Come join us on Thursday, April 16 for two presentations while you eat and mingle with your peers.SQL Server consultant Eric Peterson will concisely cover the myths and truths of efficient query performance, followed by Kevin Cox of Microsoft, who will show us how to use SQL Server 2008 to manage all of your database servers.

We’ll make time during the meeting for the group to answer any technical questions you have about SQL Server, and there will also be announcements concerning jobs and events that might be of interest to you.

The meeting will conclude with prize drawings provided to us by our sponsors, including 2 full licenses of Vista Ultimate, a copy of Visual Studio 2008 Standard, an excellent book on query tuning and optimization, and the much desired SQL Server 2008 Postal Stamps.

Glenn Berry's also threatening to bring some goodies!

Coming Attractions:

In May, Paul Nielsen of SQL Server Bible fame will be with us, and Ed Tomlinson of Dataface will present at our June meeting to show us how SQL Server supports Enterprise 2.0 applications.

Presentation #1: SQL Server Queries – Myths, Truths and other Insights

We’ve all heard or even told co-workers certain “truths” about SQL Server including:

• Don’t select more columns than you need
• Joins are expensive
• Include the schema name when referencing tables

Most of us accept these and other “truths” at face value and don’t give them a second thought. Testing has shown that some assumptions are pure myths, others depend on the circumstances and others are true, but may not be exactly as you imagined them.

In this session, we’ll conjecture a bit and then we’ll investigate a number of cases to see the actual percentage differences between various options and discuss where these SQL Server surprises might be lurking in your systems.

Presenter:

Eric Peterson has a BS in Computer Science, an MBA and Masters in International Management Studies. He runs a consulting company that specializes in SQL Server services, teaches the SQL Server Performance Tuning course for a leading training company, and has worked in employee and consulting capacities with companies ranging from Fortune 100 firms to startups throughout his 25 year career.

Eric has worked with SQL Server from its introduction through SQL Server 2008 and his specialties include design, administration, replication and hosted environments in a number of diverse industries. Questions arising from his experiences and training prompted Eric to create a website that explores the real cost of SQL Server tasks; often clarifying conventional wisdom and occasionally dispelling SQL myths.

Presentation #2: Using SQL 2008 to manage SQL 2005 and 2000 machines; covers multi-server management, policy based management, Performance Data Warehouse.

This session will provide an overview on how to use SQL Server 2008 to manage all of your SQL Server machines. Kevin will discuss multi-server management in detail and will provide us with Microsoft’s roadmap for multi-server management. In addition, Kevin will cover topics such as policy based management and Performance Data Warehouse and discuss their relevance in a multi- server environment.

Presenter:

Kevin Cox works for Microsoft in the SQL Server Product Group on the Customer Advisory Team. This team works on the largest database implementations in the world to make sure they are successful with SQL Server. Kevin received his BS in Computer Science from Arizona State University.

Location:

• 7595 Technology Way
• Suite 400
• Denver, CO 80237

Typical Meeting Agenda:

• 5:30 - 6:00 - Food / Socializing
• 6:00 - 6:10 - User Group Business
• 6:10 - 6:30 - Vendor / Open Q&A
• 6:30 - 8:00 - Main Presentation
• 8:00 - 8:30 - Give Away / Wrap-Up

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