Microsoft's controversial decision to position the ADO.NET Entity Framework
has generated a lot of backlash among developers who made early bets on LINQ
to SQL, which the company had released with Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET
Framework 3.5. See my complete story here. I received quite a few e-mails from
developers partial to LINQ To SQL and suffice to say, many are felt left at
the alter.
While some I spoke with are coming to terms with it, others are angry. "I
feel stabbed in the back by this but I'm not moving," said Howard
Richards a principal with UK-development firm Conficient, who says he invested
a year with LINQ to SQL and now feels blind sided. "What annoys me most
is Microsoft's cavalier attitude to its developers in this regard. It took
me six months to port my application from a 'homebrew' data layer
to LINQ to SQL."
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 12/18/20081 comments
There is no shortage of opinion over Microsoft's efforts to point database developers away from its year-old LINQ to SQL data access method to its more recently released ADO.NET Entity Framework.
Microsoft's push, pointed out last week, is certainly not a revelation to those who follow it. But what should one who hasn't followed the machinations of this issue make of it? Or even more pointedly, what about someone who is moving to SQL Server and the .NET Framework?
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 12/10/20081 comments
Developers are reckoning with the fact that Microsoft's
LINQ to SQL data access protocol is getting short
shrift in Redmond these days as the company continues
to shore up its focus on the second version of
the ADO.NET Entity Framework.
Some would argue LINQ to SQL was DOA when it
arrived in the .NET 3.5 Framework just over a
year ago, but in Microsoft's recent messaging
it leaves little doubt that the company doesn't
have any major plans to further enhance LINQ to
SQL. For many, the blog post by Tim Mallalieu,
the program manager for both LINQ to SQL and the
Entity Framework during PDC sealed its fate.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 12/04/20083 comments
Database administrators and developers converged on Seattle for this week's annual Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference, where Microsoft is talking up its recently released SQL Server 2008 and the forthcoming upgrade, code-named "Kilimanjaro." You can read all about that
here
.
One of the key advances that will enable Kilimanjaro is "Madison," the code name for the technology that will allow SQL Server to handle massive parallel processing. Microsoft's acquisition of DATAllegro back in September is providing the key assets in developing Madison.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 11/19/20081 comments
Among many pressing questions that came up at last month's Professional Developers
Conference (PDC) was whether Microsoft's new Dublin app server extensions will
replace BizTalk Server. Microsoft says that's not the plan but it is important
to understand what Dublin is.
Microsoft released the first CTP of its new distributed application server
extensions to Windows Server, code-named Dublin, at PDC. Microsoft first disclosed
its plans to build these extensions in concert with the introduction of its
new modeling platform, code-named Oslo, last
month.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 11/12/20080 comments
The names keep on changing at Microsoft. This week, SQL Data Services or SDS
(formerly SQL Server Data Services or SSDS) became part of a broader group called
"SQL Services." The technology is exciting even if the naming conventions
leave some developers scratching their heads.
SQL Services is part of the rollout for Windows
Azure -- another name that got a lot of people talking about Microsoft's
inability to communicate its promising technology to developers...or the world
at large, for that manner.
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Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/29/20081 comments
When Microsoft
outlined its BI strategy
for future releases of SQL Server at its Business Intelligence Conference 2008 in Seattle last week, the company put forth an ambitious road map that looks to broaden the reach of its data management platform.
Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Data and Platform Storage division showcased three efforts in play. First is the next release of SQL Server, code-named "Kilimanjaro," due out in 2010 and intended to further penetrate the enterprise database market owned by Oracle and IBM.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/15/20081 comments
As I pointed out in
my last post
, Microsoft is rolling VSTS Database Edition into VSTS Developer Edition, and effective immediately those with Microsoft Software Assurance licenses can use both for the cost of one.
The company's goal: get more traditional developers delving into the database and vice versa. But Randy Diven, CIO of Modesto, Calif. produce supplier Ratto Brothers Inc., raised an interesting question:
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/03/20080 comments
With Microsoft this week adding more information about its plans for the next release of its Visual Studio Team System, it bears noting that those that were not keen on upgrading from SQL Server 2005 to the new 2008 release may need to reconsider that stance.
That's because those who upgrade to TFS "Rosario" will need to use SQL Server 2008, as reported by my colleague Redmond Developer News senior editor Kathleen Richards, who points to VSTS lead Brian Harry's blog. "That was a controversial decision, but it is a final decision," Harry writes. "The primary driving force behind it is that the Report Server feature in SQL Server 2008 is sooooo much improved over that in previous versions that we simply could not pass up taking advantage of it for Rosario."
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/01/20080 comments
In its latest bid to show that the Windows stack is suited for the most mission critical applications, Microsoft's release of
Windows HPC Server 2008
this week promises to extend the limits of Redmond's data platform.
I attended the High Performance On Wall Street conference in New York, where Microsoft launched Windows HPC Server and the timing was quite ironic. On the one hand, Wall Street is undergoing a historic crisis -- indeed, the landscape of the entire financial services industry has unraveled. Meanwhile IT vendors made the case for performing complex risk analysis across large clusters that could yield better transparency and performance using methodologies such as algorithmic trading.
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/24/20081 comments
If you're a database developer, you may be wondering how SQL Server Data Services will affect how you build data-driven applications. SSDS is Microsoft's cloud-based repository that is available for testing through the company's community technology preview program.
When it comes to Microsoft's emerging cloud strategy, Microsoft is giving a lot of airplay to SSDS because it epitomizes the company's mantra that enterprise customers are most likely to adopt the hybrid approach to premises and cloud-based services, which it calls "software-plus-services."
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/15/20080 comments
Oslo, the code-name for Microsoft's next generation modeling platform championed by chief software architect Ray Ozzie, is shaping up to have a prominent role at next month's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
While tidbits of information continue to unfold, it became apparent at this week's VSLive! New York show that Oslo will be one of many key technologies Microsoft showcases and that it will center around Microsoft's BizTalk Services, as several speakers pointed out (not to be confused with Microsoft's BizTalk Server, for which the company is planning to upgrade).
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Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 09/10/20081 comments