By George Squillace George SquillaceGeorge Squillace New Horizons Great Lakes Husband, Dad, Coach, MCT, MCSE, MCDBA MCITP – Database Administration MCITP – SQL 2008 Business Intelligence Development MCITP – Enterprise Messaging Administrator on Exchange 2007 MCITP – Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008

» More confidently sell high margin courses that are not provided by many vendors. » Be able to respond to customer questions more rapidly. » Make better course recommendations. » Grow in your career skills.

» From Wikipedia: Business intelligence (BI) is a business management term which refers to applications and technologies which are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about company operations. » Business intelligence systems can help companies have a more comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting their business, such as metrics on sales, production, internal operations, and they can help companies to make better business decisions. » BI is about making better decisions. » Tools  Facts  Conclusions  Changes.

» Reporting Services (SSRS) » Analysis Services (SSAS) » Integration Services (SSIS) Each one of these categories involves a significant body of knowledge.

» The BI capabilities within SQL Server are included with the price of Microsoft SQL Server. » Including BI capabilities with SQL Server has produced a lot of momentum for Microsoft and this opportunity should be capitalized on while there is time. » The BI development capabilities are configured within “BIDS”, or Business Intelligence Design Studio, which is Visual Studio with BI-specific project templates.

Observe: the complexity of each of these interfaces in the following screenshots!

» Report Designers use Visual Studio (BIDS) with specific report development templates to design reports. This development tool is called “Report Designer”. » Users and Administrators connect to a web application through a browser to browse reports and perform administration on Reporting Services. The web application is called “Report Manager”. » Example of available report features are: ˃Parameterization (where users can pick from available lists, available date ranges, etc. ˃Navigation features, such as Document Maps, Bookmarks, and Linking ˃Drill-down ˃Drill-through ˃Charting and Visualizations (Gauges, and Geographical Data) » Supported Report Export Formats are: ˃.pdf ˃Excel ˃Webpage/HTML ˃Text file ˃XML ˃Others

» SSIS succeeds “Data Transformation Services” (DTS) in SQL » The Bulk of SSIS Is Used for “ETL”. ˃Extract (connect to a data source) ˃Transform (change data along its path as necessary) ˃Load (send the data to a destination) » Very common requirement for database administrators and developers to perform ETL. » Specifically useful for data warehousing. » Supports almost any data source and data destination.

» The Point: Better Decision Making. » Usually involves a specially designed (often humongous) relational database, called a data warehouse, populated through SSIS to perform advanced data analysis and data mining. » The Data Warehouse requires population of a special database design called a Star Schema, which is a Fact Table connected to a number Dimension Tables. The warehouse is populated from other operational databases in the organization. This population requires significant effort. SSIS can be used to populate the data warehouse. » The Data Warehouse is used to create an “OLAP Cube” (or more than one Cube). » An example of supported analysis of an OLAP Cube would permit the rapid answer to the question,… ˃How many Male, Married, w/Children under 13, w/College Degree, > 40 years old, Paid by VISA, ordered Product X?

» OLAP cubes are non-trivial to design and implement. » May involve the use of Excel and its Pivot Table capabilities but more likely an OLAP Client program. » Analysis Services may involve learning additional query languages such as: ˃Multi-Dimensional Expressions (MDX) ˃Data Mining Extensions (DMX) ˃XML for Analysis (XMLA) » Data Mining is its own large functional area within Analysis Services and is used for predictive analyses. » Again, this component is included with the purchase of Microsoft SQL Server but costs $10,000 or more for other platforms like Oracle

Notice: Cube Browsing is normally done with a special front-end called an OLAP client. Excel (2007+) can serve as an OLAP client. The cube browsing capabilities shown here only provide a reality check for your cube design.

The figure reveals one type of data mining usage called a Tree Viewer.

The figure reveals another type of data mining usage called a Decision Tree.

6234A Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services  Describe how SQL Server Analysis Services can be used to implement analytical solutions.  Create multidimensional analysis solutions with SQL Server Analysis Services.  Implement dimensions in an Analysis Services solution.  Implement measures and measure groups in an Analysis Services solution.  Query a multidimensional Analysis Services solution.  Customize an Analysis Services cube.  Deploy and Secure an Analysis Services database.  Maintain a multidimensional Analysis Services solution.  Implement a Data Mining solution.

2792A Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server 2005 Integration Services or, 6235A Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server 2008 Integration Services » Describe SQL Server Integration Services and its tools. » Create an Integration Services package. » Implement control flow in an Integration Services package. » Implement data flow in an Integration Services package. » Implement logging in an Integration Services package. » Debug and implement error handling in an Integration Services package. » Implement checkpoints and transactions in an Integration Services package. » Deploy an Integration Services package. » Manage and secure an Integration Services package.

2793A Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services or, 6236A Implementing and Maintaining SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services » Describe SQL Server Reporting Services and its components. » Create a Reporting Services report. » Enhance a Reporting Services report. » Create and manipulate data sets. » Use report models to implement reporting for business users. » Configure report publishing and execution settings. » Implement subscriptions for reports. » Administer Reporting Services. » Implement custom Reporting Services applications.

» SQL 2008 BI Exams ˃MCTS, ˃MCITP, (Very challenging…mine was 88 lengthy story problems, three full hours long) » Remember, the BI exams cover all three functional BI areas! » See also this diagram to understand the difference between Microsoft Exams and Microsoft Courses.this diagram » See also this diagram for more info about SQL Server certification tracks.this diagram

» Microsoft SQL Server homepage ˃ » Microsoft Learning homepage ˃ » My website ˃Homepage » (Search button, Test taking tips link) ˃Diagrams » (several SQL and SQL BI diagrams) ˃Screenshot Gallery » (look in the SQL screenshot category; a SQL BI category exists too) ˃SQL Server reference homepage » (a huuuuge amount of links) ˃SQL Server BI reference homepage » (also a huuuuge amount of links) » My Library Books (click on this link)this link ˃SSAS Step-by-Step ˃SSIS Step-by-Step ˃SSRS Step-by-Step ˃Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit ˃Data Mining with SQL Server 2008 ˃FastTrack to MDX » User Groups ˃West Michigan SQL Server User Group (WMSSUG)WMSSUG ˃Detroit Area SQL ServerUser Group (Detroit SSUG)Detroit SSUG September 17, 2011

» Microsoft released SQL 2008 R2 (the second SQL 2008 release) in April » As of yet there are no plans to release SQL 2008 R2-specific course versions. » Miscellaneous note: Microsoft offers free versions of SQL Server and Visual Studio with smaller feature sets. These are called Express Editions.

» Basic Windows Server Operating System knowledge » Background database experience ˃(Microsoft Access experience “counts”) » SQL Server administration and possibly programming experience ˃Course 2780 or 6231 ˃Course 2779 or 6232 » Basic query writing knowledge ˃Course 2778

» Learn & study? » Download? » Call a client with a recommendation or new opportunity? » Other?

» Implementation Courses ˃Hands-on oriented. ˃Procedural. ˃Students leave class having had success completing a related series of steps. » Design Courses ˃Asked during class, “What questions do I need answers to?” ˃What decisions must I make? ˃Conceptual, minimally or rarely procedural. ˃Student participation and involvement (when experienced) is a big value to other students.

» 2794A Designing a Business Intelligence Solution for the Enterprise Using Microsoft® SQL Server 2005 (2 days) » 2795A Designing an ETL Solution Architecture Using Microsoft® SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (2 days) » 2796A Designing an Analysis Solution Architecture Using Microsoft® SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (2 days) » 2797A Designing a Reporting Solution Architecture Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (2 days) » Availability will be difficult