Microsoft last week updated its cloud-based SQL Azure service, but some users are still clamoring for additional features to bring it up to par with SQL Server.
Service Update 4 enables database copying, among other improvements. Several readers, however, immediately responded to the announcement by asking for more. One issue is lack of a road map of future enhancements planned for SQL Azure.
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Posted by David Ramel on 08/31/20102 comments
So, being a good Data Driver, I was all pumped up to tackle a project exploring OData in the cloud and Microsoft's new PHP drivers for SQL Server, the latest embodiments of its "We Are The World" open-source technology sing-along.
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Posted by David Ramel on 08/12/20101 comments
SQL Server expert and Microsoft MVP Arnie Rowland struggled with how to disperse his valuable MSDN Ultimate subscriptions a few years ago. He ended up giving them to people who pledged to code for non-profit organizations.
That worked out well, so this year he launched a program to award the subscriptions--with a retail value of about $12,000--and more goodies to unemployed and underemployed developers who contributed their talents to a non-profit organization.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/28/20101 comments
Microsoft yesterday released a rough-around-the-edges CTP of a SQL Azure database management tool code-named "Houston," designed to let Web devs easily create and manipulate data-driven apps in the cloud.
"Project 'Houston' provides a Web-based database management tool for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema and editing table data," said Microsoft's David Robinson in the Azure Team Blog announcing the release.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/22/20101 comments
Data Driver, the global leader in database-related blogging, serving a constituency of high-quality readers worldwide, and product of 1105 Media Inc., parent company of award-winning publications and Web sites such as Redmond Developer News and Visual Studio Magazine, acknowledged leaders in the Microsoft developer-related media space and universally praised as premier venues for the best tech-related advertisers to reach sophisticated enterprise decision-makers, today announced how not to write a news release.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/14/20100 comments
Microsoft yesterday introduced WebMatrix, "a new lightweight Web development tool that ... makes it even easier for people to get started with Web development using ASP.NET."
This announcement came in Scott Guthrie's blog, where he previously introduced the three main components of the new beta tool: IIS Developer Express, ASP.NET "Razor" and the new SQL Server Compact Edition, an embedded database.
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Posted by David Ramel on 07/07/20102 comments
Maybe the traditionally acrimonious SQL and NoSQL camps will end up as one big happy family after all.
A new beta tool from Quest Software lets users mix and match traditional SQL data and non-relational NoSQL data in the cloud.
Toad for Cloud Databases, released in beta, aims “to put NoSQL databases within reach of traditional relational database developers,” according to a company spokesman.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/28/20100 comments
“This is a little rough, but I want to get the code out there.”
That's how security expert Dan Kaminsky starts out his Install.txt file that accompanies his brand-new security tool, Interpolique, released in a hurry on Monday to fight recent SQL injection attacks such as those that compromised the Web sites of The Wall Street Journal and others.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/17/20101 comments
Microsoft hinted at some amazing new capabilities coming to its BI products in yesterday’s Business Intelligence Conference keynote, including an "engine of the devil" that allows instant analysis of more than 2 billion rows of data.
Microsoft BI engineer Amir Netz joined senior exec Ted Kummert to demo new technology the company is working on to go beyond current capabilities of its recently released PowerPivot "BI for the masses" application. I previously wrote about a demo I attended that showed how easily PowerPivot could handle 44 million rows of data.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/09/20101 comments
While perusing my daily Google Alerts I found this heading:
"Do newer versions of SQL Server support read consistency equivalent to Oracle?"
I was surprised to see this question was asked--and answered quite ably--in LinkedIn.com Answers. I don't use LinkedIn as much as I should (not enough hours in the day), so I was unaware of this service. Of course, there are many like it (including Yahoo! and "expert" services, where answers cost you money), but I was struck by the quality of the answers on LinkedIn.
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Posted by David Ramel on 06/02/20100 comments
There's a new kid on the block: VoltDB, a "next-generation" DBMS released yesterday that's the brainchild of database pioneer and brilliant iconoclast Mike Stonebraker.
Or maybe it should characterized as a new sheriff in town, because this newcomer to the database market has some serious backing, stemming from a joint project by MIT, Brown University, Yale University and HP Labs.
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Posted by David Ramel on 05/26/20101 comments
A reader has prompted Microsoft to launch a vast new resource for easing the SQL Server set-up process.
Okay, just maybe it's a coincidence. Anyway, reader Brian M.'s complaint about the difficulties of installing SQL Server seems to have hit the nail on the head. Last week he commented on my post concerning a "SQL Meme" circulating the 'Net, gathering gripes about SQL Server.
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Posted by David Ramel on 05/18/20102 comments