Data and his extraordinary adventure into database research

Below is a summary of the three blogs with their retrospective links, which include the end to end cartoon story of Data and his extraordinary adventure into database research. 

Part 1 Data and the Quest for Understanding Complexity

Part 2 Data and his Scientific Journey

Part 3 Data's Codex: The Control of Data Expediently

Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

Here are a whole set of links to kick start your learning of Microsoft Azure services. 

Introduction video

Changes to computer thinking - Stephen Fry explains cloud computing 

Two Portals

• ASM Classic (Azure Service Manager) 
• ARM New portal (Azure Resource Manager) 

Tools

• Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer
• Azure PowerShell cmdlets

Free EBooks

• Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure via Microsoft Press
• Building Cloud Apps with Microsoft Azure via Microsoft Press

Reading to enable the creation of an end to end solution

• Resource Manager Deployment Model
• VPN Gateway how to point to site recovery portal
• Virtual Machines
• Virtual Machines scale sets overview
• Backup configure vault
• Site recovery hyper v site to Azure
• Storage introduction
• What is PaSS
• Traffic Manager Overview
• SQL Database PaSS vs SQL Server
• SQL Database elastic pool
• Cloud Services
• Cloud services how to scale portal
• Active directory what is
• Automation
• Security Centre Introduction
• Log Analytics Overview
• Dev Test Lab
• Virtual Machines Windows Migration Classic Resources Manager

Other Learning Resources: 

• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals via MVA 
• Establish Microsoft Azure IaaS Technical Fundamentals via MVA 
• Dive Deep into Networking Storage and Disaster Recovery Scenarios via MVA 
• Optimize Workload Architecture and Administration Capabilities Within Azure via MVA 
• Azure Friday videos –short videos hosted by Scott Hanselman.  
• Channel9 Microsoft Azure videos –videos on Channel9 
• Microsoft online Azure courses openedx courses

Graph Database Tools and Conferences

The wikipedia defintion of a graph databases is "In computing, a graph database is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges and properties to represent and store data. A key concept of the system is the graph (or edge or relationship), which directly relates data items in the store. "

An introductions to graph databases from a Neo4J viewpoint is described.




Conferences

There a a couple of UK based training conferences specifically for Graph databases

GraphConnect a leading conference for Neo4J , 11 May 2017 this year

Connected Data London has no date yet for this year. Last year's presentations for the conference are available free online to view. One talk "Using RDF and graph technologies at NASA" talk by David Meza, Head of Knowledge Management at NASA is shared.

SQL Server vNext

There is graph support in the next version of SQL Server. The private preview page states

SQL Graph adds graph processing capabilities to SQL Server, which will help you link different pieces of connected data to help gather powerful insights and increase operational agility. Graphs are well suited for applications where relationships are important, such as fraud detection, risk management, social networks, recommendation engines, predictive analysis, dependence analysis, IoT suites, etc.
Initially, SQL Server will support CRUD graph operations and multi-hop graph navigation, and the following functionality will be available in the private preview:

• Create graph objects, that is, nodes to represent entities and edges to represent relationships between any 2 given nodes. Both Nodes and Edges can have properties associated to them.
• SQL language extensions to support join free, pattern matching queries for multi-hop navigation

Kennie Pontoppipidan wrote a great blog post on where to find out more information.

Tools

There are various other graphing tools I have found useful through my PhD.

Graphviz

I have spent some time using Graphviz an open source graph visualization software. Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. It has important applications in networking, bioinformatics,  software engineering, database and web design, machine learning, and in visual interfaces for other technical domains. It is an easy to use tool for quick graphical representation.







NodeXL Graph

Another tool I have used is  NodeXL Graph. NodeXL Basic is a free, open-source template for Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 that makes it easy to explore network graphs.  With NodeXL, you can enter a network edge list in a worksheet, click a button and see your graph, all in the familiar environment of the Excel window. The tool can create some more complex diagrams and provides a few different options.