact-SQL for Application Developers - Attendees Choose Topics
09/30/2015 3:00pm - 4:15pm
[Attendees choose from 25 possible topics - plus you'll walk away with all 25 code samples.]
You will learn:
•About the new language enhancements in SQL 2012
•Where sub-queries are necessary
•To gain some appreciation of performance optimization

W11  Real World SQL Server Data Tools
09/30/2015   1:30pm - 2:45pm
You will learn:
•Techniques for importing existing legacy SQL Server schemas with old, dead code. Basically, how do you take the kind of messy, not-well-maintained databases that I see at customer sites and bring it into SSDT without losing your sanity and giving up?
•About real enterprise application databases that often have references across database boundaries, and how to identify and variable-ize these database objects and deal with cross-database and cross-SSDT project references.
•How to handle incremental automated deployment scenarios from the command line or TFS Build and manage 'lookup' data as part of these deployment scenarios.

M01  Workshop: Big Data, Analytics and NoSQL: Everything You Wanted to Learn But Were Afraid to Ask
09/28/2015  9:00am - 6:00pm
"Who has time to learn about Big Data, Analytics and NoSQL? "
Perhaps you can learn a little bit of all of the above and more  attending this workshop

Read more here: https://vslive.com/Events/New-York-2015/Tracks/Database-and-Analytics.aspx

Abacus - Investing Software on Azure Cloud

You can now manage your investments with SQL Server 2014 backend using Abacus.

Prism Cybersoft has launched an Azure Cloud based investment accounting software with SQL Server 2014 backend. It will cost you $600/yr.
The novelty is it is cloud based. Is security a problem, Perhaps?

With Abacus you can monitor your investment portfolio across various asset classes like equities, derivatives, mutual funds etc. and generate various kinds of reports. Managing it is easy from manual to file uploads or direct integration with stock brokers back office sync.
According to the CEO of Abacus,
“Abacus allows investors to monitor their financial assets across various asset classes like equities, derivatives, mutual funds, and bank fixed deposits. It also generates various financial statements like balance sheet and profit and loss account,”
More here:
http://www.prism.in/services.html
http://www.infotechlead.com/cloud/microsoft-azure-powers-investment-software-abacus-28750

SAP Executive Bernd Leukert's take on IoT

SAP's Bernd provides an overview of the myriad of IoT's that will be arriving at our door steps in the coming months and years. Some of them have already made their precense felt and more of them on the threshold.

As far as busines value is concerned it appears to be a deluge. It is anticipated that billions of devices will be interconnected and our private lives are forever compromised.

From the list of IoT collected in this article there is but one conclusion, it is not just IoT by IOET (internet of every thing).

Here is a compiled list that Bernd describes at length:

• The Internet of Home - HomeKit by Apple for iOS8
• The Internet of Health - fitbit, Apple's HealthKit, Jawbone, Helius System with                          ingestible sensor, etc. but fails to mention Microsoft  & IBM related news
• The Internet of Fashion- Intel's Smart Shirt, Smart Clothing for monitoring and                          acting on body messages
• The Internet of Traffic - Cisco's Connected Transport Challenge not mentioned
• The Internet of Environment -Smart America Expo,
• The Internet of Sustainability--AT&T and the carbon Wra room
• The Internet of Retail- Connected Vending Machines
• The Internet of Logistics - track and trace systems
• The Internet of Assets - enterprise asset management
• The Internet of Design -smart products
• The Internet of Manufacturing-100 Million M2M devices going to grow 7 times more
• The Internet of supply Chain- Jetsons Supply Chain, autmatic warehousing and transport

Read details here:
http://scn.sap.com/community/business-trends/blog/2014/07/07/the-internet-of-every-thing?source=email-americas-sapflash-newsletter-20141201&lf1=6091096760b816620489302b33654442

All this is fine but the lingering questions raised by many is really about security. Do all vendors address security issues at the same level of seriousness? For example, a toothbursh manufacturer (with low resources at his disposal) making his device an IoT may very well compromise other connected devices. One cannot assume that the hackers will sit by silently. They will have more opportunity to diversify. If they can hack Google, Microsfot they can hack into the smaller fries.
 

Azure SQL Databases going to cost even lower after September 2014

Another name is price war and the battle is on going on all fronts. There has been news on the
internet regarding Microsoft's pricewar with Amazon and Google vis-a vis its cloud offerings.
http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-
as-a-service/microsoft-battles-google-amazon-in-
cloud-price-war/d/d-id/1141625

Although Cloud business (the thriving one) is only a small part of Microsoft right now it makes sense to make it invincible.

http://www.citeworld.com/article/2456966/business-money/microsofts-cloud-business-is-on-fire.html

Old prices and service tiers here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/05/microsoft-azure-sql-database-service.html

Come September the price for Azure SQL Databases will be  slashed.
Reduced pricing and enhanced SLA available in September. Read here:
http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2014/08/26/new-azure-sql-database-service-tiers-generally-available-in-september-with-reduced-pricing-and-enhanced-sla/

The new pricing is as in the following image from the above site:

Note that a new S0(S-Zero) performance level has been added in the Standard tier meant for lower-cost entry point.

Microsoft offers in 2014: Desktop as a Service(DaaS)

This article details the Microsoft roadmap of major updates taking place (some have already) in 2014. For details follow this link:
http://rcpmag.com/articles/2011/02/01/the-2011-microsoft-product-roadmap.aspx

Here is a screen shot of the updates that are planned from the above site.

In the above you may read Windows "Threshold" as Windows 8.2 or Windows 9 (sometime in 2015).
Among the anticipated events is the release of Azure Remote App, your desktop in the Azure cloud.

It is called "Mohoro" for now . It is serving Desktop as a service. In essence it is the Remote Desktop idea bundled up and hoisted in the cloud.

Does this put PC's out of business? The PC business is already hurting.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/02/microsoft-mohoro-virtualization-service/

Here is a picture from the above site.

 

Microsoft, SAP Alliance - Enriching the Cloud

Microsoft canopy in the cloud.

Your employees can now dig deeper to get value out of your business and the Microsoft / SAP alliance makes it lot more flexible, lot easier and more enriching. Now, this alliance makes it possible to have integrated solutions  meshing up these two technologies making the any where, anytime information critical to business available without much effort.

This alliance covers all of MSFT, Cloud, Mobile, Office, BI, etc..

There are many facets to this alliance which can be briefly summarized as follows:

• PowerBI connectivity to SAP Business Objects
• SAP on Windows 8
• SAP Gateway (GWM) for Microsoft
• SQL Server for SAP installations
• Real time  SAP data access in the Azure cloud-Customers can run SAP Applications, Databases, platforms to run in the cloud

This comes not so long after its alliance with Oracle. Microsoft Azure has spread its tentacles so to speak far and wide. Review the following posts.

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/03/windows-azureoracle-colloboration-is.html
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/09/oracle-software-on-windows-azure.html