As many of you would know by now, these days I am attempting to summarize my experience at Tech-Ed 2012 (India) held from March 21-23, 2012 at Bengaluru, India.

March 23, 2012 was the day I was most looking forward to – because it was SQL Server Day! Today was the day when TechEd had a dedicated track – Know your Data – a Day in the life of a DBA. It was also the festival of Ugadi, and hence there was very little traffic on the roads of Bengaluru. I had worked till late the night before, but that did not stop me from gulping down 2 cups of coffee and reaching the venue before time! Without much ado, I will get right on with the details of the day’s proceedings.

Day 03 – Keynote

Although Day 3 had 2 starting keynotes, the SQL Server track was going to be held at the same location where the Visual Studio sessions were held the day before. A lot of people turned up and hence doors had to be closed for new entries. With no overflow lots, I did not want to be late to the sessions. I wanted to be sure to be ahead in the line, get a seat and then not move at all!

I, therefore, attended only the first keynote by Chakrapani Gollapalli, General Manager – Consumer Channels Group,Microsoft India. Aptly titled – “This year, Microsoft will kick some A**”, this session was about the presence of Microsoft in the consumer community.

Here are some highlights of Microsoft’s achievements in 2011:

1 Million downloads of Windows 8 customer preview within 24 hours of it’s release

The growth of the Windows phone – Called a “design gem” – 65,000+ apps, 500+ new features and 100,000+ registered developers

The XBOX 360 tops the Nintendo Wii & the PS3 for the 1st time in yearly global sales

The consumer channels group focuses on 4 products (Windows, Windows Phone, Office and the XBOX) through 4 channels – Retailers, Operators, OEMs and Direct marketing.

After the TechEd, I have 2 more things on my wish-list – the Windows Phone and the XBOX 360! Microsoft has truly lived up to their customer mission of “creating a product desire through an unbroken demand chain”.

Day 03 – Sessions

Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified

Speaker: Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T)

This one did not make me cry – was it really about onions? Well, jokes apart, the topic was all about SQL Server internals and therefore, there was no possibility of demos. Even then, Vinod had the audience hooked.

The key takeaways from this session were:

• How does storage alignment (512b v/s 512E) impact SQL Server?
  
• Security changes inside SQL Server 2012
  
  
  
  • 19 new permissions now available
    
  • How it is possible to unknowingly violate the principle of least privileges?
    
  • Virtual Account, Service Account with SID
  
  
• Recovery Time Objectives, Recovery Point Objectives & how SQL Server 2012 will help improve them
  
  
  
  • Changes to check-pointing (direct v/s indirect check-pointing)
    
  • VLFs and the associated changes done in SQL Server 2012
    
  • Finally, a lesson to not only design a good backup/restore strategy, but to also test it!
  
  
• Memory changes
  
  
  
  • Multi-page allocator
    
  • Can you have more than 8K pages in the buffer pool?
    
  • Is the max. memory setting on your SQL Server accurate?
  
  
• AWE is no longer supported in SQL Server 2012
  
  
  
  • 32-bit guys – UPGRADE!
  
  
• And, by the way, SQL Server licensing has changed – it’s now a core-based license as opposed to a socket-based model

Read more about it on Vinod’s Blog here: http://blogs.extremeexperts.com/2012/03/08/teched-india-2012-sql-server-internals/

The first session, the keynote just got over, and look at the crowd ready for Vinod’s session

How does storage alignment (512b v/s 512E) impact SQL Server?

Here’s how FSUTIL can help SQL DBAs..

Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance

Speaker: Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T)

Performance tuning is a very hot topic for all SQL Server sessions. But, performance benefits and issues due to parallelism within SQL Server is something that no speaker has ever talked about in India. Pinal took it up and presented a whole series of demos on how parallelism affects query performance and how to use DMVs to detect parallelism issues. With a very practical example involving a manager and 8 employees, Pinal demonstrated the scenarios in which one would want parallelism and where one would want to avoid it. The key takeaways were:

• SQL Server is smart enough to make the right choice
  
• It depends – doesn’t exist in the case of SQL Server. There’s always an answer for a question

Read more about his session at: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/03/13/sql-server-speed-up-parallel-processes-and-unparalleled-performance-teched-2012-india/ and http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/03/22/sql-server-techedin-presenting-tomorrow-on-speed-up-parallel-processes-and-unparalleled-performance-at-teched-india-2012/

Pinal explaining what Parallelism is

Pinal congratulating a participant for a correct answer

More serious stuff – detecting and fixing parallelism issues

Keep your database available: ALWAYS-ON

Speaker: Balmukund Lakhani (B|T)

One of the most awaited features in SQL Server 2012, the High-availability & Always ON enhancements were demonstrated by the one and only – Balmukund. The key takeaways were:

• AlwaysON extends Windows clustering
  
• A shared storage disk is no longer required to configure clustering
  
• One Primary database, four secondary replicas, and two secondary synchronous replicas can be configured
  
• Readable secondaries, supporting DBCC and backups
  
• Log backup and Full backup with COPY_ONLY option can be performed on any replicas
  
• Log backups done on all replicas does not break across replicas and therefore can be used as part of recovery strategy

Read more about the session at: http://sqlserver-help.com/2012/03/20/keep-databases-always-availablealwaysonteched-2012-india/

Explaining the backup capabilities of AlwaysON replicas

Demonstrating the configuration of a “primary” secondary

Lesser Known Facts of SQL Server Backup & Restore

Speaker: Amit Banerjee (B|T)

Backup & Restores are something without which a DBA’s day isn’t complete. Amit Banerjee demystified some of the many myths around backups & restores within SQL Server.

• Three types of Backup Methods are available within SQL Server:
  
  
  
  • T-SQL (the “regular” one)
    
  • VSS (Volume shadow backups)
    
  • VDI (Virtual Device Interface backups)
  
  
• What causes an I/O freeze error during 3rd party backups and is it really an error to be worried about?
  
• For VSS storage, should the underlying backup software also need to support the features extended by SQL Server to use shadow backups?
  
• Various types of backups and their significance:
  
  
  
  • Full/Differential backups
    
  • Log backups
    
  • File & File Group backups
  
  
• Piecemeal restore of a database
  
• What is the importance of the buffer count and max. transfer size values?
  
• Learnt that there is a tool called SQLBackup Simulator that can help troubleshoot failed backups!

Read more about this session on Amit Banerjee’s blog at: http://troubleshootingsql.com/2012/03/13/teched-india-2012-session/

What is this backup/restore all about?

A light-hearted spoof on Balmukund Lakhani (B|T) to break the ice with the audience

Demonstrating SQLBackup Simulator

Day 03 – TechEd 2012 – Closing keynote

After 3 days of power-packed sessions, networking and demos, it was finally time to end TechEd 2012. As we moved towards the keynote area, fans came over to meet Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T) and get their copies of the SQL Server Interview Questions & Answers book signed by him.

Pinal Dave signing a copy of his book for a fan. In the background: Rajashekaran Vengalil

Seize The Opportunity

The closing note started off by a Kolaveri dance by none other than Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager, Academia, Microsoft Corporation. With absolutely no room (standing, sitting or otherwise), the key takeaways from his session were:

• TechEd India 2012 was the biggest TechEd India event ever
  
• How Microsoft has studied and followed Hype cycles to commoditize IT
  
• Data scientist will be a new profession
  
• Social networking is going to change in the future
  
• It is the time for the developer community to think bold, act big and create differentiated applications to stay ahead – it’s time to seize the opportunity!

The fully-packed keynote hall. Every soul that attended TechEd was here.

Moorthy doing a little “Kolaveri”

Moorthy Uppaluri beginning the closing keynote of TechEd 2012

The hype cycles that Microsoft is current riding

The success stories of India – why India needs to seize the opportunity? 1. Young Entrepreneurs 2. Internet Growth – fastest growing 3G market 3. One of the largest mobile user base 4. Host of the one of the costliest sports – the Indian Grand Prix 5. E-commerce 6. Hollywood is now coming to Bollywood!

The Microsoft Momentum

Presenting the winners of the Windows 8 camp (Hyderabad and Bengaluru) with Intel laptops

Some of the best and most re-tweeted tweets were presented with a gift

The “Go DOs” – 3 key takeaways for all developers

It was a privilege attending TechEd 2012. I will be back for TechEd 2013! Thank-you Microsoft!

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

As many of you would know by now, these days I am attempting to summarize my experience at Tech-Ed 2012 (India) held from March 21-23, 2012 at Bengaluru, India.

March 23, 2012 was the day I was most looking forward to – because it was SQL Server Day! Today was the day when TechEd had a dedicated track – Know your Data – a Day in the life of a DBA. It was also the festival of Ugadi, and hence there was very little traffic on the roads of Bengaluru. I had worked till late the night before, but that did not stop me from gulping down 2 cups of coffee and reaching the venue before time! Without much ado, I will get right on with the details of the day’s proceedings.

Day 03 – Keynote

Although Day 3 had 2 starting keynotes, the SQL Server track was going to be held at the same location where the Visual Studio sessions were held the day before. A lot of people turned up and hence doors had to be closed for new entries. With no overflow lots, I did not want to be late to the sessions. I wanted to be sure to be ahead in the line, get a seat and then not move at all!

I, therefore, attended only the first keynote by Chakrapani Gollapalli, General Manager – Consumer Channels Group,Microsoft India. Aptly titled – “This year, Microsoft will kick some A**”, this session was about the presence of Microsoft in the consumer community.

Here are some highlights of Microsoft’s achievements in 2011:

1 Million downloads of Windows 8 customer preview within 24 hours of it’s release

The growth of the Windows phone – Called a “design gem” – 65,000+ apps, 500+ new features and 100,000+ registered developers

The XBOX 360 tops the Nintendo Wii & the PS3 for the 1st time in yearly global sales

The consumer channels group focuses on 4 products (Windows, Windows Phone, Office and the XBOX) through 4 channels – Retailers, Operators, OEMs and Direct marketing.

After the TechEd, I have 2 more things on my wish-list – the Windows Phone and the XBOX 360! Microsoft has truly lived up to their customer mission of “creating a product desire through an unbroken demand chain”.

Day 03 – Sessions

Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified

Speaker: Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T)

This one did not make me cry – was it really about onions? Well, jokes apart, the topic was all about SQL Server internals and therefore, there was no possibility of demos. Even then, Vinod had the audience hooked.

The key takeaways from this session were:

• How does storage alignment (512b v/s 512E) impact SQL Server?
  
• Security changes inside SQL Server 2012
  
  
  
  • 19 new permissions now available
    
  • How it is possible to unknowingly violate the principle of least privileges?
    
  • Virtual Account, Service Account with SID
  
  
• Recovery Time Objectives, Recovery Point Objectives & how SQL Server 2012 will help improve them
  
  
  
  • Changes to check-pointing (direct v/s indirect check-pointing)
    
  • VLFs and the associated changes done in SQL Server 2012
    
  • Finally, a lesson to not only design a good backup/restore strategy, but to also test it!
  
  
• Memory changes
  
  
  
  • Multi-page allocator
    
  • Can you have more than 8K pages in the buffer pool?
    
  • Is the max. memory setting on your SQL Server accurate?
  
  
• AWE is no longer supported in SQL Server 2012
  
  
  
  • 32-bit guys – UPGRADE!
  
  
• And, by the way, SQL Server licensing has changed – it’s now a core-based license as opposed to a socket-based model

Read more about it on Vinod’s Blog here: http://blogs.extremeexperts.com/2012/03/08/teched-india-2012-sql-server-internals/

The first session, the keynote just got over, and look at the crowd ready for Vinod’s session

How does storage alignment (512b v/s 512E) impact SQL Server?

Here’s how FSUTIL can help SQL DBAs..

Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance

Speaker: Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T)

Performance tuning is a very hot topic for all SQL Server sessions. But, performance benefits and issues due to parallelism within SQL Server is something that no speaker has ever talked about in India. Pinal took it up and presented a whole series of demos on how parallelism affects query performance and how to use DMVs to detect parallelism issues. With a very practical example involving a manager and 8 employees, Pinal demonstrated the scenarios in which one would want parallelism and where one would want to avoid it. The key takeaways were:

• SQL Server is smart enough to make the right choice
  
• It depends – doesn’t exist in the case of SQL Server. There’s always an answer for a question

Read more about his session at: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/03/13/sql-server-speed-up-parallel-processes-and-unparalleled-performance-teched-2012-india/ and http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/03/22/sql-server-techedin-presenting-tomorrow-on-speed-up-parallel-processes-and-unparalleled-performance-at-teched-india-2012/

Pinal explaining what Parallelism is

Pinal congratulating a participant for a correct answer

More serious stuff – detecting and fixing parallelism issues

Keep your database available: ALWAYS-ON

Speaker: Balmukund Lakhani (B|T)

One of the most awaited features in SQL Server 2012, the High-availability & Always ON enhancements were demonstrated by the one and only – Balmukund. The key takeaways were:

• AlwaysON extends Windows clustering
  
• A shared storage disk is no longer required to configure clustering
  
• One Primary database, four secondary replicas, and two secondary synchronous replicas can be configured
  
• Readable secondaries, supporting DBCC and backups
  
• Log backup and Full backup with COPY_ONLY option can be performed on any replicas
  
• Log backups done on all replicas does not break across replicas and therefore can be used as part of recovery strategy

Read more about the session at: http://sqlserver-help.com/2012/03/20/keep-databases-always-availablealwaysonteched-2012-india/

Explaining the backup capabilities of AlwaysON replicas

Demonstrating the configuration of a “primary” secondary

Lesser Known Facts of SQL Server Backup & Restore

Speaker: Amit Banerjee (B|T)

Backup & Restores are something without which a DBA’s day isn’t complete. Amit Banerjee demystified some of the many myths around backups & restores within SQL Server.

• Three types of Backup Methods are available within SQL Server:
  
  
  
  • T-SQL (the “regular” one)
    
  • VSS (Volume shadow backups)
    
  • VDI (Virtual Device Interface backups)
  
  
• What causes an I/O freeze error during 3rd party backups and is it really an error to be worried about?
  
• For VSS storage, should the underlying backup software also need to support the features extended by SQL Server to use shadow backups?
  
• Various types of backups and their significance:
  
  
  
  • Full/Differential backups
    
  • Log backups
    
  • File & File Group backups
  
  
• Piecemeal restore of a database
  
• What is the importance of the buffer count and max. transfer size values?
  
• Learnt that there is a tool called SQLBackup Simulator that can help troubleshoot failed backups!

Read more about this session on Amit Banerjee’s blog at: http://troubleshootingsql.com/2012/03/13/teched-india-2012-session/

What is this backup/restore all about?

A light-hearted spoof on Balmukund Lakhani (B|T) to break the ice with the audience

Demonstrating SQLBackup Simulator

Day 03 – TechEd 2012 – Closing keynote

After 3 days of power-packed sessions, networking and demos, it was finally time to end TechEd 2012. As we moved towards the keynote area, fans came over to meet Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T) and get their copies of the SQL Server Interview Questions & Answers book signed by him.

Pinal Dave signing a copy of his book for a fan. In the background: Rajashekaran Vengalil

Seize The Opportunity

The closing note started off by a Kolaveri dance by none other than Moorthy Uppaluri, General Manager, Academia, Microsoft Corporation. With absolutely no room (standing, sitting or otherwise), the key takeaways from his session were:

• TechEd India 2012 was the biggest TechEd India event ever
  
• How Microsoft has studied and followed Hype cycles to commoditize IT
  
• Data scientist will be a new profession
  
• Social networking is going to change in the future
  
• It is the time for the developer community to think bold, act big and create differentiated applications to stay ahead – it’s time to seize the opportunity!

The fully-packed keynote hall. Every soul that attended TechEd was here.

Moorthy doing a little “Kolaveri”

Moorthy Uppaluri beginning the closing keynote of TechEd 2012

The hype cycles that Microsoft is current riding

The success stories of India – why India needs to seize the opportunity? 1. Young Entrepreneurs 2. Internet Growth – fastest growing 3G market 3. One of the largest mobile user base 4. Host of the one of the costliest sports – the Indian Grand Prix 5. E-commerce 6. Hollywood is now coming to Bollywood!

The Microsoft Momentum

Presenting the winners of the Windows 8 camp (Hyderabad and Bengaluru) with Intel laptops

Some of the best and most re-tweeted tweets were presented with a gift

The “Go DOs” – 3 key takeaways for all developers

It was a privilege attending TechEd 2012. I will be back for TechEd 2013! Thank-you Microsoft!

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

As many of you would know by now, these days I am attempting to summarize my experience at Tech-Ed 2012 (India) held from March 21-23, 2012 at Bengaluru, India.

Day 02 was not very good for me. I spent most of the first half outside of the sessions, over the phone and connected to the VPN, working . Still, I am thankful that I was able to attend the keynote and some of the sessions.

Day 02 – Keynote – Embracing the future of technology

Keynotes are always exciting. We have industry leaders or Microsoft seniors sharing their vision, speaking about their passion in technology and providing direction to the community.

My advice: Whenever you go to any event, do not miss out on the opening and closing keynotes. They are a goldmine.

The Day 02 of TechEd 2012 was opened by a keynote from the IIT (Kharagpur) distinguished alumnus 2010 and now MD, Microsoft R&D Pvt Ltd, Mr. Amit Chatterjee. He has spent 23 years in Microsoft and was a key member of the Windows team that shipped Windows 2.1, 3.0, 3.1 and Windows 95.

He talked about the key consumer, developer and business trends and how Microsoft is responding to these trends.

Key Consumer Trends

• NUI – Natural User Interface – the advent of Touch
• Staying connected
• Consumerization of IT
• Becoming social
• Moving towards cloud and cloud based services

Microsoft is responding to these via development of Immersive applications, providing continuous services and a flexible infrastructure.

Key Developer Trends

• Need for agile development
• Quality Enablement
• DevOps
• Continuous Delivery

This was discussed via a demo showcasing how Microsoft’s new Visual Studio 11 can help in turning these continuous delivery impediments into enablers.

Key Business Trends

• Agility, Faster innovation
• Flexibility, Scalability and Availability
• Cost, Operational Efficiency
• Modern workstyle enabled solutions

Microsoft is responding to these by encouraging cloud computing, that provides pooled resources, self-service, elasticity and usage based costing model. It also provides private cloud – a cloud that is dedicated to the business which allows for higher levels of control and customization.

Just as the keynote was getting over, I got a call on my cell phone that changed the day. It was from the office, and so, I headed over to the hotel lobby to start working.

Day 02 – Visiting the Showcase area & Socializing

After work was over, I headed over to the showcase area, where I planned to visit booths from all the sponsors of TechEd India 2012, namely: Pluralsight, Intel, Telerik, Nokia, Plantronics, Microsoft Virtual Academy and many more. (Get the full list here).

Pluralsight Booth: Book Signing by Pinal & Vinod

The Pluralsight booth was perhaps the busiest booth on Day 2. After all, it was hosting a booking signing event – visitors could have their copy of “SQL Server Interview questions & answers” signed personally by the authors: Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T) and Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T).

The pluralsight booth with Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T) & Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T)

After spending some time at the Pluralsight booth, I headed over to the Intel booth, where it was time for some fun (more like becoming children again). They had a small glass chamber with a huge fan underneath and some balloons. All one had to do was to collect 3 blue balloons and win a very cool Intel baggage tag. I won!

At the Intel booth – Within the glass chamber after collecting 3 blue balloons.

As Tejas Shah (a.k.a. “SQLYoga” – B|T) and I were coming out of the Showcase area, we ran into Manas Dhash (B|T) and Sudeepta Ganguly (B|T). We discussed at length the recent happenings at our respective user groups and future plans. After about 30minutes (maybe even more!), it was time for some photographs:

(Left to Right:) Manas Dhash (B|T), Sudeepta Ganguly (B|T), Tejas Shah (a.k.a. “SQLYoga” – B|T) and Nakul Vachhrajani (B|T)

Day 02 – Session

Notice that I used the singular – “session” above. That’s because I could not attend the following because the rooms were full by the time I made my way from the keynote hall to these sessions:

1. Introducing Visual Studio 11 – What’s new for developers? by Kiran Balijepalli
2. Working on an agile team with Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation Server 11 by Nahas Mohammed

The following I could not attend because I was working!

1. Unit Testing with Visual Studio 11: MSTest, NUnit, xUnit.net, and Code Clone by Abhishek Agrawal
2. Demystifying IntelliTrace with Visual Studio 11  by Tejaswi Kumar

I am looking forward to the recorded sessions to catch up on these. Now, about the session I attended…

Designing Secure Enterprise Applications using on-premise SQL Server

Speaker: Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T)

Vinod dealt with multiple common security pitfalls and discussed their mitigation. Issues like protection of the backup data against intentional manipulation while “in-transit”, login security and auditing were discussed. The following cartoon says it all:

Here’s a teaser: http://blogs.extremeexperts.com/2012/02/06/teched-india-2012-architecture-track/

Day 02 – Demo Extravaganza

The Day 02 of DemoEx was focused on two products – the Windows 8 phone and SQL Server! Here are some photographs:

Nahas Mohammed and Harish Vaidyanathan kicking off DemoEx – Day 02

Did you know that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip powers these windows devices?

Pinal Dave & Harish Vaidyanathan

Time for some….um…..er….Entertainment with SQL Server spatial data-types

Pinal Dave uses technology and SQL Server spatial data types to prove that Lord Rama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama) was not wrong – the “Ram Setu” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam’s_Bridge) is the shortest way from India to Sri Lanka

That’s it for Day 02. Day 03 was the SQL Server day. Stay tuned for my summary of the same in the final part of the TechEd 2012 series.

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

As many of you would know by now, these days I am attempting to summarize my experience at Tech-Ed 2012 (India) held from March 21-23, 2012 at Bengaluru, India.

Day 02 was not very good for me. I spent most of the first half outside of the sessions, over the phone and connected to the VPN, working . Still, I am thankful that I was able to attend the keynote and some of the sessions.

Day 02 – Keynote – Embracing the future of technology

Keynotes are always exciting. We have industry leaders or Microsoft seniors sharing their vision, speaking about their passion in technology and providing direction to the community.

My advice: Whenever you go to any event, do not miss out on the opening and closing keynotes. They are a goldmine.

The Day 02 of TechEd 2012 was opened by a keynote from the IIT (Kharagpur) distinguished alumnus 2010 and now MD, Microsoft R&D Pvt Ltd, Mr. Amit Chatterjee. He has spent 23 years in Microsoft and was a key member of the Windows team that shipped Windows 2.1, 3.0, 3.1 and Windows 95.

He talked about the key consumer, developer and business trends and how Microsoft is responding to these trends.

Key Consumer Trends

• NUI – Natural User Interface – the advent of Touch
• Staying connected
• Consumerization of IT
• Becoming social
• Moving towards cloud and cloud based services

Microsoft is responding to these via development of Immersive applications, providing continuous services and a flexible infrastructure.

Key Developer Trends

• Need for agile development
• Quality Enablement
• DevOps
• Continuous Delivery

This was discussed via a demo showcasing how Microsoft’s new Visual Studio 11 can help in turning these continuous delivery impediments into enablers.

Key Business Trends

• Agility, Faster innovation
• Flexibility, Scalability and Availability
• Cost, Operational Efficiency
• Modern workstyle enabled solutions

Microsoft is responding to these by encouraging cloud computing, that provides pooled resources, self-service, elasticity and usage based costing model. It also provides private cloud – a cloud that is dedicated to the business which allows for higher levels of control and customization.

Just as the keynote was getting over, I got a call on my cell phone that changed the day. It was from the office, and so, I headed over to the hotel lobby to start working.

Day 02 – Visiting the Showcase area & Socializing

After work was over, I headed over to the showcase area, where I planned to visit booths from all the sponsors of TechEd India 2012, namely: Pluralsight, Intel, Telerik, Nokia, Plantronics, Microsoft Virtual Academy and many more. (Get the full list here).

Pluralsight Booth: Book Signing by Pinal & Vinod

The Pluralsight booth was perhaps the busiest booth on Day 2. After all, it was hosting a booking signing event – visitors could have their copy of “SQL Server Interview questions & answers” signed personally by the authors: Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T) and Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T).

The pluralsight booth with Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T) & Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T)

After spending some time at the Pluralsight booth, I headed over to the Intel booth, where it was time for some fun (more like becoming children again). They had a small glass chamber with a huge fan underneath and some balloons. All one had to do was to collect 3 blue balloons and win a very cool Intel baggage tag. I won!

At the Intel booth – Within the glass chamber after collecting 3 blue balloons.

As Tejas Shah (a.k.a. “SQLYoga” – B|T) and I were coming out of the Showcase area, we ran into Manas Dhash (B|T) and Sudeepta Ganguly (B|T). We discussed at length the recent happenings at our respective user groups and future plans. After about 30minutes (maybe even more!), it was time for some photographs:

(Left to Right:) Manas Dhash (B|T), Sudeepta Ganguly (B|T), Tejas Shah (a.k.a. “SQLYoga” – B|T) and Nakul Vachhrajani (B|T)

Day 02 – Session

Notice that I used the singular – “session” above. That’s because I could not attend the following because the rooms were full by the time I made my way from the keynote hall to these sessions:

1. Introducing Visual Studio 11 – What’s new for developers? by Kiran Balijepalli
2. Working on an agile team with Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation Server 11 by Nahas Mohammed

The following I could not attend because I was working!

1. Unit Testing with Visual Studio 11: MSTest, NUnit, xUnit.net, and Code Clone by Abhishek Agrawal
2. Demystifying IntelliTrace with Visual Studio 11  by Tejaswi Kumar

I am looking forward to the recorded sessions to catch up on these. Now, about the session I attended…

Designing Secure Enterprise Applications using on-premise SQL Server

Speaker: Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T)

Vinod dealt with multiple common security pitfalls and discussed their mitigation. Issues like protection of the backup data against intentional manipulation while “in-transit”, login security and auditing were discussed. The following cartoon says it all:

Here’s a teaser: http://blogs.extremeexperts.com/2012/02/06/teched-india-2012-architecture-track/

Day 02 – Demo Extravaganza

The Day 02 of DemoEx was focused on two products – the Windows 8 phone and SQL Server! Here are some photographs:

Nahas Mohammed and Harish Vaidyanathan kicking off DemoEx – Day 02

Did you know that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip powers these windows devices?

Pinal Dave & Harish Vaidyanathan

Time for some….um…..er….Entertainment with SQL Server spatial data-types

Pinal Dave uses technology and SQL Server spatial data types to prove that Lord Rama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama) was not wrong – the “Ram Setu” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam’s_Bridge) is the shortest way from India to Sri Lanka

That’s it for Day 02. Day 03 was the SQL Server day. Stay tuned for my summary of the same in the final part of the TechEd 2012 series.

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

Last week, from March 21-23, 2012 were amongst the 3 most important and exciting days for anyone remotely connected with Microsoft technologies. They were the days when the Tech-Ed 2012 (India) was hosted by Microsoft at the Lalit Ashoka Hotel in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

TechEd 2012 – an Introduction

Microsoft Tech-Ed is the premier technical education and networking event for technology professionals interested in learning, connecting and exploring a broad set of current and soon-to-be released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services. It is also the biggest developer event in the entire country!

Just as last year, the event was classified into 2 major tracks:

1. Developer & IT Pro track
2. Architecture track

Each track was further divided into a day-specific agenda, covering:

• Windows 8
• Windows Server “8”
• System Center 2012
• Microsoft-Nokia partnership for the Windows Phone
• Visual Studio 11 beta

Some Interesting facts about TechEd 2012

Here are some interesting facts about TechEd 2012:

• More than 4000 people attended the starting Keynote in-person, and more than 100,000 were watching live through TechEd Live
• TechEd India (#techedin) was abuzz on Twitter trending to No.1 in India within minutes of the opening keynote by Sanket Akerkar, MD Microsoft India
• TechEd live had at least 100k visitors
• Keep visiting http://india.msteched.com/ for more updates – recorded sessions of the entire event will be uploaded according to the notification posted on the site

My agenda

TechEd 2012 India had more than 100 parallel sessions squeezed into a tight schedule of 3 days, making it next to impossible for one person to be in all places at the same time. As for me, I was excited for the following:

1. Knowing more about the products I am watching out for in 2012
2. Meeting old friends & making new ones!

My TechEd 2012 summaries would mostly be around the Database technologies area.

TechEd Rockstar

This year, I was honoured to be recognized by Microsoft as a TechEd Rockstar for my contribution to the community. I was told to expect priority seating, opportunity to meet MVPs, speakers and interaction with the community. What I was unaware of was that Microsoft would be putting up huge billboards with my photographs on them! It was after Jacob Sebastian (B|T) called me and I rushed over to look at it myself that I was able to believe it.

THANK-YOU, MICROSOFT!

Honoured as a TechEd 2012 Rockstar

Day 01 – Registration

The venue was the same as last year and because I had been to TechEd India 2011 last year (Read my posts – Part 01, Part 02 and Part 03 here), it was a breeze going through the registration process and making my way to the keynote hall.

I must say that right from the moment one walked into the registration area, one was aware about a strange, new experience – the experience of “tiles” – inspired from the brand-new Windows 8 operating system. The startup kit, the notebook and the information billboards all had information arranged in neatly arranged colourful tiles. After all, Windows 8 was the key focus area of the event!

A picture of the registration kit in my hand – notice the tiled look

An information board showing the agenda for the “Kalinga” hall

An informational map of the venue – notice the predominant tiled look

Day 01 – Meeting old friends & new

Just as I was completing registration, guess who I ran into? My dear friend from the Ahmedabad SQL Server User Group, Tejas Shah (a.k.a. “SQLYoga” – B|T).

We made our way to the keynote hall, and met Jacob Sebastian (B|T), Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T), Balmukund Lakhani (B|T), Manas Dhash (B|T), Sudeepta Ganguly (B|T) and Sahal Omer (B|T). We spent about 30 minutes over coffee and biscuits discussing life, technology and the everyone’s focus areas for TechEd 2012. Here is the moment captured in a photograph for time immemorial:

(Left to Right:) Sahal Omer, Pinal Dave, Tejas Shah, Nakul Vachhrajani, Jacob Sebastian, Balmukund Lakhani, Manas Dash, Sudeepta Ganguly

Soon afterwards (and unfortunately just before the announcement for the keynote sessions), Dhananjay Kumar, a.k.a. “Debug Mode” (B|T) and Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T) joined us.

Day 01 – Keynotes

We had 2 keynotes on Day 01, the main keynote being from Mr. Sanket Akerkar, MD, Microsoft India and the 2nd from Bernardo Caldas, GM, Windows & Windows Live.

Just before the keynote	What an atmosphere – a packed hall with nice lights

The Microsoft Story

Sanket Akerkar told the audience a little story – the Microsoft Story.

This was, in my opinion, the most exciting starting keynote of all the 3 days. Without going into the details (the session was so interesting and detailed that it would take me an entire hour to describe the proceedings), this is the Microsoft story:

• What a difference a year makes? What is Microsoft doing? What changed between TechEd 2011 and TechEd 2012:
  • IE9 Launched
  • A growing partnership between Microsoft & Nokia for the Windows Phone
  • Yahoo! now uses the Bing search engine
  • Xbox and Kinect are the #1 selling gaming console
  • “System on a chip”
  • Windows Azure cloud offerings
  • System Server 2012 and Windows Server with Hyper V launched
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM is now online
  • Microsoft acquired Skype
  • Microsoft Office 365 launched
  • Partnership with Facebook
  • Windows 8 announced!
• So, What drives Microsoft? – it’s participation across the entire spectrum of:
  • Devices
  • Software
  • Services
• What is the Microsoft approach? It’s focus on the individual consumer while partnering with the industry
  • Personal
  • Partnering
  • Persistence
• How are they doing it? – By offering a cloud ready, device type independent solution covering:
  • Office 365
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
  • Windows Server
  • Windows Azure
  • System Center
  • Windows 8
• What’s next?
  • Transformation – going towards the cloud
  • Natural User Interface – introducing the senses – touch interface into the mix
  • Challenging innovation
  • Setting Bigger & Bolder goals
  • Empowering everyone
  • Inventing the future
  • Developer opportunity – in the form of this event and Rockstar honours
  • IE 10
  • SQL Server 2012
  • Windows Azure
  • Office 365
  • Security & Privacy focus

The Developer Opportunity

Mr. Bernardo Caldas, GM, Windows & Windows Live presented a session on the  developer opportunity that the Windows  8 provides.

The following trends are shaping the developer opportunity:

1. Form Factors
2. Introduction of the Touch interface
3. Mobility
4. Connectivity
5. Services

The Windows 8 opportunity for developers is as shown below:

1. Skills
   • Availability of world class tools & languages – Javascript, C#, VB, C++, C, HTML, CSS and XAML
2. Global Reach
   • Windows 8 will be available in 231 markets, spanning more than 70 countries, in more than 100 languages
3. Better Economics
   • Currently, for any Windows 8 applications on the Windows store, the developers get 70% of the proceedings
   • Once a certain threshold is crossed, the developer gets 80% of the proceedings
   • Windows store allows to price products by geography, and offers 3 pricing models – paid, free and trials
4. Data Access & support
   • Access to richer, more actionable data

Day 01 – Sessions

T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012

Speaker: Jacob Sebastian (B|T)

The opening session of TechEd India 2012	Jacob Sebastian getting a feel about his audience
SQL Server 2012 has over 100 new features & enhancements! Visit: http://what.isnew.in/sqlserver/denali for details!	Demonstration of the FORMAT() function

This opening technical session of Tech Ed 2012 attracted such a large crowd that many attendees had to remain standing. Jacob introduced some of the cool T-SQL functionalities:

• Construct a date from parts – DATEFROMPARTS()
• CONCAT() which avoids additional conversion and checks is null automatically
• Find the End of the month: EOMONTH(GETDATE())
• IIF
• FORMAT
• Error Handling
  • THROW
  • For Pagination
  • OFFSET and FETCHNEXT
  • LAST_VALUE, FIRST_VALUE, LEAD, LAG

Visit this page for more details: http://beyondrelational.com/modules/29/presentations/483/t-sql-rediscovered-with-sql-server-2012.aspx?tab=info&bs=203

Catapult you data with SQL Server 2012 Integration Services

Speaker: Praveen Srivatsa (B)

Praveen Srivatsa introduced the new Master Data Service(MDS) along with Data Quality Services (DQS) and the Change Data Capture (CDC). He focused on these improvements made to SSIS using which developers can improve the productivity and efficiency of Data Cleansing operations. He demonstrated how DQS is a knowledge driven process that “learns” from the errors it encounters and also becomes a data matching solution – which can therefore be leveraged for de-duplication efforts..

I am amazed at the potential time and effort savings that this new piece of technology offers. Anybody who has ever worked upon or may need to work upon a data conditioning project should look out for these new enhancements to SSIS.

Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop

Speaker: Stephen Forte (B|T)

Stephen Forte building up the excitement

Stephen talked about Hadoop on Azure, columnstore indicies, data warehouse improvements, and other things that will help you deal with large amounts of data like table partitioning. He introduced the 3 “v” principle when working with “big” data – Velocity, Volume & Variety. I always thought of “big data” in terms of volume, but after attending this session, I learnt that all the 3 “v”s have an equal contribution.

The session carried Stephen’s trademark presentation style that enables the audience to laugh their way through the session. The topic was a completely new one for me, and it was nice to see Hadoop, SQL Server and Excel work in tandem, live!

SQL Server misconceptions and resolutions – A practical Perspective

Speakers: Pinal Dave, a.k.a. “SQLAuthority” (B|T) and Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T)

About Pinal – in “Metro” style	About Vinod – in “Metro” style
Session Agenda – in “Metro” style	What the key takeaway of the session was – now, can this be anything but a session from Pinal & Vinod?
Books authored by Pinal & Vinod	No space to fit a single person! Even the doors are open!
Can’t believe it – a list of all the major SQL Server features currently available	Getting started…

This session was a unique one. I have never seen or attended a session where the presenters follow a question/answer format and involve the audience in the process as well! It was fun! There was no way I could have missed this, and hence, I stayed put on my seat after Stephen’s session. And I am glad I did – there was not a single inch of space left. There were people everywhere – on the chairs, standing, on the floor and the crowd extended even outside the hall! The session was in true sense, an open-door session. It just shows that while the crowd simply loves a session by Pinal & by Vinod, they would give almost anything to see them together on the stage!

Pinal began by a very simple challenge – “Vinod, I am going to defeat you. Are you guys with me?”. That was all that was required – the crowd was immediately divided into two groups – one on Pinal’s side and the other on Vinod’s side. The challenge was simple – field as many questions as possible to Vinod and attempt to stump him. A total of 10 misconceptions were discussed, including:

• Is ORDER BY really necessary to dictate the order of rows being returned by a query?
• Do clustered indexes physically sort data on the table?
• Does shrinking the  database affect the backup size?
• What is the real accuracy of SMALLDATETIME?

The session was so magical that Dhananjay Kumar, a.k.a. “Debug Mode” (B|T) could not resist himself from blogging live. You can read all about it here: http://debugmode.net/2012/03/21/some-important-points-from-sql-misconceptions-session-from-pinal-dave-and-vinod-kumar/

Pinal & Vinod: You guys rock! SQL Server rocks with you!

Day 01 – Demo Extravaganza

The DemoEx or Demo Extravaganza is one of the most happening of all events in TechEd. Packed with a never ending stream of powerful under 1-minute demos, it is a fun-filled event with a chance to win goodies! The goodies this year were T-shirts, pen-drives, Nokia Lumina phones, Intel laptops and a lot more.

The DemoEx was opened by Harish Vaidyanathan (T) and the audience was left spell-bound by the new features of Windows 8 and how seamlessly the mobile device can interact with the tablet and the personal computer. WOW!

Closing the DemoEx, Vinod Kumar, a.k.a. “Extreme Experts” (B|T) presented quick productivity tips for the Office suite. Did you know that some of these features have been around since Office 97? I didn’t and nor did most of the people at the event!

Harish V. and Vinod Kumar at DemoEx (Day 01, TechEd India 2012)

 

Stay tuned for my summary of TechEd India 2012 – Day 2!

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.