SQL Bits session submission

Jen Stirrup and I have submitted a joint presentation for SQLBits - Beside the seaside for the community to vote on.

The Illusion of Communication: Good service made visual

How can DBAs improve the quality and delivery of service to their customers? Standardisation, best practice paradigms and methodology can be used to improve the quality of service provided to the customer. However, unless these achievements are conveyed effectively to the customer, how is the customer going to know what you've been working hard to deliver? Dashboards and reports are the main way in which service information is communicated to customers. However, if the key message is distorted, then the customer won't understand properly - or even be actively misled.

This session takes a look at the historic development of databases systems, challenges, key turning points and definitions of what is a DBA. This is then followed by an overview of standardisation, the application of best practice paradigms, methodology and processes. Key guidelines around dashboard design with an application to service level information will be provided, along with demonstrations of these key design features in SSRS.

George Bernard Shaw once commented that 'The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.' This session aims to help you to review your dashboards and reports, so that your efforts are communicated visually and effectively.

Central Management Server

This is a server which contains a central repository of sql servers which can be grouped in various ways. These could be grouped into customers, versions (2008, 2005) or state (Development, Staging, Production).

This group can be used to connect to SQL Server configuration manager, to run queries, object explorer or to evaluate policies for policy based management.

To create a central management server this can done through Registered Servers on the view menu. For more details

The Central Management Server only works in one windows domain, so if there are multiple domains that require to be managed there will need to be multiple Central Management Servers.

Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2005

The next service pack for SQL Server 2005 has been released. Service pack 4 includes cumulative update 1 to 11, some customer requested fixes as well as database Engine support for DAC operations.

It can be downloaded here.

SQL Bits 8

The next SQLBits conference is to be in Brighton from the 7th to 9th April 2011. More details from http://www.sqlbits.com/

SQL Server 2008 R2 System Views Map

This Systems Views Map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, and the relationships between them.

It can be downloaded from here

Major Database Conferences

I started looking to see what database conferences there are and to my surprise there are a vast number . In my SQL Server field I follow:

SQL Bits
http://sqlbits.com/
SQL Bits has been started by a group of individuals that are passionate about the SQL Server product suite. There is a breadth of knowledge in the SQL Community that will benefit everyone in the community. We want to spread that knowledge. We all work with the SQL community, some of us for many years and have all been given the MVP award by Microsoft...

TechEd
http://www.microsoft.com/europe/teched/
Conference provides developers and IT professionals the most comprehensive technical education across the Microsoft current and soon-to-released suite of products, solutions and services…

Professional Association for SQL Server
http://sqlpass.org/
Stay up to date on developments in the SQL Server world through our focused newsletters, eBlasts, and SQL Server events etc..

There are other professional database specific conferences for Oracle , MySQL, NoSQL… etc along with:

VLDB: Very Large Data Bases
http://www.vldb.org/
The sole purpose of promoting and exchanging scholarly work in databases and related fields throughout the world…

SIGMOD: ACM SIGMOD Conf on Management of Data
http://www.sigmod.org/
SIGMOD's Mission The ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data is concerned with the principles, techniques and applications of database management systems and data management technology…

PODS: ACM SIGMOD Conf on Principles of DB Systems
PODS, the Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, is the premiere international conference on the theoretical aspects of database systems...

ICDE: IEEE Intl Conf on Data Engineering
http://www.icde2010.org/
Data Engineering deals with the use of engineering techniques and methodologies in the design, development and assessment of information systems for different computing platforms and application environments...

ICDT: Intl Conf on Database Theory
http://alpha.uhasselt.be/icdt/
ICDT is a scientific conference on research on the foundations of database systems; it can be seen as the European version of PODS (the ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems)...

EDBT: Extending DB Technology
http://www.edbt.org/
The EDBT Association promotes and supports research and progress in the fields of databases and information systems technology and applications...

DAMA
http://www.dama.org
DAMA International is a global association of technical and business professionals dedicated to advancing the concepts and practices of information and data management...

CIKM: Intl. Conf on Information and Knowledge Management http://www.cikmconference.org/
The Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) provides an international forum for presentation and discussion of research on information and knowledge management, as well as recent advances on data and knowledge bases. The purpose of the conference is to identify challenging problems facing the development of future knowledge and information systems, and to shape future directions of research by soliciting and reviewing high quality, applied and theoretical research findings...

IDEAS - International Database Engineering and Application Symposium http://ideas.concordia.ca/
The aim of the IDEAS series of symposiums is to address the engineering and application aspects of databases. The symposium provides an international forum for discussion of the problems of engineering database systems involving not only database technology but the related areas of information retrieval, multimedia, human machine interface and communication…

DEXA: Database and Expert System Applications
http://www.dexa.org/
Information systems and database systems have always been a central topic of computer science. In addition, the integration of knowledge, information and data justifies its actual attractiveness. Since 1990 DEXA is an annual international conference, located in Europe, which showcases state-of-the-art research activities in these areas...

DASFAA: Database Systems for Advanced Applications
http://www.dasfaa.org/
As an annual international conference in Pacific Asia region, DASFAA is an international forum for academic exchanges and technical discussions among researchers, developers and users of databases from academia, business and industry. The conference will promote research and development activities in database field among participants and their institutions from Pacific Asia and the world as well...

BNCOD: British National Conference on Databases
http://www.bncod2010.org.uk/
BNCOD was established in 1980, as the British National Conference on Databases, as a forum for research into the theory and practice of databases. Since then, BNCOD has become an international information systems conference and has attracted an international audience to discuss the leading research topics of the day in the field...

ADBIS: Symposium on Advances in DB and Information Systems
http://www.adbis2010.org/
The main objective of the ADBIS series of conferences is to provide a forum for the dissemination of research accomplishments and to promote interaction and collaboration between the database and information systems research communities from Central and East European countries and the rest of the world...

KRDB - Knowledge Representation Meets Databases
http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Societies/KRDB/
KRDB (Knowledge Representation meets Databases) is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from the two areas to exchange ideas and results. KRDB meets annually during major KR/AI and DB conferences...

CoopIS - Conference on Cooperative Information Systems
http://www.onthemove-conferences.org/index.php/coopis2010
Cooperative Information Systems provide enterprises and communities of users with flexible, scalable and intelligent services in large-scale networking environments.... The CIS paradigm has traditionally encompassed distributed systems technologies such as middleware, business process management (BPM) and Web technologies. In recent years, several innovative technologies are emerging: SaaS, cloud computing, Internet of Service, Internet of Things, Service Oriented Computing, mash-ups, Web Services, Semantic Web and Knowledge Grid. These new technologies enable us to consider more aggressive solutions for building scalable cooperative information systems...

A database system

Basically, it is nothing more than a computer record keeping system: this is, a system whose overall purpose is to record and maintain information. The information concerned can be anything that is deemed to be of significance to the organization the system is serving – anything, in other words, that may be necessary to the decision-making processes involved in the management of that organisation.

Defined by Date, C.J. (1981) An Introduction to Database Systems, Boston, Addison-Wesley.