Microsoft has made available SQL Server appliances and reference architectures that allow customers to deploy data warehouse (DW), business intelligence (BI) and database consolidation solutions in a very short time, with all the components pre-configured and pre-optimized.  These appliances include all the hardware, software and services for a complete, ready-to-run,… Read more

As a consultant or contractor, you can sometimes be faced with the decision when taking a new contract of whether to go 1099 or W-2.  Essentially, the question is in what manner will you be paid by your client.  Having faced that decision a few times myself, I will fill… Read more

First off, they don’t work for Microsoft.  A Microsoft Regional Director (RD) is an unbiased third-party evangelist of Microsoft products and services.  Regional Directors are members of an elite, worldwide group of technology thought-leaders known for their national and international speaking tours, their authorship of books, articles and blogs, and… Read more

I’m sure in your travels in the field of IT, you have seen or heard of companies being called a “Microsoft Partner”.  If you were like me, you had no idea what that really meant.  Was it something a company got by just paying Microsoft to be in it?  Was… Read more

All the videos for the sessions at 24 Hours of PASS are available for free.  Check the session schedule for a complete list.  Some great stuff!

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Frequently I see a bit of confusion from business users when using an analytic grid on a dashboard in PerformancePoint.  The confusion comes when you right-click on the analytic grid and see a context-sensitive menu.  When you right-click on any of the numbers in the grid, in this case “73,149,028″,… Read more

Imagine you join a company, and there is an existing SSAS database that contains a few cubes that are working nicely.  You are asked to add an enhancement to one of the cubes, so you poke around in source control for the Visual Studio analysis services project, but can’t find… Read more

If you are a developer and are on your own, or working for a company that does not have an MSDN subscription and you are looking at using a bunch of Microsoft tools, you can wind up spending a ton of money.  Or maybe you want to set up your… Read more

With CTP3 for SQL Server Denali available, a lot of us want to play with all the new cool features, as well as the new tools, such as Crescent and Juneau.  The steps below are what I took to create a virtual machine to install all the products needed… Read more

With CTP3 for SQL Server 2012 (code name of “Denali”) available, a lot of us want to play with all the new cool features, as well as the new tools, such as Crescent and Juneau.  The steps below are what I took to create a virtual machine to install… Read more

As a SQL Server DBA, usually the largest databases in size and in number of users that I had to manage was an ERP database, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX.  And because these types of database typically have a lot of users, database blocking was a major concern.  This… Read more

I was having a problem getting the display folder to work for a calculation in SSAS.  Turns out, it will only work if you select “Measures” as the Parent hierarchy:

The display folder (“Acct Calc – Supply Chain”) shows up correctly when browsing the cube, under “Measures”:

However, if you… Read more

Over the years, I have accumulated a set of questions that I usually ask the placement firm about a contract position (W2 or 1099) that I am looking at taking.  Many of these questions will also apply if you are thinking about working as a salaried employee for a consulting… Read more

Because the relationship between application development and the IT operations teams is critical, Microsoft has released a CTP of a new connector between System Center and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 that helps the coordination between development and operations. The connector enables an operations team to assign application… Read more

This is a quick tip to help quickly solve a problem I run into sometimes, and now that I am writing a blog about it, will be able to solve it in no time (a big benefit of blogging is to never have to try to remember a solution to… Read more