The Microsoft Entity Framework has a spotty history of inconsistent release strategies, lagging feature requests and other issues, but things seem to be getting better with new leadership and even community contributions since it went open source.
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Posted by David Ramel on 08/22/20130 comments
Here's a troublesome aspect of the Big Data revolution I didn't expect: the melding of mind and machine. IBM yesterday unveiled a completely new computer programming architecture to help process vast amounts of data, modeled on the human brain.
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Posted by David Ramel on 08/09/20130 comments
The SQL Server community this week engaged in a lively debate about limitations of the 2014 Standard Edition and Microsoft licensing practices.
The discussion--highlighted on Hacker News--was sparked by a post by database consultant/blogger Brent Ozar, titled "SQL Server 2014 Standard Edition Sucks, and It’s All Your Fault."
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/31/20130 comments
Microsoft on Tuesday announced the availability of a Premium preview for Windows Azure SQL Database with beefed-up features for cloud-based business-class applications.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/25/20130 comments
Big Data is the future, Hadoop is the tool and Hortonworks is the partner to help Microsoft help businesses navigate the coming sea change in the way they operate. That's the takeaway I got from Microsoft exec Quentin Clark in his keynote address at the recent Hadoop Summit North America held in San Jose, Calif.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/11/20130 comments
The latest version of Microsoft's flagship Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is offered in two versions: the regular SQL Server 2014 Community Technology Preview 1 and the cloud-based SQL Server 2014 Community Technology Preview 1 on Windows Azure, both from the TechNet Evaluation Center. The announcement comes one day before the BUILD 2013 developer's conference in San Francisco.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/25/20130 comments
I guess I've done my part to fuel Big Data hype by writing about Big Data hype--it's kind of a vicious circle. But it's a significant milestone and indication that it's gone beyond hype and is here to stay when the term is entered into the Oxford English Dictionary.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/21/20130 comments
More details are emerging about in-memory capabilities in the new SQL Server 2014, announced at the recent TechEd 2013 conference.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/13/20130 comments
Microsoft today announced SQL Server 2014, designed with "cloud-first principles" and featuring built-in, in-memory OLTP and a focus on real-time, Big Data-style analytics. No specific realease date was provided in the announcement.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/04/20130 comments
A podcast posted yesterday on the IEEE Spectrum site asked "Is Data Science Your Next Career?" That's a question I've been exploring recently in research for an article on the Big Data skills shortage.
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Posted by David Ramel on 05/29/20130 comments
You know Stack Overflow, of course (a recent
Slashdot.org posting was titled "Developers May Be Getting 50 Percent of Their Documentation From Stack Overflow").
So, while doing research for an upcoming article, I learned that StackOverflow.com (which says it gets more than 20 million visitors per month) could provide an interesting take on trends such as the move to Big Data, both from a job-seeking/recruiting point of view and by measuring the number of questions about the technology.
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Posted by David Ramel on 05/10/20130 comments
Cloudera Inc.'s recent announcement of its SQL-on-Hadoop tool is one of the latest examples of vendors trying to make Big Data analytics more accessible. But "more accessible" is a long way from "easy," and it will be a while before your average Excel jockey can take over the reins of a typical company's Big Data initiatives.
So data developers are still key, and those with Hadoop and related Big Data skills are commanding top dollars to meet an insatiable demand for their services. But the very top dollars go to the very top developers, and those folks might have to grow beyond the traditional programmer role.
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Posted by David Ramel on 05/03/20130 comments