SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch
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SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch

Abstract of the Day

SQL Server 2008 R2 (formerly codenamed SQL Server "Kilimanjaro") was announced at TechEd 2009. Microsoft will kick off its launch tour for SQL Server 2008 R2 on April 21st , 2010 in cooperation with the European PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) Conference. On April 21st Donald Farmer, one of the best-known thinkers in the SQL Server Business Intelligence team, will introduce our new Business Intelligence platform. Steffen Krause, Microsoft SQL Server Evangelist, will present further changes within SQL Server 2008 R2 in the areas of scalability and IT/Developer efficiency.

SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers several breakthrough capabilities that will enable your organization to scale database operations with confidence, improve IT and developer efficiency, and enable highly scalable and well managed Business Intelligence on a self-service basis for your users. Microsoft has built a broad, integrated, easy-to-use, and rich platform for delivering BI which has been updated with the best of data integration and transformation, warehousing, and multidimensional analysis.

On the following days, April 22nd and 23rd, the European PASS Conference will take place at the same event location, giving you the opportunity to attend a valuable set of technical deep dive sessions on SQL Server 2008 R2. We strongly encourage you to not only visit the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event, but optionally also attend the succeeding European PASS Conference to profit from further extensive technical education and networking opportunities. This year the European PASS Conference is putting a special focus on SQL Server 2008 R2 training sessions which are delivered in cooperation with Microsoft and Technical Experts in the Community.

This event will fully be delivered in the English language.

Target Audience

IT Professionals, IT Managers, IT Decision Makers, BI Practitioners, BI Developers. The content delivered in the Launch Event does not require deep-going technical expertise

Event Format, Location & Cost

Full-day seminar consisting of five main sessions which combine PowerPoint-based presentations and live demos performed on stage.

The event participation is priced at € 199 (+19% VAT).

Microsoft will donate €50 per participant to Room to Read to support building a school in Laos.

Event location: Swissôtel, Rheinallee 1, 41460 Neuss, Germany.

Free Software

With your registration for the launch event you will receive a free TechNet Plus Standard Subscription* (value of U$199) - an online software subscription. This new edition offers the following benefits: access to all Microsoft infrastructure products and technologies (including SQL Server 2008 R2, Sharepoint 2010 and Office 2010.) No Enterprise Editions; 12 months subscription; no time limits on software usage; self-serve technical resources for problem solving. More Information

Speakers‘ Biographies

Donald Farmer

Microsoft BI Management, Redmond, USA

Donald Farmer has worked in the Microsoft Business Intelligence team for 9 years, working on several teams and technologies in that time. Mr. Farmer is a popular speaker at international events for both business and technical audiences, with a wide range of interests including data integration, information quality, metadata intelligence, master data management and predictive analytics. He is a Guest Professor at the College of Software and Information Science, Southwestern University at Chongqing, China and is the author of a number of books and articles. Prior to joining Microsoft, Donald worked not only in Business Intelligence but in fields as varied as medieval archaeology and fish-farming.

Steffen Krause

Microsoft SQL Server IT Pro Evangelist, Germany

Steffen Krause is a Technical Evangelist for Application Platform at Microsoft Germany. After working as BI and information management senior consultant for seven years with various enterprise customers, Steffen now supports the SQL Server community for Microsoft TechNet, specializing on large databases, data mining and SQL Server Security. He is a regular speaker at various European events, like TechEd EMEA IT Professionals and PASS European conference.

Agenda

8:00 – 9:00

Attendee Registration

9:00 – 10:30

Keynote: SQL Server 2008 R2 and the Evolution of Business Intelligence
(Donald Farmer, 90 min)

This session will introduce new features of with SQL Server 2008 R2, the new editions and the overall picture of Business Intelligence that the Microsoft BI Platform relates to. Microsoft is introducing radical new technologies this year that will change the landscape of Business Intelligence (BI). But to really understand how important these changes are, and how they will impact your business, we need to look at the history of business intelligence and analytics. There are many familiar problems from the past that teach us much about our present challenges and give us guidance on how to approach the future with a new set BI technologies. We'll take past examples of analyses, compare them with modern tools and look at how we solve these problems in a new, much more powerful way.

BREAK (30 min)

11:00 – 11:15

Optimal Systems - Why Optimal Systems bets on SQL Server (customer and developer advantages) - which role do BI and ECM play and how is SQL Server 2008 R2 employed?
(Dr. Olaf Holst, Optimal Systems, 15 min)

11:15 – 11:45

webtelligence - "Aerologic" Customer Reference: Airline Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2008 R2
(Björn Hennig, webtelligence, 30 min)

LUNCH BREAK (60 min)

12:45 – 14:00

Making Decisions – How Knowledge Workers transform their role with Business Intelligence
(Donald Farmer, Microsoft, 75 min)

In this session we will look at the role of the Knowledge Worker in the departments. Of course, we will explore the Microsoft tools that these Knowledge Workers use. However, we will particularly look at the different kinds of business decisions that Knowledge Workers make – decisions about tactics and strategy, personal decisions about their own work, and very influential “explorations” to discover new directions. We will describe how they, especially those using Microsoft tools, are taking control of their data in new ways, and helping to create new and dynamic ways of working. We will look to the exciting future of Knowledge Work, with new developments from Microsoft and partners.

This session will concentrate on how Office System 2010, in particular SharePoint 2010 and its PerformancePoint Services enable anyone to create and use BI in an organization. We will also introduce the very new Microsoft PowerPivot stressing how existing Excel skills enable self-service analysis by intermediate and more advanced users.

BREAK (15 min)

14:15 – 15:30

Supporting Decisions – How IT Pros transform the game with Business Intelligence
(Donald Farmer, Microsoft, 75 min)

Who are the forgotten heroes of Business Intelligence? The IT Professionals who manage the infrastructure that manages, secures and provisions high quality data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In this session, we review the work of the IT Professional, especially on the Microsoft platform. We will see how IT Professionals can not only be passively involved in BI, but how they can lead the way in their businesses: by introducing BI and delivering an information-rich infrastructure that can change your enterprise’s production, sales and marketing strategies.

This session aims to take a look at BI capabilities of the SQL Server 2008 R2. We will introduce Master Data Management and new approaches to massive Data Warehousing. We will look at the way in which SQL Server functions as part of the overall BI Platform.

BREAK (30 min)

  
   

16:00 – 16:30

HP/Microsoft BI/DWH-Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (Michael Kohs, HP, 30 min)

This session will give you an overview of the next generation Microsoft highly scalable Parallel Data Warehousing solution based on MPP architecture that enables higher scalability, better and more predictable performance, reduced risk and a lower cost per terabyte than any other Data Warehouse solutions. Moreover the session will highlight how the combination of HP converged infrastructure with Microsoft SQL Server’s Data Warehouse Platform for Business Intelligence provides you with a strong, cost-effective solution for driving vital decision-making data to all corners of your enterprise.

16:30-17:45

Additional innovations with SQL Server 2008 R2 (Steffen Krause, Microsoft, 75 min)

  While Business Intelligence is the biggest area of new features in SQL Server 2008 R2, there are many important improvements outside of the BI area. Especially if you have to manage many SQL Servers, the new multi-server management abilities enable you to manage and monitor servers at scale. Data tier applications lower the barrier between development and production. Unicode compression shrinks databases with global character sets. StreamInsight enables processing of huge amounts of events in less than a second.
   

17:45-20:00

  

GET-TOGETHER (DRINKS & SNACKS)
*This is an exclusive offer for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event and Microsoft reserves the right to withdraw this offer any time. The subscriptions will be activated after your launch attendance where we collect your signature and opt-in for terms and conditions at the registration. Activation of the subscriptions will take up to six weeks after the Launch Event. Existing TechNet Plus subscribers are not eligible for the free subscription.

Government Customers: Microsoft intends that the software subscription offered as part of this launch complies with applicable federal, state, and local government gift and ethics rules. If you are a government employee (including an employee of a public education institution), you are not eligible for the TechNet Plus Subscription. Please speak to a Microsoft contact in case you have any questions. TechNet Plus Standard is only licensed to one user and cannot be shared.