A variety of factors are converging to create an information storage explosion. Enabled by new types of information, such as digitization of images and video, and sensor information from RFID tags, the amount of digital information within an organization is mushrooming. Growing regulatory compliance and globalization require that information be stored securely and available at all times. At the same time, the cost of disk storage has dramatically decreased, enabling organizations to store more data per dollar invested. Users must quickly sift through mountains of data to find relevant information. Furthermore, they want to use this information on any device and with the programs that they use every day, such as Microsoft Office System applications. Managing this data explosion and the increase in user expectations creates numerous challenges for the enterprise.

This excerpt is from the document which explains the overview of what SQL Server 2008 is all about, I recommend reading this document.

Related link:

SQL2008_ProductOverview.pdf (809.6 KB)

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To safe time and effort require to install SQL Server 2008 RC0 Express on Windows Vista, install these pre-requisites before you proceed further.

• Windows Installer 4.5
• .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta

Related link:

Windows Installer 4.5: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5a58b56f-60b6-4412-95b9-54d056d6f9f4

.Net Framework 3.5 Sp1 Beta: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8C36ACA4-E947-4760-9B05-93CAC04C6F87&displaylang=en

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Download Manager is available as an add-on component for Akamai Electronic Software Delivery customers who use their Web sites to deliver digitized files, such as software, movies, or other large objects. Download Manager provides a simplified method of distributing, downloading, and installing digitized assets via the Internet. Download Manager can be used with Web sites that deliver content via SSL, as well as with sites that require authentication before providing access to content.

For your end users, Download Manager provides a user-friendly application that significantly improves the ease, efficiency, and reliability of their downloads.For your organization, Download Manager offers a simple method for tracking the success or failure of each download and provides automated recovery capabilities.

You must be surprise why I am talking about Akamai in my last blogs, since there is a strategic alliance between Microsoft and Akamai for future Content Delivery - Microsoft is using Akamai Network for all Release Candidates for SQL Server 2008.

Read more about Akamai Download Manager: http://www.akamai.com/dl/feature_sheets/Akamai_Download_Manager_FS.pdf

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Akamai HTTP Downloads helps deliver large-file downloads quickly and reliably to users anywhere in the world, in real time or through scheduled downloads. Whether the files are multi-gigabyte software files or video images, the Akamai Edge Platform handles your downloads - scaling on demand, optimizing delivery paths, and providing accurate tracking and reporting on completion rates.

It features:

• 
  Large File Download Optimization - Leveraging the distributed global Akamai network, this unique capability significantly enhances download performance for end users who are downloading large multi-gigabyte files. The key technology behind Large File Download Optimization is a system for storing, retrieving, and delivering large files as a cluster of individual file pieces. This enables you to increase file sizes in response to market demand, while in parallel providing a quicker, more seamless download experience for the end-user.

• Download Manager - this client software application helps users increase download performance, simplify software downloads, and track end user download behavior while imprioving download completion rates. It can be used for standard downloads and secure delivery via SSL and through end user authentication. Users can:
  Choose the directory where they want to place the file
  Pause or stop the download and resume at a later time
  Seamlessly and automatically recover from dropped connections, system crashes, etc

Related link: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/http_downloads.html

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Akamai's EdgePlatform is one of the world's largest distributed computing platforms. It is a network of more than 34000 secure servers equipped with proprietary software and deployed in 70 countries that relies on applied mathematics and algorithms to help solve congestion and vulnerability problems on the Internet. These servers reside within approximately 950 of the world's networks monitoring the Internet in real time - gathering information about traffic, congestion, and trouble spots. Akamai uses this intelligence to optimize routes and replicate data dynamically to deliver content and applications more quickly, reliably, and securely.

Read more about Edge Platform at http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/edgeplatform.html

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Announcing the 559 pages "TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows" eBook in PDF format and a completely free download rich in information.

This online book is a structured, introductory approach to the basic concepts and principles of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite, how the most important protocols function, and their basic configuration in the Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 families of operating systems. 

There’s nothing ‘fundamental’ about this book; there’s lots of very in-depth information on the new networking stack capabilities in Vista/WS08 and a great resource to have available.

Related link:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c76296fd-61c9-4079-a0bb-582bca4a846f&DisplayLang=en

One question came is "How to use Microsoft .NET Data Provider for Hyperion Essbase" on a workstation to develop Reports for Hyperion System 9.3 BI+ Enterprise Analytics.

Fairly simple, in order to use Microsoft .NET Data Provider for Hyperion Essbase you must first install "SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services SP2".

To make sure that the data provider is registered properly configure these two files "RSReportDesigner.config" on client and "RSReportServer.config" server - if already configured then ignore the remaining lines.

On Client locate "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\RSReportDesigner.config" and modify by

1- Adding this line in the <Data> section
<Extension Name="ESSBASE" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.Essbase.EssbaseConnection,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.Essbase"/>

2- Adding this line in the <Designer> section
<Extension Name="ESSBASE" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.QueryDesigners.Essbase.EssbaseQueryDesigner,Microsoft.ReportingServices.QueryDesigners.Essbase"/>

On Server locate "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.n\Reporting Services\ReportServer\RSReportServer.config" and modify by

Adding this line in the <Data> section
<Extension Name="ESSBASE" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.Essbase.EssbaseConnection,Microsoft.ReportingServices.DataExtensions.Essbase"/>

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