Microsoft Readies Big Data Service That Includes New U-SQL Language

Earlier this year, Microsoft revealed plans to offer a new HDFS-compatible Hadoop File System data store that could run large analytics workloads called Azure Data Lake. So far, the technical preview hasn't appeared but the company today reiterated that the service, which it will actually call Azure Data Lake Store, will be available later this year and also announced some new services planned for its Azure-based Big Data portfolio.

More at https://redmondmag.com/blogs/the-schwartz-report/2015/09/microsoft-readies-new-big-data-services.aspx

Configuring Files for TempDB database

First article on SQL Server 2016

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/2015/configuring-files-for-tempdb-database/

PolyBase Technology, Instance Feature or Common Feature?

PolyBase is a new feature added to the SQL Server 2016. This feature includes PolyBase technology that enables truly integrated querying across Hadoop non-relational data and SQL Server relational data using standard T-SQL statements.

While installing PolyBase, it is listed under the instance feature.

However, when this feature is selected, in the next screen you will get this error screen.

This means this is not a instance feature.

24 hours of SQLPass is coming

24 hours of SQL Pass is happening on Sept 17 & 18th.  These are short little 1-hour web casts, but may be of interest to someone.  Registration is FREEEEEEEE!!!  

Link to sessions:

http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/2015/summitpreview/Schedule.aspx

Moving Your SQL Infrastructure to Microsoft Azure

Just Another Big Business (JABB) Systems International is a fictional, 2,400-employee business with global offices. It manufactures security equipment, such as surveillance systems, alarms, bulletproof glass and cars, safes and related technologies. Its IT team of 15 is responsible for the day-to-day running of its datacenters, as well as improving the business through innovative use of technology.

https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2015/08/01/moving-your-sql-infrastructure.aspx

SS SLUG August 2015 Meet-up

Wednesday,August,19

SS SLUG August 2015 Meet-up

• 11th Floor, DHPL Building
  No. 42 Nawam Mawatha
  Colombo 00200, Sri Lanka
  (map)
• 18:00 - 20:30 (UTC+05:30) Sri Jayawardenepura
• Language: English

We're back after a month's hiatus. We're sorry that we couldn't hold a meet-up last month. This month we've got two exciting sessions lined up for you...

Sessions:

SQL Server Full Text Search

Ravin Perera, Tech Lead Geveo Australasia

Natural text-search capabilities are a must in modern applications. As SQL Server developers, what are the technologies we can use to provide search-engine-like features in our applciations? "Lucene.Net" is very popular, but comes with a huge integration and administrative overhead. In this session we'll explore the SQL Server built-in Full-Text Search feature which allows developers to fulfill most of the common natural text search needs with zero management overhead. You can integrate natural text-serach capabilities into your databases right away!

About Ravin:
Ravin is a Microsoft certified developer and certified scrum master, who has worked on various types of projects. Connect with Ravin on LinkedIn and Facebook (https://lk.linkedin.com/pub/ravin-perera/2b/466/61b|https://www.facebook.com/ravinsp)

Data Mining: Microsoft Time Series

Dinesh Asanka, Senior Database Specialist Pearson Lanka

Continuing with his data mining series, Dinesh joins us with the Microsoft Time Series algorithm. This algorithm provides regression algorithms that are optimized for the forecasting of continuous values, such as product sales, over time. Learn how to predict trends based on the original data set and add new data to the model and automatically use this data in your analysis.

About Dinesh:
Dinesh is a SQL Server MVP and a long time database enthusiast, and has been contributing to the database community for several years through his blog, technical forums and various speaking engagements. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Dealing with an Inherited SQL Server

If you work with SQL Server you’ve most likely been there at one time or another. Maybe you’ve just started a new job, or you might be a Windows administrator who has been tasked to manage SQL Server, or you might be a consultant who has been brought in to deal with a specific problem.  The end result is that you wind up working with a SQL Server instance and one or more databases that you know nothing about.

More at http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/dealing-inherited-sql-server

SQL SERVER 2016 Data Sheet

SQL Server 2016 has multiple enhancements such as

Mission Critical Performance
Deeper Insights Across Data
Hyper scale Cloud

Below is the link to the Data sheet.
SQL Server 2016 PDF data Sheet

Microsoft's Power BI visualization service arrives July 24

Microsoft's Power BI data visualization and business intelligence service will be generally available in two weeks, marking a major milestone for the new product.

The launch will bring a smorgasbord of new features, including new chart types, a refreshed desktop application and support for collaborating in groups on shared sets of data. Power BI was first released to the public as a beta earlier this year, and is designed to provide ordinary business users with powerful tools to visualize information from diverse data sets in live-updating dashboards.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2946688/business-intelligence/microsofts-power-bi-visualization-service-arrives-july-24.html

SQL Server 2016: Live Query Statistics

A database query times out and you don’t know why. The estimated query plan is revealing the problem, so you remove the timeout entirely. An hour later it is still running and you are no closer to getting the actual execution plan. If only there was a way to find out what is actually happening inside the server.

With Live Query Statistics in SQL Server 2016 you can now answer that question. This new feature offers the DBA a live version of the execution plan with annotations detailing which steps are currently being performed.

read more at http://www.infoq.com/news/2015/07/Live-Query-Stats