A Developer's Guide to the Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack

Starting with the release of Microsoft SQL Server 7, Microsoft has continued to up the ante on BI. SQL Server 2005 brought ground-breaking new capabilities to Analysis Services' OLAP and Data Mining engines, and Microsoft has made Office Excel 2007 a first-class client for both. The release of Office PerformancePoint Server this year built up the BI stack significantly and the release of SQL Server 2008 next year will enhance the platform itself. This is all well and good, but the reality is that the vast majority of Microsoft technology developers have continued to focus on core relational database technology and remain somewhat estranged from the BI world. If this sounds like you, don't worry, you're in fine company. This session tries, in its own small way, to bridge this database divide. To do so, we'll take a look at what Analysis Services can do today and what new features are coming in SQL Server 2008. We also tour the rest of the BI stack, including Excel 2007, SharePoint and Excel Services, Reporting Services and Report Builder, PerformancePoint Server and even Analysis Services programming from Microsoft .NET. BI is hot and the skill set is in strikingly short supply. Make an investment in your career and come see what this BI stuff is all about.