SBI327: A Reporting Services Environment without the Report Server
Brian Larson
The Report Viewer control offers the ability to render local reports without the aid of a report server. This session will demonstrate how, with some additional code, the Report Viewer control can be turned into a flexible report management environment, similar to the Report Manager, all running local within an application. Use a report’s RDL file to determine data sources, dataset queries, and report parameters and then dynamically create all of the structures necessary to execute a report.

SDV423: Advanced SQLCLR: Security Best Practices and Design for Reuse
Adam Machanic
SQL Server 2005 CLR integration is a powerful tool in the database developer’s toolbox, allowing database code to utilize all that the .NET Framework offers. But with this power comes a variety of new challenges. Security, reliability, and modularization are all handled differently in SQLCLR than in T-SQL, and sometimes can be tough to deal with in the new environment. This session describes the issues at hand and explores the interplay between SQL Server, SQLCLR, and .NET. You’ll learn how to leverage the SQLCLR security model in order to maximize your code’s potential for reuse, all while minimizing the amount of work needed to program quality SQLCLR routines.

SDB413: Automating Database Deployment
Gert Drapers
Do you have a need to automate the deployment of your database schema? Learn how to leverage DBSCHEMA files in combination with the command line VSDBCMD.EXE deployment engine. The latest Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR release provides a redistributable deployment engine that allows you to create a database deployment unit, which you can integrate in to your own “database setup”.

SBI324: Avoiding Common Analysis Services Mistakes
Craig Utley
Are you concerned that the cubes you are planning to build, or that you have already built, are not performing at peak speeds or don’t give users the best analytic experience? As business intelligence (BI) grows in popularity and client tools become more powerful, more and more organizations are building data marts and data warehouses with SQL Server Analysis Services. Unfortunately, many companies new to BI with SSAS make the same mistakes over and over without realizing it. Craig Utley has seen Microsoft BI solutions at over 30 companies worldwide and has helped them overcome design and implementation issues. This session examines the common problems with the design of Analysis Services cubes and BI solutions on the Microsoft platform and gives practical advice on how to resolve these issues.

SDV311: Best Practices for Exception Handling and Defensive Programming in SQL Server 2005 and 2008
Adam Machanic
As developers, we sometimes become lax about dealing with error and exception conditions by the time our code gets down to the data level. Exceptions can feel like something that only application code needs to worry about, until you realize that in SQL Server they can have a tremendous effect on your transactions and your data integrity. Learning to properly handle them is, therefore, of paramount importance to those of us who write data-centric applications. SQL Server 2005 greatly improved exception handling options by adding support for the structured TRY/CATCH syntax, but there is a lot more to the story than just that feature. In this session, we delve into the ins and outs of exceptions in both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008, starting with the database engine itself: types of exceptions, when and why they’re thrown, and how the server treats them. Next, learn how to configure and throw your own custom exceptions, as well as how to leverage the SQL Server exceptions infrastructure with a variety of exception handling and defensive programming techniques both with and without the TRY/CATCH syntax. Most importantly, we review the effect of exceptions on transactions and how to take programmatic control over the outcome of your transactions in the face of an exception.

SDB318: Clustering in SQL Server
Ronald Yenko
Have you always wanted to set up a high availability SQL Server cluster but thought it was too expensive or complicated? In this session, we’ll take a look at where clustering makes sense (and maybe where another approach might fit better). We’ll go through a methodology on how to design and set up a cluster (from the relatively economical to mega-powerful). The session will include gotchas and workarounds for smoothly clustering SQL Server Integration Services. We’ll also cover some tips & tricks that will keep your clusters running smoothly without constant attention from you. The session will focus on SQL Server 2008 functionality, but a majority of the features are available in previous versions.

SDB310: Corruption Survival Techniques
Paul Randal
Your database is corrupt - what do you do? Well, it depends! How critical is the data? Do you know what’s really wrong with the database? What does all that DBCC CHECKDB output mean? Should you restore or repair? It’s all about limiting downtime and data-loss when a corruption occurs - from knowing the tools to understanding the implications of choices you make. In this demo-heavy session, Paul will give you insight into how to recover from corruption without making things worse. Most importantly, you’ll get step-by-step instructions for dealing with the more common scenarios.

SBI203: Creating a Digital Dashboard with SQL Server 2008
Brian Larson
Digital dashboards are a popular way to provide key performance indicators (KPIs) to decision makers. SQL Server 2008 provides the tools necessary to create and deliver polished, real-time digital dashboards without a large investment in additional software. This session will explore the creation of KPIs in both a relation and an Analysis Services environment, methods to display those KPIs graphically using Reporting Services. The session will also cover multiple ways to deliver those digital dashboards to end users, including integration into other applications.

SDB322: Follow-the-Rabbit: Interactive Q&A on Database Maintenance
Paul Randal
Kimberly L. Tripp
If there’s something you want to know about Database Maintenance, we’ve got the answer for you! During the week there have been sessions on many aspects of database maintenance, but maybe YOUR question hasn’t been answered. So, bring along your questions as we discuss the ins and outs of keeping a database healthy. This session might not seem as structured as other sessions, but you’ll be surprised at how informative and fun it is! This follows straight on from the DBCC CHECKDB session, plus open lunchtime Q&A - we’ve had such great success with these Q&A sessions that we want to maximize your time in them.

SDV226: Management Studio 2.0: Tips, Tricks, Traps, and Treats
Don Kiely
The SQL Server 2008 story isn’t really about productivity, but the latest version of Management Studio has definitely come of age. There are all kinds of tools and useful information throughout the environment, masking the complexity of and sometimes enhancing the underlying database server features. During this session we’ll shine a light into the various nooks and crannies of this useful tool for both developers and administrators. You’ll learn about the new activity monitor, IntelliSense (and how to keep it from driving you nuts, particularly if you are used to Visual Studio), T-SQL debugging, object explorer details enhancements, and lots more. You’ll learn various tips and tricks to make the most out of this tool.

SBI209: PerformancePoint Server 2007 101
Craig Utley
Are you interested in PerformancePoint Server 2007 but don’t know where to start? PerformancePoint Server 2007 is Microsoft’s new business intelligence (BI) tool that focuses on three major areas: Monitoring, Analytics, and Planning. This session provides an overview of PerformancePoint Server by showing examples of all three areas. See how to build scorecards using the Monitoring server, create reports and integrate ProClarity in the analytics portion, and examine the Planning server. If your organization has already built a warehouse or is thinking about it, see how Microsoft’s newest BI product enables delivery of data to a variety of users.

SDB301: Power - to the Command - Shell
Gert Drapers
Manage your SQL Server installations from the command line using Microsoft PowerShell. Learn how to leverage the new PowerShell script shell in combination with the SQL Server PowerShell provider and CmdLets to manage your SQL Server environments from within a flexible and powerful scripting environment. If you have a need to automate your SQL Server management tasks, PowerShell is your new friend!

SDV314: Practical SQL Server Security for Architects and Developers
Bob Beauchemin
SQL Server security works within the framework of Windows security. In addition, SQL Server adds its own security objects such as logins, roles, users, application roles, encryption keys, and more. Knowing how SQL Server security concepts map to Windows and how you integrate the SQL Server-specific objects like databases, schemas, and external programs is critical to your application design and implementation. This session will also focus on the SQL Server 2005-2008 security enhancements that can make or break a project design.

SDV302: Programming FILESTREAMs in SQL Server 2008
Bob Beauchemin
SQL Server 2008 provides a new storage model called filestream storage. Using filestream storage, a large value (blob) in a table is stored as a file on the file system, rather than in the database directly. Accessing the blob can be accomplished by using Transact-SQL or by using transactionally-consistant, optimizes streaming-style APIs. This session covers the aspects of defining and programming filestreams in SQL Server using Transact-SQL, ADO.NET, OLE DB, and ODBC.

SDV417: Roll Your Own DataDude Rules
Gert Drapers
Gert Drapers Learn how to extend T-SQL Static Code Analysis by writing your own rules! Static code analysis allows you to enforce your own rules in the context of your own SQL Server schema. Now you can extend the existing rule set with your own set of rules, by implementing some .NET classes.

SDB316: Scripting SQL Server 2008 Policies and Data Collection with PowerShell and SMO
Bob Beauchemin
SQL Server 2008 comes with a built-in shell-based programming model for new as well as old administrative tasks. In this session we’ll explore implementing scripts to implement SQL Server Policy Based Management, Data Collection, Network Configuration, and other tasks. The scripts use the new PowerShell provider for SQL Server, which makes it possible to deploy to a group of servers with a single script.

SDV308: SQL Server 2005/2008 Indexing for Performance
Kimberly L. Tripp
Creating indexes to improve specific types of queries can be challenging – there are tools that can help (i.e., Database Engine Tuning Advisor, DMVs, Performance Dashboard) but without a comprehensive workload or an understanding of the internals, you could make the wrong decision (and end up with a wider than necessary index or too many indexes). This session will give you a series of steps to use to tune various search arguments, joins and aggregations, as well as show you how to compare the different options and determine what’s really working! If you’re a developer trying to create more scalable databases or you’re an admin trying to tune existing and known problem queries, then this session is for you!

SDB319: SQL Server 2008 Extended Events: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting Techniques
Adam Machanic
Extended Events (X/Events), SQL Server 2008’s powerful new tracing infrastructure, opens the door to performance tuning and troubleshooting techniques that SQL Server DBAs used to only dream about. Imagine tracking and aggregating wait statistics at the session- level rather than the server level. Imagine seeing exactly how long each step in your query took and figuring out the real cost of that index scan. Imagine capturing an exception with an associated callstack--no more guessing about exactly what component failed and why. When you’re done imagining, open your eyes and attend this session, where you will learn all of these techniques and more. Designed for DBAs and developers who already understand the basics of X/Events, this session will go from 0 to 60 in the first few minutes. You will see a number of code examples and gain an understanding of how to maximize X/Events for performance profiling and troubleshooting purposes. If you are serious about making your SQL Servers fly, this is one session not to be missed.

SDV320: SQL Server 2008 Sparse Columns and Filtered Indexes
Kimberly L. Tripp
Creating an extensible schema – extensible in terms of additional properties for a given item – usually requires a design change such as adding new rows to a name/value pairs table, using XML or a BLOB to store the column set, or just giving up on allowing extensibility. SQL Server 2008 offers a new feature called sparse columns aimed at allowing easy extensibility. However, as the maximum number of columns in a table is now 30000, this feature also seems to allow poor schema design! In this session, Kimberly will explain how sparse columns work and when it makes sense to use them in an extensible schema. In addition, Kimberly will explain how the complimentary filtered indexes feature can provide an ideal indexing strategy for sparse columns which allows this seemingly poor design to shine (and perform!).

SDB307: SQL Server Consolidation and Virtualization
Ronald Yenko
With today’s more powerful hardware and the heat/space issues each new machine creates in your machine room, there are many advantages to utilizing your hardware to its fullest ability (mainly, cost savings). Rather than having many of those machines spending most of their time converting electricity into fan noise, we’ll look at two cost-saving approaches - consolidating databases together on instances/machines and virtualization with SQL Server. You need to look carefully before leaping to avoid performance pitfalls associated with blindly grouping different applications on the same hardware. We’ll go through techniques that will help you find a balance of acceptable performance at the most effective cost.

SDV406: SQL Server Internals - Memory Management
Gert Drapers
There are three key things to understand when it comes to SQL Server scalability and performance: execution, I/O and memory. This session will take you through the internals of SQL Server memory management in order to gain the necessary knowledge to better understand the underlying SQL Server behaviors. Once you understand how SQL Server allocates and uses its memory you will increase your effectiveness when dealing with performance tuning, scaling, and configuration problems.

SDB225: Tips and Tricks for Upgrading to SQL Server 2008
Ronald Yenko
Many organizations are still in the process of upgrading from SQL Server 2000 to 2005. When looking at going to SQL Server 2008, you may have a decision to make - upgrade directly from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008 - or - upgrade to SQL 2005 first, and then to 2008. In this session, we’ll look at factors such as incompatibility issues (e.g. deprecated functionality, security models, etc.), choosing the appropriate upgrade mechanism, and rollback planning. These can help you chose the best upgrade path for your organization. Like so many other things in life, timing is everything. A little strategic evaluation and planning on your part could result in a 2-for-1 upgrade process - saving you both time and money. It could also result in you saving your company from a costly situation in attempting to upgrade to a version your environment for which it is not ready. Most of the evaluations and processes would also apply to a SQL 2005 to SQL 2008 migration.

SDB304: Tracking Changes in SQL Server 2008
Paul Randal
It’s always been difficult to keep track of what data has changed and how - until now! SQL Server 2008 introduces two new featues to allow changes to be tracked more easily and efficiently - Change Tracking and Change Data Capture. This session will explore some of the scenarios where tracking changes is important and give a comprehensive overview of the two new features. As well as explaining how they work and when to use them, Paul will show you the manageability and performance issues to consider for each feature along with tips and tricks for successful deployment.

SBI321: Using Data Mining to Improve SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Data Loads
Brian Larson
SQL Server 2008 provides a powerful data mining environment. These data mining tools can be used to assist with the data cleansing and data validation process during extract, transform, and load process. Let the data tell you which items might be invalid. Only load those records that are most likely to fit your requirements or result in sales. Prevent unwanted data from reaching your database, rather than trying to weed it out later.

SDV305: What’s New, Harder, and Easier in SQL Server 2008 Security?
Don Kiely
Each new version of SQL Server has gotten more secure and more complex. More secure is better, but more complex means that there are likely to be whole new ways of attacking it that no one has dreamed up yet. During this session, we’ll see what’s new in security and how it makes development easier and harder. Overall your applications are likely to more secure, but you’ll need to know more than ever about security to make it so.

SBI315: Why Data Warehousing Projects Fail (And What You Can Do About It)
Craig Utley
Is your organization planning to build a data warehouse or BI solution? Data warehousing projects, like many large IT projects, have high failure rates. While the exact rate of failure for data warehousing projects is difficult to pin down, the causes of these failures fall into a small number of categories. It is obviously possible to successfully complete a data warehousing project and deliver value to the business. Craig Utley has seen Microsoft BI solutions in various states of completeness at over 30 companies worldwide and has seen some awesome successes and some spectacular failures. This session addresses the reasons data warehousing projects fail and how you can succeed in overcoming these obstacles.

KEYNOTE SESSION

KEYNOTE: SharePoint Development: Evolved
Arpan Shah
SharePoint continues to evolve as a strong platform for many different users—especially for the developer. Now more than ever the developer is armed with a rich set of out-of-the-box features, a powerful set of services and APIs, and tools support that enable you to build custom applications that span the discrete Web part to the enterprise solution. Come kick off Microsoft Day at SharePoint Connections with a glimpse into not only what SharePoint has to offer you today, but also to catch a glimpse as to what the future holds for the next evolutionary step for the SharePoint developer.

KEYNOTE: SQL Server Next Generation Data Platform
Quentin Clark
SQL Server has evolved to a complete data platform enabling rich services and comprehensive management capabilities for all types of data. From unstructured data to fully structured data models SQL Server provides a variety of data types and technologies to enable next generation applications. In this session Quentin will go over the vision for the data platform, some of the capabilities in SQL Server 2008 and how they’re being used by customers today and will provide some insight into what’s coming next.

KEYNOTE: The Energynet—The Next Boom in Software
Juval Lowy
The ongoing economy unraveling is the defining moment of our time. Many professional developers are fearful for their livelihood, as employers and customers cut and slash development plans, and as economic activity grinds to a halt. But not everywhere. In centers of technical excellence and innovation such as the Silicon Valley, the major players, from investors to industry leaders, are aligning themselves with the next boom in software, a field Juval Lowy calls the Energynet. To avert a depression, Juval believes the government and private industry will invest and promote alternative energy, both for stimulating the economy and to reduce dependency on foreign energy imports. Alternative energy covers a wide range, from new cars, to micro renewal sources energy producers, infrastructure upgrades to charge stations and distribution, new power and transformation grids, and integration of billing systems, let alone commercial building and homes modification. And the key for making all that work is software. We simply cannot make the physics or the chemistry substantially better, but we can profoundly integrate systems, iron out inefficiency, automate and vertically integrate energy trading, production and consumption; and the key to all of that is great software. This massive new software system is the Energynet, and the analogy to the Internet is a good one–instead of packets and request, the Energynet transfers watts and usage data, connecting anything and everything in the energy market. In this unique session, Juval Lowy will present the case for the next boom in software, share personal observation and perspectives, and point out the skills and expertise required of developers that want to not only survive but thrive on the next boom in software.

KEYNOTE: Visual Studio – Your Development Happy Place
Dave Mendlen
For more than 20 years developers have relied on Microsoft for the most powerful and productive tools. Visual Studio 2008 has already been widely adopted by many developers as their platform of choice, and Visual Studio Team System the preferred solution for collaborative teams. Now, Visual Studio 2010 is on the horizon and presents even greater opportunities for the creation of applications that target new platforms such as Windows 7 and innovative technologies like the Cloud and Parallel computing. This talk will take a look at the best features in the Visual Studio 2008 product family as well as preview some of the great innovations coming in Visual Studio 2010.

KEYNOTE: Web Development: The Next Generation
Scott Guthrie
See the latest innovations that you can use today in Visual Studio 2008 and ASP.NET 3.5 that make building great Web applications easier than ever. From built-in AJAX support to new Web and data controls, productivity has never been the same. Then, get a sneak peak at the continued improvements Microsoft is making in its Web platform and tools. We’ll take a look at improvements in ASP.NET shipping later this year, code-focused enhancements in Visual Studio 2010, as well as new features for ASP.NET 4. We also discuss our strategy for application development to help you make informed decisions. We will even take a look at how you can incorporate Silverlight into your ASP.NET applications to create truly compelling Web experiences.

VENDOR SESSION

VENDOR: Building Business Applications with WPF, Silverlight and the Telerik RadControls
John Kellar
Do you need to build line of business (LOB) applications with WPF and Silverlight in 2009? Do you have the tools you need to be productive? Join Microsoft MVP and Telerik Evangelist John Kellar as he shows you how Telerik is delivering the tools you need to build high performance and visually stunning WPF and Silverlight applications. In this developer-focused session, you will see you how can leverage the RadGridView, RadGauge, and RadChart to build robust applications for both WPF and Silverlight. Since Telerik’s XAML RadControls share a common API, you can easily build an application for WPF and then quickly reuse the same Telerik code in Silverlight. Don’t believe it? Don’t miss this session!
One lucky attendee of this session will win a license for Telerik Premium Collection for .NET.

VENDOR: Dell EqualLogic Solutions for SQL Server in Virtual Machine Deployments
Suresh Jasrasaria
Keith Swindell
The Dell EqualLogic™ PS Series is an ideal storage platform for SQL Server® deployments in dedicated hardware server and hypervisor based virtual machine environments. EqualLogic storage solutions for SQL Server are easy to deploy and manage and provide comprehensive data protection and disaster recovery features. These solutions include advanced software, like Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft® Edition (ASM/ME) and Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware® Edition (ASM/VE) that provide tight integration with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and VMware® ESX™ Server respectively. They take full advantage of EqualLogic’s snapshot functionality to help protect virtual machines while ASM/ME also integrates Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) technology to create Smart Copies of SQL Server volumes using snapshots, clones and remote replication to help secure the highest level of protection for SQL server data. In this session we will demonstrate how you can eliminate hours of tedious work to easily create SQL Server data copies for application testing and development and help protect SQL Server data in a hypervisor-based virtual machine environment.

SQL SERVER WORLDWIDE USER GROUP (SSWUG) TRACK

SSW02: GUI to T-SQL: What Goes on Behind the Scene?
Kat Meadows
Many of us use the GUI tools to navigate and manage our SQL Server. But what goes on behind the scene? How do you do the same thing using SQL Scripts? This session will cover common tasks we use the GUI tool for, and look behind the scenes of what commands we could use instead to create a script that can be used over and over again.

SSW10: How to Manage a Team of Technical Professionals
Kat Meadows
Finding the right people to form a team can be a difficult task, but once you have them, retaining them can be just as challenging. With budget strings tight, pay raises are few and far between, so how can you keep your team satisfied? This session will cover what it takes to keep your team motivated and focused.

SSW08: Nordic – New Object Relational Database Design
Paul Nielsen
Objects and database don’t typically mix well. Nordic is Paul’s open source T-SQL code-gen project that fully emulates object orientation within SQL Server, supporting class/attribute inheritance, workflow state inheritance, and associations with workflow state dependencies and inheritance. Associations with inheritance is very significant feature–it takes the 2D relational model and makes it 3D. Adding workflow state to associations is like adding business logic to foreign keys without any code. Using a generic .NET UI to display the data, Nordic makes it easy to model and build an object/relational database with a clean database abstraction layer. And it’s fast.

SSW03: Should I Upgrade to SQL Server 2008?
Chris Shaw
By now you know many of the new features of SQL Server 2008. It’s a full set of new features that are out there, but how should you decided if you can take full use of those features? With the release of 2008 not to long after the release of SQL Server 2005, many are still on SQL Server 2000. What version is right for you and how are you going to know what version you should upgrade to? This session will take a look at the features and the editions of SQL Server and then ask you the questions that you should answer before you commit to an upgrade.

SSW09: Smart Database Design
Paul Nielsen
Data architecture can be a vague subject. This session provides clear strategic thinking on data architecture using six measurable attributes of a database that can be used to evaluate designs and best practices.

SSW12: SQL for the .NET Developer
Paul Nielsen
As a .NET-head you know code, you can build a data tier, or code a great UI. But if you have a nagging suspicion that your SQL code could be better, then this session is for you. Focusing on the major gotchas for client programmers who also code SQL, you’ll learn how to think in sets so your SQL will flow, when to use cursors and when to write a SELECT, and a few clever tricks to make your SQL more efficient.

SSW11: SQL Server Tune Up
Chris Shaw
Just like you tune up your car, or you head to the Doctor for a health visit, your SQL Server needs a tune up on occasion. In this session we will talk about how to do your SQL Server tune up and what you should be looking for. This session is designed for DBAs and the accidental DBA.

SSW04: The Forced DBA
Chris Shaw
When the economy slows and budgets are getting cut, the company’s databases still need to be taken care of. Has your company turned to you and asked you to pick up some of the slack? What are the things that you must know so that you are ready in case of emergency? How do you go on with doing day-to-day business? How do you know you’re right if you are alone?

SSW01: What Developers Should Know About Database Development
Kat Meadows
So your company has decided to not hire a database architect. You, the developer, are now responsible for the database design, data retrieval and manipulation. Or do you find yourself constantly at odds with your DBA? This session will cover advice and implementations a database professional would use to develop a database system.

MICROSOFT DAY - SQL SERVER

SMS11: A First Look at Large-Scale Data Warehousing in Microsoft SQL Server Code Name "Madison"
Christian Kleinerman
This session provides an overview of the new Data Warehousing capabilities in SQL Server code name "Madison". "Madison" is the integration of the Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) technologies, acquired with the DATAllegro acquisition, into SQL Server. "Madison" builds on the robust scale-up capabilities of SQL Server to enable massive scale-out, into the hundreds of terabytes, for the same low TCO SQL Server delivers. In collaboration with several hardware partners, "Madison" will provide an appliance-like solution that lets customers customize the system to conform to their existing hardware environment.

SMS10: A Look at the Future of Self Service BI
Thierry D'Hers
This session will outline the major enhancement that SQL server is making for BI in the SQL Server Kilimanjaro release. It will provide a high level overview of the new investments made around Self Service Analytics and Self Service Reporting.

SMS07: An Overview of SQL Server Project Codename "Madison"
Christian Kleinerman
This session will provide an introduction to SQL Server’s upcoming Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) Data Warehousing technology codename “Madison”. This release of SQL Server is based on technology acquired from DatAllegro and provides scalability for data warehouses of up to hundreds of terabytes in size. This session will also go over SMP and MPP architectures, and the hardware and configuration reference architectures. Overall this session will help you plan the implementation of large data warehouses.

SMS06: Building Applications with Microsoft SQL Data Services and Windows Azure
 Microsoft
Are you looking to reduce the costs of building and maintaining enterprise applications? Do you want to extend the reach of your applications across multiple devices, locations and partners? SQL Data Services and Windows Azure provides you a friction free, highly scalable platform for building applications. The scale and reach of the cloud lights up a new class of application scenarios. Come see how easy it is to consume SQL Data Services from within Windows Azure. In addition, we dive into Microsoft's new "Data Hub" for businesses and see how this SQL Data Services powered synchronization service allows for data aggregation within the Hub to provide straightforward data sharing between on-premises databases, business partners, remote offices, and mobile users.

SMS02: Building Location-Aware Applications with SQL Server: Introduction to the Spatial Types and Methods
Goldie Chaudhuri
More and more applications need to manage spatial data, such as shapes and locations. SQL Server 2008 introduces new spatial capabilities allowing you to make your application location-aware and manage spatial data. This presentation will take you on a tour around the spatial features: how to load spatial data, introducing the types, their operations and how to use the provided extensibility API to build your own spatial extensions.

SMS08: Data Warehousing Improvements in SQL Server 2008
Amit Shukla
With the 2008 release, SQL Server makes a major advance in scalability for data warehousing. It meets the data warehouse needs of the largest enterprises more easily than ever. SQL Server 2008 provides a range of integrated products that enable you to build your data warehouse, and query and analyze its data. This session focuses on the SQL Server 2008 relational database, introducing the new performance and manageability features for data warehousing. New features we’ll cover include compression, star join enhancements, parallel query improvements, change data capture, GROUPING SETS, MERGE, partition-aligned indexed views, and minimally logged insert, and resource governor. You’ll leave this session with a broad understanding of how these features improve scalability and simplify programming and system management.

SMS06: Developing Highly Available Applications with SQL Server 2008
Kevin Liu
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 provides a range of technologies and solutions to minimize system downtime and data loss. We will review the capabilities and limitations of those solutions such as failover clustering, log shipping, database mirroring and etc. A more focused look at mirroring includes how to setup automatic client connection failover and etc. We will also discuss how to implement a combination of those technologies to meet additional requirements for your organization. Even though HA requires hardware and data redundancy, effective functional utilization of those additional resources is desired for reporting, for example. We will also review the new features introduced in SQL Server 2008 such as automatic page repair, data compression, etc., which can be utilized in the HA implementations.

SMS09: Getting the Most Out of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
Thierry D'Hers
This session will cover the major new capabilities of SQL Server Reporting Services 2008. We will cover the new architecture, major new features such as Tablix, Chart and Report Builder 2.0.

SMS05: Inside T-SQL: Enhancements, Techniques, Tips & Tricks
Tobias Ternstrom
As a database developer and database administrator, Transact-SQL scripts are your life blood. What you don't know is with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) hosted in the Visual Studio shell is that you are missing out on a ton of hidden features that will save you time in the editing, debugging, and execution of your scripts. This session bridges your knowledge gap to save hours a week in time and effort.

SMS03: Inside T-SQL: Enhancements, Techniques, Tips & Tricks
Tobias Ternstrom
This session covers T-SQL enhancements, techniques, tips & tricks. The session will start with an overview of T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2008. It will continue by providing T-SQL tips as time permits for both SQL Server 2005 and 2008, demonstrating how to solve interesting problems efficiently. Examples for tips that will be covered include: calculating non-deterministic row numbers, generating a large virtual auxiliary table of numbers, enforcing uniqueness while allowing multiple NULLs, bushy join plans, date and time manipulation, sorting separated lists of values, inline scalar UDFs, and maintaining custom sequences.

SMS01: Microsoft Project Code Name "Gemini": Self Service Analysis and the Future of BI
Olivier Matrat
You most likely have already heard of Project "Gemini", the ground-breaking new BI technology shipping in Microsoft SQL Server code name "Kilimanjaro". In this session we introduce "Gemini" for both analysts and IT, in the context of Self Service BI. We look at the client capabilities of "Gemini" for Microsoft Office Excel power users, the collaboration features for teams, and the important IT tools for compliance and effective administration.

SMS09: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Warehousing by Demonstration
Susan Price
We present a sequence of five- to ten-minute segments, each of which demonstrates one of the data warehousing capabilities in SQL Server 2008. This presentation is 100% how-to instruction. We focus on how to use compression, new query syntax (MERGE, GROUPING SETS), partitioning, partition-aligned indexed views, minimally logged INSERT, and change data capture, and how to tell if data warehouse query performance enhancements are working for you. Each segment is designed to give you a practical skill you can take away.

SMS10: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtualization Considerations and Best Practices
Madhan Arumugam
Virtualization is one of the key industry trends. Organizations are virtualizing small departmental workload to critical workload to cut cost, provide business continuity and easier management of server. In this session, learn about virtualized SQL Server deployment and some the best practices for creating a virtualized SQL Server infrastructure. We provide insights on performance tradeoffs and cover topics such as using virtualization for business continuity. We also talk about the future roadmap for SQL virtualization. Learn about all aspects of SQL Server virtualization in this session.

SMS04: Microsoft SQL Server Automation on Steroids, Including PowerShell Support
Clifford Dibble
As a DBA, performing the same tasks - day in and day out - limits how much you can meet the demands of your organization. SQL Server provides a number of tools to meet your automation needs that includes Maintenance Plans, SQL Server Integration Services, PowerShell, and DB Mail. This session will demonstrate how and when to leverage the various automation tools that are available to you. This session will also feature how you can use 3rd party tools like SQLSentry to have better control over job execution.

SMS07: Microsoft SQL Server Code Name "Kilimanjaro" Application and Multi-Server Management
 Microsoft
Microsoft announced the application and multi-server management investments in November 2008. With these investments, organizations can immediately discover, manage, and monitor SQL Server instances to simplify database management, optimize resources, and help deliver reflexive operations. In this session we provide an overview of how these capabilities will solve our customers' pain points and demo the latest build. If you manage a growing number of SQL Server instances and struggle with developing, deploying, and managing the data-tier portion of departmental applications, this is a must-attend session.

SMS05: Reducing Storage Cost in SQL Server 2008
Kevin Farlee
Are increasing storage costs hurting your bottom line as data sizes keep growing throughout your organization? In this session, we explore how SQL Server can help you lower your storage costs. We start with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 partitioning to transparently migrate older data to lower-cost storage tiers over time. We then discuss new storage cost-saving functionality in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 such as data compression, backup compression, and sparse columns, filtered indexes, file stream which can get you to 50% or more reduction in storage requirements for typical applications. Throughout the session, we share experiences, insights, and best practices from SQL Server customers and Microsoft-internal deployments. Learn how to make good use of these technologies in combination.

SMS11: Taking Full Advantage of the New SQL Server 2008 Data Visualization Capabilities
Alex Gorev
This session will showcase the new improved charting, gauging and mapping capabilities that was made available with SQL server 2008. This session will be very demo intensive and will show that various ways to take advantage of these capabilities through Reporting Services or Management Studio. This session will conclude and provide a glimpse of our roadmap and investments in this area….

SMS03: Taking the Database Developer Beyond Relational with SQL Server 2008
Goldie Chaudhuri
How often do you need to manage data that does not fit the relational data processing paradigm in addition to your relational data? SQL Server 2008 adds a series of new features and improves existing features that simplify the management of this so-called beyond relational data such as unstructured files, spatial data, semi-structured documents and hierarchical information. This presentation will showcase some beyond relational scenarios that benefit from these features and provides an overview of the beyond relational capabilities introduced in SQL Server 2008.

SMS12: What’s New in SQL Server Analysis Services 2008?
Thierry D'Hers
Whether you are new to SQL Server Analysis Services or an experienced user, the latest version of the industry-leading OLAP software is an important milestone. This session will cover the major new capabilities including designers that provide best practices advice while you are building a solution, management solutions for more effective administration, and deep engine enhancements that make complex calculations come alive with exceptional performance. There’s something for everyone here.

SMS02: What's New in Microsoft SQL Data Services
 Microsoft
Come and learn how SQL Data Services has evolved over the past year based on your feedback. In this session, learn how SQL Data Services delivers on promise of Database as a Service (DaaS). See how easy it is to take an existing class of SQL Server applications and extend them to the DaaS service using existing SQL Server knowledge, protocols, client libraries and tools. With minimal changes, your application will be running in a highly available and scalable service. Finally we touch on the business model, terms of use, and present a roadmap for the service.

SMS01: What's New in SQL Data Services?
Stan Kitsis
Come and learn how SQL Data Services has evolved over the past year. In this session you’ll learn how ASP.NET applications within Azure can leverage the power of SQL Data Services for storage and query. We will also demonstrate the progress we have made towards providing rich relational database capabilities to Windows Azure applications.

SMS04: What's New in T-SQL Programmability in SQL Server 2008?
Umachandar Jayachandran
This session will cover those TOP and exciting new 2008 T-SQL programmability features and enhancements for SQL data types, SQL language, T-SQL procedure programming, SQL/Common Language Runtime (CLR), T-SQL deployment management, T-SQL supportability, globalization, etc. There will be code examples for most of the features and exciting demos for some typical ones.

SMS08: WiE: Building Location-Aware Services with Microsoft SQL Server
 Microsoft
This session describes an internal project to build a location-based social networking application that illustrates and leverages most of the SQL Server product offerings. The solution covers SQL Server Compact, SQL Server Data Services, Sync Framework and SQL Server 2008 Spatial support.