forget-me-not panties : with sensatech technology

Nice! This is a joke I nuderstand, but does cause the mind to jog... The Military would probably consider something like this in the future (bringing an Aliens (the movie) type of experience to platoon leaders, where blips just fall of the screen as people die. For business use, this probably isnt a bad idea for workers in hazardous places.

forget-me-not panties : with sensatech technology: "These panties will monitor the location of your daughter, wife or girlfriend 24 hours a day, and can even monitor their heart rate and body temperature.

Based on pioneering research developed by the U.S. military at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), we have brought this revolutionary technology, previously only available to the military, to you! "

OracleAppsBlog - A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant

OracleAppsBlog - A day in the life of an Oracle Applications Consultant: "Jo Davis, an Oracle e-Business Suite Functional Consultant in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia has just started a blog entitled Confessions of an Oracle Applications Consultant. "

From Web Services to SOA and Everything in Between: The Journey Begins Highlights - WebServices.Org

A pretty detailed report:

From Web Services to SOA and Everything in Between: The Journey Begins Highlights - WebServices.Org: "The survey found that while there are relatively few advanced Web services sites � and even fewer bona fide SOA implementations � managers and executives clearly understand the value proposition this new architecture has to offer. A large number of respondents are currently either deploying simple interfaces, or have new projects under development, the survey finds. Most businesses that do have efforts underway report they are seeing tangible benefits in terms of reuse, developer productivity, and cost savings.

The survey found that 35% of businesses have or plan to have a fully functioning Web services infrastructure in the near future. At this point, about 18% can be considered �SOA-ready,� meaning they are part of an infrastructure of standardized, loosely coupled services. For most companies, the hard work still lies ahead. About 24% have simple point-to-point implementations, and 29% are still in the development stages. "

This is a major trend with extreme potential for cost reductions, and its within a stone's throw of reaching critical mass.

IT Manager's Journal | Is the enterprise software licensing business dying?

IT Manager's Journal | Is the enterprise software licensing business dying?: "Siebel Systems Inc. shows the trend starkly. Siebel is a poster child for the bad old days; software that is very complicated and expensive to acquire and implement. Buyers have had enough. License revenue declined 40 percent in the most recent quarter compared to a year ago."

SOA styles | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-05-25 | By Jon Udell

SOA styles | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-05-25 | By Jon Udell: "I don�t often emerge from a conference with a single overwhelming insight, but in this case that�s just what happened. The juxtaposition of the two events helped me reconcile a deep schism between two factions, which I�ll call the WS-* and Web 2.0 camps. The argument, which revolves around pairs of opposing and overloaded words � simplicity vs. complexity, decentralization vs. centralization, agility vs. stability � has been going on for years, but it�s gotten really loud in recent months. "

I'll be posting more SOA stuff in the future - this is an interesting debate... think the alphabet soup of WS-* (which hardly anyone knows all of), and the simpler, plain old XML via HTTP constructs, used by google, Yahoo, Amazon, and other mainstream companies. As a part-time hacker, I personally prefer the straight up HTTP options... Nothing like whipping up some cool perl script to make some magic.

In fact it seems to the only real place for WS-* is in orchestration.... if services will be consumed by their end-point, XML over HTTP is far simpler (and far faster). If you are automating a long process with several decision points though, and if it may change in the near future, straight up scripting may turn into a hinderance...

Google: BI (Business Intelligence) Reporting Engineer

This blog as as good as any to spot this kind of person... A dream job.

IEEE: "
Google is looking for outstanding Engineering professionals who will lead the development effort for creating corporate reports. The successful candidate will be responsible for creating reporting standards, coaching and supporting power users with Business Intelligence reporting tools. This position requires experience in a highly dynamic environment with high service levels. You must have excellent communications skills and an outstanding track record with the user community in order to be considered for this position. "

Experience with Netezza a strong plus.
Experience with Java is required.
Past experience in a large-scale, custom-developed, e-commerce environment with high availability.

PMML: Data Mining for the Masses?

Analysis Services Data Mining supports PMML, but that's the extent of what I know about it.

PMML: Data Mining for the Masses?: "It�s been eight years in the making, but the predictive modeling mark-up language (PMML) is on the verge of going mainstream.

PMML is an XML mark-up language that�s used to describe statistical and data-mining models. Its principal selling point is that it gives PMML-compliant applications an easy way to share data models with other PMML-aware tools. It�s stewarded by the Data Mining Group, an industry consortium that comprises a Who�s Who of data mining and relational database vendors, including lots of familiar faces�such as IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP AG, SAS Institute Inc., SPSS Inc., and NCR Corp. subsidiary Teradata."

Ashvini Sharma : SSIS: Downloading a file over HTTP

Cool stuff popping up more often...

Ashvini Sharma : SSIS: Downloading a file over HTTP: "A question came up on an internal alias about how can one download a file over HTTP. Here's a script that does that, should be trivial to wrap it inside a task if you forsee doing this over and over again. "

Handling Different Row Types In The Same File

Something DTS in SQL Server 2005 does rather well:

Handling Different Row Types In The Same File: "Sometimes source systems like to send us text files that are a little out of the ordinary. More and more frequently we are seeing people being sent master and detail or parent and child rows in the same file. Handling this in DTS is painful. In SSIS that changes. "

Phil Windley's Technometria | SOA Case Studies

Phil Windley's Technometria | SOA Case Studies: "One of the things that InfoWorld discovered doing the two SOA Executive Forums that I participated in was that people have a huge appetite for case studies. It seems that people need to see how others are using Web services in order to get their creative juices flowing. A few weeks ago InfoWorld did a special issue with a handful of SOA case studies. Its worth reading. "

Rob Stevens's WebLog : MOM 2005 Resource Kit

I didn't know about it, that's for sure. BAM is popping up everywhere, probably an indication of just what an easy step it is to implement, and what a high payoff it is when targeted appropriately.

Rob Stevens's WebLog : MOM 2005 Resource Kit: "It still amazes me how many people don't know about the resource kit for MOM 2005 and it is such a great bunch of tools which really add value to any MOM administrator's role. The ability to create management packs quickly with the Management Pack Wizard, Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Wizard, Management Pack Version Checker and lots more. Not to mention cool tools like the Ops Console Notifier.

If you want to take a look at the Reskit, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/mom/downloads/2005/reskit/default.mspx"

EII: The New Must-Have Feature

EII: The New Must-Have Feature: "As recently as two years ago, few folks had heard of enterprise information integration (EII). If a spate of recent EII-related events is any indication, however, EII might soon become a feature users demand.

Last week, Sybase Inc. became the latest large vendor to have a come-to-EII moment. In a surprise move, the database stalwart snapped up grid computing pioneer-cum-EII-specialist Avaki Corp. Analysts say the acquisition at once extends the reach of Sybase�s information management solutions and complements its iAnywhere mobile capabilities."

erp4it: Managing information systems: My DAMA presentation

erp4it: Managing information systems: My DAMA presentation: "I'll be presenting at DAMA/Wilshire this week; my presentation entitled 'Data, Metadata, and ITIL' is here. "

Google Desktop Enterprise Edition

Enterprise Edition: "Why the new enterprise features are a big deal for IT administrators:

Centrally control user features and preferences
Encrypt all user data and search index files
Easily deploy using the included installation package
Test new versions before distributing"

Cool implications. Integration with a Portal? Document Repository? Great for finding old project docs and memos, I would presume... Ripe, cutting edge addition to an IT operations Data Warehouse.

The Hype and the Reality of Business Intelligence Software: Part 1

True!

The Hype and the Reality of Business Intelligence Software: Part 1: "You've heard the pitch: for you, the seeker of Customer Relationship Management (�CRM�) heights, there is business intelligence software that will take you there. With a click of a mouse, you will count and profile your customers, select your names for a marketing promotion and then analyze your results on the back-end. Wow!

But after the initial thrill is over, you might be disappointed for one or more reasons:

The software�s data manipulation capability is not powerful enough.
Data-driven, statistics-based predictive modeling is only superficially supported.
No training is provided for navigation in the dangerous waters of data analysis.
It does not address the issue of data integrity.
Simple queries are�well�simple, but complicated ones are nearly impossible.
Even if you manage to express your complicated questions in the language of the software, to get answers in a reasonable amount of time may require a significant investment in hardware.
There is no framework to translate answers�particularly the more complex ones such as customer behavior models�into the optimization of business decisions."

Building a Business Case for Basel II Compliance

Building a Business Case for Basel II Compliance will be a good webinar if you are in Banking, or if you are intested in one of the significant Banking trends where Data Warehousing plays a great role. Basel II is a set of international Bank guidelines that stipulate minimum reserves and obligate Banks to perform risk analysis in a few areas (in order to prevent very large Bank defaults, as has happened in the not so distant past). However, the regulations are well-thought out, and are being adopted by most mid-size Banks also. This webinar ostensibly explains why that is a good idea, even for Banks without international business.

"Basel II compliance is an integral issue facing your Financial Institution. In the first seminar of this series, over 500 attendees learned how Basel II will impact their institutions.

Now, the second installment in this successful series will help you learn how to build a solid Basel II business case so you can confidently determine whether you should comply, even if your institution in not mandated to do so. This seminar will also go into detail on how to leverage Basel II to gain tangible business benefits.

This FREE Web Seminar, titled “Building a Business Case for Basel II Compliance”, taking place on Wednesday, June 8th will feature a panel of industry experts from SAP and Accenture, as well as representatives from institutions that have been mandated to comply and those not mandated but evaluating the pros and cons. Hear these stories and gain significant insight and a better understanding of:

Key value drivers for building a business case for Basel II compliance
What peers are saying in terms of business benefits of Basel II compliance
How to gain senior management buy-in for Basel II
How Basel II moves banks in the direction of risk management best practices
How Basel II capital calculations can be used as a foundation for determination of economic capital and performance measurement (Shareholder Value Added)
"

Monitor SQL Server CPU Loads

Monitor SQL Server CPU Loads: "This article illustrates how to monitor the CPU load on SQL Server and Windows machines using Windows Management Instrumentation and VBScript to collect data in the Round Robin database and then produce graphs using the Round Robin Tool.
Usually SNMP is used to monitor and analyze CPU loads. This article illustrates how to obtain CPU load information using WMI."

MSSQL Server Reporting Services : Mastering OLAP Reporting: Ad Hoc TopCount and BottomCount Parameters

Finally...

MSSQL Server Reporting Services : Mastering OLAP Reporting: Ad Hoc TopCount and BottomCount Parameters: "As I have noted in many articles and presentations, one of the first things that becomes clear to 'early adopters' of Reporting Services is that the 'knowledgebase' for OLAP reporting with this tool is, to say the least, sparse. (I recently heard an internal 'reporting guru' say, during a BI strategy session with a major soft drink manufacturer in Atlanta, that 'we didn't evaluate Reporting Services because it doesn't do cubes ...') As most of us are aware, minimal, if any, attention is given to using Analysis Services cubes as data sources for reports in the handful of books that have been published on Reporting Services to date."

SAP, IBM Work Together To Get Oracle Database Out!!

Sadagopan's weblog on Emerging Technologies,Thoughts, Ideas,Trends and Cyberworld: "There are a whopping 44,000 SAP customers running on Oracle databases, and IBM wants them. To get them, for the first time ever, it's optimized its enterprise database for SAP applications. The new version of DB, 8.2.2, will include a slew of SAP-optimized features, including self-tuning, self-configuration, silent install, dynamic storage allocation and more."

Dive Into Greasemonkey

Table of contents [Dive Into Greasemonkey]: Off topic, but a heads up if you like to stay on the bleeding edge... If you haven't experimented with it yet, Greasemonkey is going to be very important, and is going to cause alot of grief for web sites in the future.

Essentially, it is java script bits that only work on your browser, at your desktop, but tht can completely change the webpage you are viewing. Smart additions are things like automagically making a Yahoo link appear during Google searches, disabling ads, preventing the annoying new windows that pop up for external links in Hotmail or Gmail, stripping away annoying java script off any websites links, etc....

More threatening uses are mazingly useful scripts to reveal parts of sites the site owners dont want on the same page, improving usability, skipping forms, etc... there;s nothing site owners can do to stop this kind of filtering either.

It's cool, and easy to use if you want to try out. Links to installation instructions are at the link above, and it requires Firefox.

Tom Hollander's blog : Reviewers wanted for Web Services Security guidance project

An interesting call for assistance at, if you ave the skills:Tom Hollander's blog : Reviewers wanted for Web Services Security guidance project

The patterns & practices team has started a project to provide guidance, in the form of patterns, scenarios and background domain information, to help customers choose and implement appropriate solutions for service oriented applications using web services technologies. This is obviously a big space, so we are tackling it in pieces, and the first is (you guessed it) security. We are currently in the early phases of the project, and we are still experimenting to determine the best way of structuring the guidance. Once we feel it is relatively organized and complete, we plan to publish a public preview to get some widespread feedback. Right now, we are still looking for feedback, but since it is still evolving, we feel that we need to give some more personal attention to each of the reviewers to explain what we’ve done and get detailed feedback. We are asking for a commitment from any early reviewers to dedicate a few hours each week to reading the material, participating in workshops and providing feedback. In return you will get early exposure to one of our new deliverables and the opportunity to influence its direction.

Does this sound like you? Please drop me a note if you’d like to participate. To make sure we get the right reviewers at this early stage, please also indicate what experience you have with web services and security, and what kinds of projects you or your organization have undertaken which would benefit from this kind of guidance

Chris Webb's BI Blog: AS2KSP4 unwelcome changes

Chris Webb's BI Blog: AS2KSP4 unwelcome changes: "As I'm sure you all now by now, AS2KSP4 has now been released and is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2000/sp4.asp"

SQL Server 2005 - SQL Server Integration Services - Part 1

SQL Server 2005 - SQL Server Integration Services - Part 1: "One of the SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 features that has undergone considerable architectural, functional, and interface changes, compared with its earlier versions, deals with extraction, transformation, and loading (also known as simply ETL) of data. (In other words, allowing you to move data between a variety of stores and to modify it in the process, according to your arbitrary requirements). While in SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, such capabilities have been provided by Data Transformation Services (DTS in short), Microsoft decided that the degree of modifications introduced in the new version justified re-branding it, hence its rearchitectured and significantly improved implementation has been introduced under the new name of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). For the same reason, rather than pointing out changes that have been implemented since the release of DTS in SQL Server 2000, in the next few articles, we will provide a comprehensive analysis of its SQL Server 2005 equivalent. For review of the SQL Server 2000 version of Data Transformation Services refer to our earlier series covering this topic and published on the Database Journal Web site). "

The ShiSh List : SPS Skin Designer

The ShiSh List : SPS Skin Designer: "James Milne's online CSS designer is a pretty interesting tool for creating CSS files for Sharepoint : http://james.milne.com/SPSkin/"

Oracle products - default ports

Pete Finnigan's Oracle security weblog: "Whilst browsing Alex's site this evening I also noticed that he has another new paper in his Whitepaper and Presentations titled 'Oracle Default Ports'.

This is a useful short paper that consists of a table of a lot of default network ports used by Oracle software. The table lists the port number, the product, the service that uses the port and how to change the default port number if it is possible. "

Database snapshots to feed a data warehouse?

Database snapshots to feed a data warehouse?: "One consideration that worth a mention on this blog is the possible use of Database Snapshots to get a consistent state of a OLTP database and transforms its data into a data warehouse. Database Snapshot eliminates the possible locking scalability problem, while it still maintains the load on the OLTP server during query. If this kind of load is unacceptable for your user (but I imagine a lot of cases where, once eliminated locking problems, this is not a real thing to worry about) you can still use a replica of principal database (or a log shipping copy). A SQL2005 feature which apparently could be useful is the Database Mirroring in asynchronous configuration (so you don't slow down the principal database) but my understanding is that this configuration can't permit a parallel synchronous configuration (necessary if you want to achieve high availability and data protection) so I presume that a traditional approach still maintains some advantage. Database Mirroring is really orientated to offer data protection feature more than a database copy useful to build reporting solutions."

Microsoft�s Ambitions Soar with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

Microsoft�s Ambitions Soar with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services: "When Microsoft Corp. announced its free SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services add-on last January, the software giant was careful to position it as a non-disruptive product entry into an already crowded reporting tools marketplace.
With Reporting Services 2.0, slated to ship with Microsoft�s forthcoming SQL Server 2005 database, the software giant is taking a very different approach. To wit: Microsoft officials have eighty-sixed the humility and are ready to discuss Reporting Services as a product on par with established entries from Actuate Corp., Business Objects SA, Hyperion Solutions Corp., and others.
According to users who�ve put the next-gen reporting services through its paces, Microsoft just may have something to crow about."

Teens Set Trends in Online Interaction

A bit off topic, but I agree with the premise of this article - the nature of friendships, and even romantic relationships, are changing right before our eyes.

What are the implications? There probably aren't any if you ignore such things. If you are in marketing or business however, this stuff is important to keep track of.

The Virtual Handshake Blog | � Teens Set Trends in Online Interaction: "Many of my generation (I�m 39) and older seem to have a really hard time with the idea of 100% virtual relationships being comparable to face-to-face relationships. But today�s always-on teens (those with broadband access) are changing this right before our eyes."

How To Be A Pack Rat - Forbes.com

Meet MS researcher Gordon Bell:

How To Be A Pack Rat - Forbes.com: "'It started out as me capturing all the stuff that I had from various corporations and working environments,' says Bell. By scanning files into a computer, he was able to get rid of sheaves of paper going back 40 years. Everything from memos to magazines to old articles and pictures got added to the archive. 'It was really going back just to see what was there and trying to clean up the past,' he says.

Soon he was also archiving his personal life, scanning in old photos and copying music CDs. Even books were scanned in and converted to text documents. And once the past was saved, Bell put in place mechanisms to archive new data--indeed every letter, voice mail, word processing document and e-mail. Bell even stores every Web page he visits. 'That is a valuable thing, because usually when you go back and try to find that sort of thing again, you can't do it,' he says. "

Interesting! It also mentions that - believe it - he archives all the tv shows he watches, so they will be accessible forever. And then the very real, and very scary part:

"It's something that could be particularly useful in corporate environments, says Bell. "Corporations all have varying problems of how they want to preserve information," he says, "but what I advocate is basically to store everything." Keeping every e-mail and voice mail helps workers keep track of what they're supposed to be doing, and having every document archived makes an excellent audit trail for companies trying to improve processes or identify problems. "

Something tells me Homeland Security has their fingers crossed on this one. Before this stuff goes mainstream, someone needs to make sure Congress rules these devices off limits to subpoenas as a matter of privacy.

Introduction to MSSQL Server Analysis Services: Process Analysis Services Cubes with DTS

Introduction to MSSQL Server Analysis Services: Process Analysis Services Cubes with DTS: "In this article, we will examine the processing of an Analysis Services cube via another of the integrated MSSQL Server components, Data Transformation Services ('DTS'). Virtually anyone that works with MSSQL Server in an RDBMS context, and often within a data warehouse or mart design perspective and related functions, has probably interacted in some way with DTS - if only as an Import / Export utility. Best known as the set of ETL (Extraction, Transformation and Load) utilities that accompany the integrated Microsoft BI Solution as a part of MSSQL Server, DTS does, indeed, perform well within the context of all of the stages of data transformation (examples include type conversions, scrubbing and validation, among others, to varying degrees. DTS also maintains a particularly high-profile role within the creation and maintenance of a data warehouse, mart, or other such source for business intelligence and organizational reporting."

Killer Article!

Killer Article!: "This is great someone took the leg work out of the 2000/2005 debate on speed. This is a helpful article on the performance gain.

http://www.sqljunkies.com/Tutorial/077C7BEB-EB31-4A07-923D-BE309F59D0F8.scuk

Right here from sqljunkies. :) "

Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4

Not really needed,unless you are running on 64-bit Windows:

Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4: "SQL Server 2000 SP4:
Includes a new version of MSXML version 3.0 SP6. With SP4, the OPENXML statement is updated to use a custom-built XML parsing technology designed to be backward compatible with MSXML 2.6.
Includes MDAC 2.8 SP1 except for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 platforms, where it is included with the operating system service packs for those platforms.
Adds the following platform support:
With Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition, SP4 provides support for 32-bit SQL Server applications on 64-bit architectures using the Windows on Windows emulator (WOW64). For more information on specific 64-bit platforms supported, see the Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions Product Overview.
With SP4, you can leverage 64-bit processor architectures using 32-bit SQL Server applications when running in WOW64.

Note: SQL Server 32-bit applications, including SQL server client tools, are still not supported on WOW64 for IA64. Also, currently 32-bit Reporting Services is not supported to run on WOW64 on IA64 and x64 platforms running Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition.
Improves documentation; the Readme documents are reorganized into four distinct readme files for the different SP4 components:
ReadmeSql2k32sp4: Readme for Service Pack 4 for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (32-bit)
ReadmeSql2k32asp4: Readme for Service Pack 4 for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services
ReadmeSql2k32desksp4: Readme for Service Pack 4 for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)
ReadmeSql2k64sp4: Readme for Service Pack 4 for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) "

Data Integration: A Tutorial

From DMReview: This is a conceptual article (like most things on DMReview), not technical, but a descibes a good framework to have when considering solutions.

Data Integration: A Tutorial: "Understanding the Importance of Data Integration
Having a structured approach to managing data integration (DI) projects can be challenging in large and growing companies. A company's information assets can be vast; but all too often, they are stored in application silos. The marketing department has customer demographics; the accounting department oversees purchase histories, payment frequency and contract terms; and the customer-service department maintains problem reports. In order to get a 360-degrees view of your online business, the various stovepipes need to be integrated."

Slashdot on The Future of Databases

From Mark Rittman:

Slashdot on The Future of Databases: "The Future of Databases : ''Ever wonder where database technology is going? This is something that Turing award winner Jim Gray from Microsoft has given a lot of thought to. He recently published an article in which he looks at the many forces pushing database technologies forward, and what those new technologies will look like. Gray writes, ..."

Virutal Machines and Software Development

Phil Windley's Technometria | Virutal Machines and Software Development: "Joel Spolsky talks about how his company uses virtual machines as part of their software development process. He gives several examples of how they use it at Fog Creek: "

Do you use VMs? You should... it is an indispensible tool for everyone that starts using it. Want to try a new patch/version, or try out some new features, etc? It's the perfect and harmless way to do so. So if you haven't yet, get an eval cpy of VMWare or VirtualPC and see what the hype is about.

Once you use it, its just a question of how far you want to take it.... for example, on the cutting edge (im comfortable there) my company recently moved to a new mail server (Exchange 2003). We run the whole mail server in a VM. It's a small company so it is still very responsive. The benefit? A single script run at night can zip up the entire VM and store it as a file. If ther's ever a problem or hiccup (something we are paranoid about, esp hardware) we can have our server replaced and up and running, fully configured with a carbon copy wihin 15 minutes or so. Thus, I get the most of the benefit of high availaility, but with a white-box cost. Of course I would NOT recommend this for large companies and critical servers. Yet. But give it time, I have no doubt that is exactly how things will go.

Where are your backups?

Backup maintenance nightmare:

Time Warner says data on 600,000 workers lost | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-03 | By Lucas Mearian, Computerworld: "Time Warner reported Monday that a shipment of backup tapes with personal information of about 600,000 current and former employees went missing more than a month ago during a routine shipment to an offsite storage site.

The tapes, part of a routine shipment being taken to the site by off-site data storage company Iron Mountain didn't include data about Time Warner customers, the company said in a statement.

The company told employees Monday that the data tapes went missing March 22."

The OLAP Report: Market Share Analysis

The OLAP Report: Market Share Analysis: "Pendse predicts that 2005 will also show strong growth: 'Microsoft will continue to make further gains in 2005, boosted primarily by partner product enhancements, as the Yukon release of SQL Server won't be released until the end of the year which will have little impact on its 2005 market share. MicroStrategy will continue to do well, propelled by its newly released version 8 software and SAP's OLAP share will increase based on the bundling of Business Information Warehouse as part of mySAP. Further market consolidation is inevitable and vendors will need to reassess their market strategy in light of the Microsoft threat."



My comments: Again, Microsoft is is the only vendor to increase their market share (with the exception of MicroStrategy, which is recovering a tiny bit of what they lost over the last 5 years).

Oracle continued to drop, losing almost 20% of their market share in 2004, compared to 2003. Will that change this year? I think it should. 10g BI is a significant improvement and is getting alot of attention as an alternative tat should be considered.

On the otherhand, there were only 3 vendors that increased their market share more than a tenth of a percent - MS grabbed another 1.3%, MicroStrategy gained .9%, and SAP gained .2%. All other vendors dropped or held ground.

And of those 3, Microsoft and SAP give away their BI products for free. That's significant.

Performance Tuning Webcast

Performance Tuning Webcast: "I found a pretty good webcast by Kimberly Tripp on Performance Tuning:

MSDN Webcast: SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning - Finding the Right Balance of Indexes � Level 200

It's probably more detailed than what the average DBA needs but if you're really wanting to squeeze the last bit of performance out of your database, this could be the ticket.
-pj"

Optimizing your enterprise through statistical analysis

Optimizing your enterprise through statistical analysis | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-04-26 | By Ephraim Schwartz: "Robinson says management may lack knowledge of advanced analytical methods that can make a process better than they ever thought it could be. Operational research fills that void. Rather than just taking the data the customer offers, it discovers what kind of data is helpful. When that�s done, you can build models, run simulations, and perform other calculations on the data to understand where performance gains can be introduced. Robinson calls it the engineering of the information content. "

Do you have the guts?