Although SQL Server 2008 was “launched” last February at a marketing event that also featured Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, this week Microsoft finally released its database software to manufacturing.

SQL Server 2008 is available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers and will also be available for evaluation downloads. Pricing for the database will be the same as the previous version, SQL Server 2005.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx Has Ent, Dev, Std, Web and Workgroup for subscriber downloads, can’t see Express or Ent Trial yet on the non subscriber pages.

Also Eval Edition and Feature Pack are now available

If you need some help installing, see this SQL School Video

Anyone use OneNote? I use it for meeting notes sometimes, but I never knew you could do maths using it!

Take a look at the example video

Having just been through a high-level pricing exercise in terms of putting some outline prices together for our new BI platform, this article by Jason Morales on PerformancePoint Server pricing caught my eye.

There are three license types for PerformancePoint:

- Server  ($20K)

- Client Access License, or CAL  ($195/user)

** This is a Server/CAL license model; there are not licenses for Processors or unlimited use

- External Connector**  ($30K)

** The External Connector is an optional license for external use of PerformancePoint by non-employees

Discounted rates for PerformancePoint will apply based on Purchase Agreement types (i.e. Enterprise, Select, Open, Campus Agreements, etc.)

And there it is, on t’internet for all too see, the basic, no frills price list for deploying PPS. All you have to do is to make some assumptions about the hardware architecture from a sizing exercise and away you go… you have your numbers for a high level concept paper at any rate. So why oh why is it so difficult to get these prices from other BI vendors(Oracle, Cognos, Business Objects, SAP, MicroStrategy - yes, you guys over there…)? As Jason points out (and I can confirm from my own recent experience)

Historically, BI Vendors have not published pricing.  As a result, these vendors will often modify their price quotes on a customer-by-customer basis.

We had just such an experience recently with a BI vendor who shall remain nameless for the moment (no point in upsetting people as this is not what the article/rant is about). It took literally weeks to get to what I would call a simple, straightforward price list. And this is a BI vendor which my company has a global purchasing agreement with! It took around 2 weeks of that time to get confirmation of our current licensing arrangements (and that involved me having to fax a copy of an invoice to our account manager as proof of purchase!!!)

So, if any BI vendors out there are listening, let’s have more transparency on pricing guys. For a good many organisations, if the process of getting indicative prices turns in to a teeth pulling exercise, it tends to put us off. If your tools really are that much better than the competition, you should not be concerned that your prices reflect that superiority yes?

It’s almost like you are saying “If you have to ask how much this costs, you can’t afford it” - and hey…remember that line from Pretty Woman… and remember what happened… I’ll leave you with that thought!!

Hey… on a lighter note, someone bet me I couldn’t get a reference to the film Pretty Woman in to a blog about Business Intelligence… I just won $25….

Great set of articles over at Tod McKenna’s blog going in to a high level of detail on Kimball’s 34 subsystems of the ETL. So far, Todd has reached number 15 of 34. I liked his take on Surrogate Keys, it’s a topic worth investigating if you are one of the people who still try to forge ahead using natural keys only to find issues later on….

When integrating data into a Dimensional Model, you need a mechanism to assign new primary keys to each dimension. These primary keys will be used in your Fact table as foreign keys. You cannot use natural keys because they are likely to repeat — this is especially true if you are maintaining history using SCD Type 2 (more on this in a bit). Subsystem 10 addresses this important need, by specifying the need to generate surrogate keys for all dimensions.

Planning is underway for SQLBits Cubed which will be held in Hatfield on Saturday13th Sept.

For further details see Tony Rogerson’s ramblings on SQL Server

On general release for around a week now, which suggests that RTM is not far away

• Download SQL Server 2008 here
• Download the updated feature pack here
• Download updated sample databases here 

Want to know which teams “fake” the most injuries, which team can’t sing their national anthem? Check out the Euro 2008 Dashboard from Information Builders.

Through an interactive dashboard and automated reports Information Builders will provide you with the quirky statistics of Euro 2008, including

• Number of dives
• Number of wrong off-sides
• Number of fake injuries
• Number of players that don’t know their national anthem
• Number of player tantrums at the referee

Based on Information Builders’ Active Reports technology and powered by WebFOCUS, the Euro 2008 Dashboard will be updated after every match.

See the results yourself at www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball.