PPS Planning Discontinued by April 1,2009

A couple of emails I've received and feedback I've seen from different forums are not consistent with the announcement Microsoft gave last Friday and I want to clarify this.

The PerformancePoint Server 2007 is rebranded as PerformancePoint Services and will still be offered in the market as part of MOSS Enterprise. There are 3 components of the PPS server: Planning, Analytics and Monitoring (PAM). Of this 3 only Planning is discontinued while Analytics and Monitoring will be called PerformancePoint Services like Excel Services, Forms Services and Visio Services in the Sharepoint platform.

My favorite SQL Server sites

Data Mining http://www.sqlserverdatamining.com/ssdm/

Best Practice http://www.kimballgroup.com/

Reporting http://www.databasejournal.com/article.php/1459531 (William Pearson)

Integration http://www.sqlis.com/

Microsoft BI http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/business-intelligence.aspx

SQL Protocols http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/default.aspx

BI according to Microsoft

The Microsoft BI team presented the new BI stack to the New York Business Intelligence New York Meetup group yesterday. The first part of the presentation was the product demonstration then an open discussion on the product functionalities which got too detailed. A comparison of Excel 2007 and Proclarity was also in the table but was cut short because it was out of content. It was refreshing to see ProClarity working in harmony with PerformancePoint Server and MOSS.

To get more info about Microsoft BI click here. To join the New York Business Intelligence Meetup click here.

Microsoft Convergence 2009 New Orleans Announcements

If you're planning on attending Convergence this year please read this:

• Early Registration discount date has been extended to January 21, 2009. Save $300 by registering early, secure your favorite hotels while they are still available and take advantage of better airline rates.

• The session catalog (containing 225 sessions) is now live on the Convergence marketing site.
  

• The Convergence Customer Excellence Awards recognize, honor and celebrate customers who have achieved outstanding success with their Microsoft solutions as well as Microsoft partners' solutions. Customer Excellence Award nominations are now being accepted through January 20, 2009.