In last month’s column, “2012 Might Really Be the End of the World as We Know It,” I described a number of major developments in the IT industry that are likely to disrupt the life of database professionals everywhere. I categorize those four disruptors – virtualization, cloud computing, solid state drives (SSD), and advanced multi-core CPUs – into two broad groups. I’m going to continue an analysis of these disruptive technologies in inverse order. Today, let’s discuss SSDs.
Traditionally, the time between Christmas and New Years is a bit slow. Many people take time off from work and, for those of us still working, it’s a good time to catch up on all of those low priority projects that have been on the back burner for the last several months.
If you find yourself with a few extra hours, why not engage in some first-hand learning with the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2? Here are two great resources to get you started.
First, take a look at betaforsqlserver.com, a partnership between MaximumASP, Dell, PASS, and Microsoft. When you register, you get your own sandbox SQL Server 2008 R2 including support for .NET and PHP, along with Reporting Services, Analysis Services, and Integration Services. It almost makes me believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch!
Second, why not try your hand at one of the most exciting new features in SQL Server 2008 R2, PowerPivot for Excel? You can play with it to your heart’s content at the new Microsoft Virtual Labs, another great service for learning in real albiet sandbox VM Hyper-V labs.
I know in my own case, it’s often tough to find a free server somewhere where I can set up and install the sandbox environment. On top of that, even during a slow week, I rarely enjoy spending my time configuring an entire environment. Why not solve both problems at once with this fast and easy method of learning the news features?
I just posted a new entry on my SQLMag Tool Time blog that you might enjoy. Thanks to my friend and fellow MVP John Paul Cook for bringing Disk2Vhd to my attention on his blog. The free tool is enables migration of a physical machine (PM) to a virtual machine (VM), while the PM is running. You can download it from Microsoft here. John also has lots of other great information about VM migration here. Note that John’s content relates to Hyper-V. So if you’re looking for VMWare tools, keep looking. Of course, if you find similar free tools for VMWare, let us know by posting here!
Thanks,
-Kev
Twitter @kekline
More content at http://KevinEKline.com/
