Archive
TechEd Europe 2012 Day Two #TEE12
I know TechEd Europe 2012 is over now and unfortunately it is only now that I have had a chance to recount my adventures of day two.
Day two for me was unfortunately my last day due to work commitments. It was however the day of my presentation on Integrating SharePoint and Project Server 2010.
 |
 |
 |
First of all, the sessions:
Keynote
The focus of the keynote on day two was around Windows 8. Now I know that Windows 8 has been available in its preview form for a long time now and we have seen it on tablets with the Samsung Series 7 Slate:
However, I have installed it in a VM and tried it out and felt the desktop experience was somewhat lacking. This is only based on initial trials and I hadn’t done any research into shortcuts etc. So it was just my initial impression.
I have to say though, after watching the keynote, I was pleasantly surprised. The ease of use for touch and mouse / keyboard interfaces is actually very good but is somewhat hidden from initial impressions and I can totally see that I will be using Windows 8 with ease in future.
As part of the keynote, they demonstrated Tablet use, Mouse / Keyboard use and even multi-touch aware touch pads on laptops. It is clear that a lot of thought has been put into this interface and more importantly every demonstration in this keynote was live, using the release preview of the software.
Then they demonstrated Windows To Go, which is a new feature of Windows 8 allowing you to run the OS and anything installed from a USB drive.
Once again a live demo which worked first time without issues and then whilst running the OS and demonstrating the solution he pulled the USB stick out:
And within 60 seconds, if you put the USB stick back in, the OS and the applications just keep running, totally amazing!!!
Can you imagine using your new Microsoft Surface tablet with all your sales demos and POC machines booting from the USB (perhaps a bit aspirational, but still… it sounds possible)
Anyway… on to the sessions… I only really had time for one session:
BI Semantic Models: Multi-dimensional vs. Tabular
Now I am have been using the BI tool part of the SharePoint for a very long time and recently my projects has started to become more involved in the backend infrastructure of the data and the way it is stored and accessed.
This is particularly useful when you consider the newer BI technologies such as PerformancePoint (not that new I know), PowerPivot (a bit newer) and PowerView (cutting edge) which rely upon either Analysis Service cubes and PowerPivot cubes.
The tabular approach is new by comparison and uses DACS rather than MDX to query and process the data.
The session discussed the differences and which is more performed better under different scenarios.
The presenters were excellent and clearly knew this stuff inside out!
 |
 |
 |
The session can be viewed here:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2012/DBI319
After the session, I caught up on emails and work and then straight into my session:
Integrating SharePoint and Project Server 2010
Essentially a slightly cut down version of my original presentation at the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 (which is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/details.aspx?uuid=06fff348-8836-497b-a5eb-b5ed63a3b6c9)
The presentation went well and I even had my groupies in the form of Robin Kruithof (CXS – who has just started his blog here) and Barbara Henhapl (Project MVP – Austria).
 |
 |
 |
I was also honoured to have Christophe Fiessinger in the audience too.
And that was it for me, I said my goodbyes to all the colleagues and people I networked with and headed back to the airport for the flight home (and work the next day…)
TechEd Europe Day One #TEE12
So I am here in Amsterdam having completed day one of TechEd Europe 2012 and once again, the conference is an awesome experience. There is one major difference however…
Now I actually know some people from the last conference I went to (MSPC12). So I am catching up with some colleagues (Alex Burton – Nintex and Ben Howard – Applepark) as well as getting to know new colleagues (Robin Kruithof – CXS and Mike Wϋbbold – SolutionTime).
The focus of the conference is very much about the cloud:
- Innovations in Windows Server 2012 to support private and public clouds
- Windows Azure advances with websites, Hyper-V, SSRS to truly support private and public cloud infrastructure in anyway you can imagine.
- And of course Office 365 incorporating SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online
Day One Keynote
The keynote was an impressive site with equally bold statements on how Microsoft are not only in the cloud, but mature in the cloud with innovation on how it should be done!!!
Very bold statements indeed but with one difference… evidence!
Discussions on how Microsoft have achieved the scalability of Azure through the use of automation technologies such as PowerShell.
How Microsoft have worked with storage and network vendors to ensure optimum throughput on the Windows Server 2012 platform.
Copying a 10GB file is seconds across the network in seconds! I couldn’t take a picture fast enough…
And lastly, how Hyper-V has come of age as a true competitor to VMWare in the virtualisation market with IOPS stats they can only dream of…
That’s 1,026,020.31 IOPS and only limited by current hardware, not the software!
Azure Reporting Services
Moving on from this and after catching up with colleagues. I moved into Azure SSRS which was launched at the North America TechEd event at the beginning of June.
SQL Server Reporting Services is now available in the cloud and we can finally say that Business Intelligence is starting to become available in a public cloud environment.
Some key things to note:
The API interfaces of SSRS are available:
However, some restrictions to the current launch do apply:
|
 |
These are some serious limitations, but we are assured that this is being worked on and we will see improvement in future.
No word or official comment on integration with Office 365 but it wouldn’t surprise me if SharePoint Online integration is not coming down the line.
Staffing the Microsoft Project – Technical Learning Centre (TLC)
To gain attendance to one of the biggest Microsoft conferences, some of us have to pay our way in kind. 🙂
This humble bloggers approach is through presentations (more on that tomorrow…) and staffing the Microsoft Project booth at TechEd to help customers understand how Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 fit into the Office Server eco-system with SharePoint and other products.
We also provide help to anyone who would like to pose us with problems… almost like a live MSDN forum answer session.
It is also a good opportunity to catch up fellow colleagues in the EPM space and discuss approaches to client implementations etc…:
Ben, Mike, Robin and me
As part of the TLC Office stand some other cool and geeky items:
The Azure datacentre in Lego.
 |
 |
 |
A cool Office 365 Lego giveaway…
and the most elaborate Microsoft Flight Simulator you will ever see…
And towards the end of the day I caught up with the Nintex crew to discuss Nintex Workflow for Project Server.
Thanks for the catch up guys.
So that just about wraps up day one. Presentations and flights home tomorrow… till the next post – Good evening – Goedenavond
In a hotel with wired and no wireless? No problem with Windows 7 #TEE12
Let me give you a handy tip whilst working in a hotel.
The scenario…
You are in a hotel that does have internet access but doesn’t have wifi, or in this case, the wifi is so hammered with all the TechEd attendants that it just isn’t worth it.
However, you do have a wired connection, but now my tablet / mobiles are useless since they rely on wifi and I don’t want data roaming charges.
Well a quick Google / Bing and I found this:
How to turn your laptop into a wireless hotspot:
It talks about some software, but for the command line steps on my Windows 7 laptop worked a treat:
- Start > Search… CMD
- Right click on the command prompt and select “Run as administrator…”
- Type: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<My Network Name> key=<My Password>
- netsh wlan start hostednetwork
- Go to Change Adaptor Settings, right click on the network adaptor connected to the internet and select Properties
- Sharing Tab
- Check: Allow other network users to connect…
- Select the new network adaptor
- Click OK
Ta daa, instant wireless hotspot from a wired connection and no 3rd party software installed to achieve.
Now back to the work I missed whilst at TechEd Europe 2012!
Presenting and staffing at TechEd Europe 2012 next week #TEE12
Just a quick blog post to say that I will be presenting at TechEd Europe 2012 next week with my slide deck:
Integrating Project Server & SharePoint 2010
Deployment Approaches, Integration Options
& making the most of the SharePoint Enterprise Features
Code: OSP02-LNC
- Level: 300
- Category: Office, Office 365 & SharePoint
- Presenter: Giles Hamson
- Date: Wednesday, June 27th 2012
- Time: 13:30 to 14:15 (45 mins)
- Location: Hall 2
The key focus of this session is to understand three popular approaches to implementing SharePoint and Project Server together and the key benefits to each method.
In addition you will also learn:
- Understanding how SharePoint and Project Server work together
- Using the enterprise features of SharePoint to leverage Project Server data
- How SharePoint and Project Server techniques differ and can cause issues with implementation
I will also be staffing the Microsoft stand to discuss Project Server, Project, SharePoint & Office with anyone who stops by. So if you have any questions about the product set or you just want to say hello, come along.
My Schedule:
- Tuesday: Booth 13:30 till 15:30
- Wednesday: Presentation 13:30 till 14:15 (link)
- Flight out Wednesday night – Airport for 7pm ish.
Look forward to seeing you there!
SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans 