Marcin Policht presents a high-level overview of SQL Server 2012 Integration Services, covering some significant advances in the areas of usability, productivity, and manageability.

You are a SQL Server DBA, and I know what you are going through.

You are frustrated at having to correct other people's work. You are tired from being woken at odd hours, or needed to work on weekends.

And the better you get at your job, the more likely you cannot advance in your career because they need to keep you and your skills right there in that cube. You feel stuck.

We've all felt that way. And I'm here to tell you the three things you can do RIGHT NOW that will help you give your database career the jump start you've needed. Separately each one will help to provide you a boost in some way. When done in unison the benefits (both immediate and long-term) will result in an amazing transformation for your career.

So what are you waiting for? Get started by...

1. Downloading SQL2012

Have you ever been with a senior administrator and thought "wow, they sure know a lot of stuff"? Well I am here to tell you that they weren't born with all that knowledge. No, they acquired it over time. And often they learned it while it was still new. Guess what? You have that exact same chance right now! With SQL2012 comes new features such as AlwaysOn and Columnstore indexes. You can learn all about features such as these and in three years people will look to you as the expert. Trust me.

2. Joining PASS

The Professional Association for SQL Server is a group of individuals who are dedicated to the use and care of SQL Server as well as each other. PASS members are always looking to connect, learn, and share with one another information about current in-depth Microsoft SQL Server content. Through knowledge sharing and peer-based learning PASS members find themselves growing their careers by leaps and bounds as database professionals.

Joining PASS is free. and chances are you can find a local PASS chapter or SQL Server user group close to where you live or work right now. Before I joined PASS I used to think that the day-to-day struggles I faced were unique due to the fact that I was working alone. After joining PASS and connecting with other individuals I found out that I wasn't alone, and I found lots of great resources to help me be more effective in my role as a DBA.

3. Joining Twitter

If you have not yet joined Twitter, there is still time. if you don't believe in the value of joining Twitter then try an experiment. Register and set up a Twitter account and post a question during a weekday afternoon. You only get 140 characters, so you'll need to be brief, and (this is most important) use the following 'hashtag' at the end of your tweet: #sqlhelp. When you do you will find dozens of people available to help answer your question, in real-time. And often these folks are the top tier of SQL pros out there, such as Paul Randal (blog | @PaulRandal) or Jonathan Kehayias (blog | @SQLPoolboy).

Beyond the use of Twitter to answer questions you will find a community of folks that are just there for each other. Think of it as a virtual watercooler where you can go for a quick conversation on whatever topic of choice you want or need. For folks who work alone (from their homes) or for database professionals that work on small teams (or just by themselves in a cube somewhere) the ability to reach out and share your experiences with others makes your world a little less lonely.

What are you doing here, still reading this blog post? The sooner you get started the sooner you can reap the benefits.

Thomas LaRock
Vice President of Marketing
Professional Association for SQL Server
Blog: http://thomaslarock.com/
Twitter: @SQLRockstar

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Transactional logic that works across heterogeneous databases needs to use global transactions. The IBM Data Server Provider for .NET supports the distributed transaction model from the System.Transactions namespace, which has the capability to create and manage global transactions. The code examples in this article show how to use the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET to create and manage global transactions on the IBM data servers.

Encoding in mainframes is EBCDIC, and encoding in distributed system is ASCII. Mainframe computers need to communicate with distributed systems that include Microsoft Windows, UNIX, and other platforms. The EBCDIC and ASCII code page conversion happens in each communication between the IBM z/OS operating system and the distributed system. However, some characters cannot go round trip between EBCDIC and ASCII in some non-English languages. As a result, the application doesn't work correctly. One solution is to modify application code, but that is often complicated and time consuming. This article presents a light-weight solution as an alternative. No application code change is needed, and you can resolve the issue quickly.

The change would unify Java EE/SE and ME oversight.

In the z/OS environment, tuning a DB2 subsystem may require the DBA and systems programmers to wear multiple hats and approach overall performance tuning from several different angles. What approaches are best in which situations?

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A quick start guide to get WebCenter up and running in JDeveloper for portal developers more familiar with other environments like Eclipse.

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) v5.2 is now available. SSMA simplifies database migration process from Oracle/Sybase/MySQL and Microsoft Access to SQL Server and SQL Azure. SSMA automates all aspects of migration including migration assessment analysis, schema and SQL statement conversion, data migration as well as migration testing to reduce cost and reduce risk of your database migration project. 

• The new version of SSMA - SSMA 5.2 provides the following major enhancements:
• Support conversion of Oracle %ROWTYPE parameters with NULL default
• Support conversion of Sybase’s Rollback Trigger
• Better user credential security to support Microsoft Access Linked Tables

Reduce Cost and Risk of Competitive Database Migration
Does your customer have Oracle, Sybase, MySQL or Access databases that you like to migrate to SQL Server or SQL Azure? SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) automates all aspects of migration including migration assessment analysis, schema and SQL statement conversion, data migration as well as migration testing. The tool provides the following functionalities:

• Database Migration Analyzer: Assess and report complexity of the source database for migration to SQL Server. The generated report include detailed information on the database schema, percentage of the schema objects that can be converted by the tool, and hours estimate for manually migrating those schema objects that cannot be converted automatically. The information can be used for your to decide and to plan for migration. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Schema Converter: Automate conversion of schema objects (including programming code inside package, procedure, function) into equivalent SQL Server objects and T-SQL dialect. The tool provides ability to customize the conversion from hundreds of project setting options according to your specific business requirements. A report will be generated at the end of conversion for any object statement not supported for automated conversion. You can drill down to each of the migration issues and obtain side-by-side comparison between the original source code and the converted source code as well as make necessary modification directly from SSMA user interface. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Data Migrator: Migrate data from the source database to the SQL Server using the same conversion logic and type mapping specified in the project setting during schema conversion. Visit SSMA team site for video demonstration of this feature.
• Migration Tester: Facilitate unit testing of converted program in SQL Server.

Simplify Migration to SQL Azure
Customers can simplify their move to the cloud with the SSMA. You can migrate from competitive database directly to SQL Azure. The tool reports possible migration issue to SQL Azure, convert schema, and migrate data to SQL Azure database. SSMA supports SQL Azure migration from Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Sybase.

Receive FREE technical support and migration resources.
Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) provides free email technical support for SSMA. SSMA product web site and SSMA team blog site provides many resources to help customer to reduce cost and risk for database migration.

Download SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) v.5.2
Launch the download of the SSMA for Oracle.
Launch the download of the SSMA for Sybase.
Launch the download of the SSMA for MySQL.
Launch the download of the SSMA for Access.

Having stored procedures returning result sets can become a problem when you want to have control of the name and data type of the columns being returned. Arshad Ali explains a new SQL Server 2012 feature, which lets you redefine the name and data types of the columns being returned from the stored procedure.

Reaffirms Oracle's Commitment to MySQL

Compliance isn’t the only reason to retain large data sets; better historical business reference and real-time analysis, all require access to large volumes of data to gain better business insights. Read on to learn more.

BEDFORD, Mass. – January 25, 2012 – EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services, today announced the general availability of Postgres Plus® Cloud Database on Amazon Web Services. Postgres Plus Cloud Database is a full-featured, enterprise-class PostgreSQL database-as-a-service (DBaaS). EnterpriseDB also announced today that CloudBees and Engine Yard have selected Postgres Plus Cloud Database as one of their leading database solutions.

Postgres Plus Cloud Database dramatically simplifies the setup and configuration of PostgreSQL in the cloud. In addition to support for Amazon EC2, EnterpriseDB has worked with HP to ensure Postgres Plus Cloud Database will run well with HP Cloud Compute. HP Cloud Compute currently leverages the OpenStack Nova compute platform and API.

“Postgres Plus Cloud Database is the only solution on the market today that makes deploying new instances of PostgreSQL or Postgres Plus Advanced Server easy in any environment,” said Ed Boyajian, President and CEO of EnterpriseDB. “And, through our partnerships with industry leaders CloudBees, Engine Yard, HP and OpenStack, customers will have numerous ways to take advantage of PostgreSQL ‘elastically’ on multiple cloud platforms.”

Postgres Plus Cloud Database combines the advantages of cloud computing with the features expected in an enterprise-class database, including:

Fully ACID compliant relational database service Point-and-click simple setup & management with web-based interface Automatic scaling, load balancing and failover Automated online backup and point-in-time recovery Database Cloning Oracle database compatibility Postgres Plus Cloud Database is available now with two versions of its cloud database: PostgreSQL 9.1, and Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.0. Pricing for Postgres Plus Cloud Database on Amazon Web Services is the same as Amazon RDS (MySQL), whether you choose the PostgreSQL or Postgres Plus Advanced Server database engine. On January 26th at 9:00 AM PT Ed Boyajian, President and CEO at EnterpriseDB, will host a live Postgres Plus Cloud Database Launch Event and demo. To register, visit http://cloud.enterprisedb.com/launch-event.

Please join us for our live Twitter chat on January 30th at 10:00 AM PT where Karen Tegan Padir, EVP of Products and Engineering at EnterpriseDB will answer your questions about Postgres Plus Cloud Database with the hashtag #cloudDB.

Supporting quotes:

CloudBees

“With Postgres Plus Cloud Database on the CloudBees Java Platform, our developers can easily build applications that invoke a truly elastic database knowing that Postgres is always backed up and available, but without the hassles of database administration,” said Sacha Labourey, CEO and Founder of CloudBees. “Plus, EnterpriseDB and CloudBees both provide innovative, cloud-based scale-out architectures, which are expected in premier database and application platforms.”

Engine Yard

“We’re very pleased to have EnterpriseDB offer Postgres Plus Cloud Database to developers running apps on Engine Yard Cloud,” said Mike Piech, VP, Product Management and Marketing at Engine Yard. “Postgres Plus Cloud Database will enable our mutual customers to provision both multi-host PostgreSQL and Postgres Plus Advanced Server clusters easily and efficiently.”

Red Hat

“Elasticity and horizontal scaling are critical characteristics for cloud applications, which make Postgres Plus even more attractive for applications in the cloud,” said Brian Stevens, CTO and VP, Worldwide Engineering at Red Hat. “As a leading provider of cloud platforms and infrastructure, we are excited to see enhanced innovation and choice for cloud developers and users.”

451 Research

“We have recently seen a surge of interest in PostgreSQL driven by its potential for deployment in the cloud,” said Matt Aslett, Research Manager, Data Management and Analytics, 451 Research. “With the addition of auto-data size elasticity and horizontal scaling in Postgres Plus Cloud Database, EnterpriseDB has re-introduced PostgreSQL as a database platform for the creation and delivery of private, public and hybrid cloud services, as opposed to simply a database running in the cloud.”

Voices Heard Media

“We needed a low touch solution that was easy to use and could elastically scale PostgreSQL in the cloud,” said Mark Baird, Director of IT at Voices Heard Media. “Tasks such as load balancing, auto-scaling of the cluster, auto backup and auto-failover can be extremely difficult to get configured correctly, but with Postgres Cloud Database you get all of this right out of the box.”

Aquent

“With Postgres Plus Cloud Database, EnterpriseDB brings a welcome addition to cloud-based services,” said Larry Bolick, CIO, Aquent. “As satisfied customers of EnterpriseDB for the past two years, we have been running Postgres Plus Advanced Server on virtual servers worldwide and have been eagerly awaiting a version available natively in the cloud.”

Burris Logistics

“With Postgres Plus Cloud Database, EnterpriseDB changes how we should think about database services in the cloud. Their solution has reduced much of the admin effort, and all of the infrastructure work out of database installation and configuration. It almost seems too easy,” said Ed Krupka, CIO, Burris Logistics. “Postgres Plus Cloud Database is so innovative, especially with its auto-data size elasticity and horizontal scaling. It’s poised to make PostgreSQL the de facto database for the cloud.”

Connect with EnterpriseDB

Learn more about EnterpriseDB Read the blog: http://blogs.enterprisedb.com/ Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/enterprisedb Become a fan on Facebook: Join us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/108046988421677398468

About EnterpriseDB Corporation

EnterpriseDB, the Enterprise PostgreSQL Company, provides enterprise-class PostgreSQL products and PostgreSQL services to help IT organizations be successful with the world's most advanced open source database. The company’s Postgres Plus products are ideally suited for transaction-intensive applications requiring superior performance, massive scalability and compatibility with proprietary database products to reduce overall database costs. EnterpriseDB has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Bedford, MA. For more information, please call +1-781-357-3390 or visit www.enterprisedb.com.

EnterpriseDB and Postgres Plus are trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact

Susan Torrey LEWIS Pulse Phone: 650-492-1921 Email: susan.torrey@lewispulse.com

On March 7, 2012 we are hosting the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event (VLE), to share the latest on SQL Server 2012 and the evolution of the Microsoft data platform. Through our VLE, anyone, anywhere in the world can simply log in and be a part of this amazing experience – consuming content at your own pace while still experiencing all the benefits of a tradeshow event.

What are some great reasons to check out our VLE experience?

You want to learn from SQL Server insiders
Learn more about the new features of SQL Server 2012 through access to more than 30 sessions. Our experts will demonstrate how your business can go further, forward, faster by capitalizing on mission critical capabilities, new features that drive true business insights and the most cloud-ready SQL Server ever.

You want to engage with Partners and Customers
Visit our Partner Pavilion to discuss how partner and pioneer customer solutions integrate with SQL Server 2012.

You want to chat live with product experts and MVPs
Chat live with product experts and MVPs to get the inside scoop. Our team will be on hand to answer questions about SQL Server 2012 and network in the virtual lounge.

You want to engage with the community – and maybe win a prize!
Participate in virtual launch activities like the keynote speech, technical demos and networking lounge, and collect points to earn cool prizes such as cash gift cards, SQL Server Gear, and Xbox systems. The more points you earn, the bigger your prize could be!

Register today at: www.sqlserverlaunch.com

We talk a lot about the features and technical “how to” behind SQL Server, but our favorite topic is showing real-world examples of how it helps our customers achieve their goals and save millions of dollars. One great example of this is The Co-operative Group and their switch from Oracle to SQL Server.

The Co-operative Group operates 5,000 retail stores, and is one of the world’s largest member-owned businesses. The Group’s top strategic priority is expanding its membership base, and they set an aggressive goal to grow to 20 million members by 2020.

But instead of helping the Group achieve its goals, technology and licensing models were a barrier to success. The Group’s previous membership system was an Oracle solution, hosted by a provider that charged per member – a situation where scaling membership would have cost the company tens of millions of dollars. “It would have been financial suicide if we had tried to use the existing solution to accomplish our growth goals,” said Chris Sproston, the head of software development at The Co-operative Group.

To realize the company’s goals, The Co-operative Group turned to SQL Server 2008 R2 and a variety of other Microsoft products and services. Working with Microsoft partner HCL Infosystems, they developed a solution that stores account information, records transactional data and supports web-based self-service account management.

Using this new solution, The Co-operative Group improved member services with enterprise-wide reporting and analysis tools, and increased the security of customer information with highly specific access privileges and transparent data encryption. As a result, the company’s IT department can now spend time innovating and adding features, instead of using its resources to manage new reports or queries.

“Because SQL Server 2008 R2 is so scalable, we can expand from 6 million to 20 million members for 10 percent of what it would have cost on our old solution,” said Chris Sproston, head of software development for The Co-operative Group.

By implementing the Microsoft system, The Co-operative Group will be able to reduce the cost of its long-term growth goal by tens of millions of dollars. And that’s the kind of success story we love to be able to share.

For more information about The Co-operative Group’s solution and how they plan to save millions by switching from Oracle to SQL Server, check out the case study.

Learn some considerations that new software as a service (SaaS) vendors need to take into account when developing applications or modifying existing ones to enable them for multi-tenancy on the cloud. The article discusses the considerations only from a database perspective -- specifically, from an IBM DB2 perspective. Six cases or methods are described.

In this article, learn how to use a DatgaStage extension called InfoSphere DataStage Balanced Optimization to rewrite a DataStage job to enhance performance by sharing or redistributing the processing load among Infosphere DataStage and the source and target databases. Special emphasis has been given to features unique to Netezza Connector, including Action Column, Unique Key Column for update support, and Temporary Work Table. The article also discusses additional features available in the InfoSphere Information Server V8.7 release, including the Filter stage, and multiple output links of Copy, Filter, and Transformer stages.

Experts predict that many more enterprises will launch Hadoop-related Big Data projects in 2012 -- but they also predict that many of those projects will fail.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services offer a wide range of pre-built components, which deliver generic functionality commonly required when performing ETL tasks. While most of them are fairly straightforward to deploy in their basic form, there are caveats that should be taken into account as part of their implementation. Read on to learn more.