Get Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition for FREE

Not long ago I paid 60+ dollars to buy SQL Server Developer Edition from Microsoft Store. Since end of March 2016, you can get it for free. That's very generous.  It is a free download but you may have to sign-in to Visual Studio Dev Essentials before you can download SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition. It is assumed that you have a licensed Windows 10 or Windows Server.

SQL Server Developer edition has all the capabilities of the Enterprise Edition, however it is only for development and testing. Of course you can do BI on it. You may not run a business with it.

In Microsoft's own language,
"Visual Studio Dev Essentials is Microsoft’s most comprehensive free developer program ever, with everything you need to build and deploy your app on any platform, including state-of-the-art tools, the power of the cloud, training, and support."

This is great stuff. If you are serious you will not let go of this opportunity.

Go this URL to download SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition with Service Pack 1 (x86) or (x64)
https://myprodscussu1.app.vssubscriptions.visualstudio.com/Downloads?pid=1682









More on this news here:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/03/31/microsoft-sql-server-developer-edition-is-now-free/

Microsoft Azure expands storage options with Azure Data Lake

Recently announced Azure Data Lake addresses the big data  3V challenges; volume, velocity and variety. It is one more storage feature in addition to blobs and SQL Azure database. Azure Data Lake (should have been Azure Data Ocean IMHO) is really omnipotent. Just look at the key capabilities of Azure Data Lake:

Any Data
Native format, distributed data store. No need to pre-define schema information. From unstructured to structured data handling.

Any Size
Kilo bytes to Exa bytes OK. Ready for read/write.

At any scale
Scale to match your needs; high volume data handling of small writes and low latency. Can Aaddress near real-time web analytics scenarios.

HDFS Compatible
Works out-of-the box with Hadoop including services such as HD Insight

Full integration with Azure Active Directory
Supporting identity and access management over all of the data.

Azure Data Lake Store  is therefore a hyper-scale HDFS repositiory designed specifically for big data analytics in the cloud. It is order made for IoT and thorughput-intensive analytics for high volume data.

Read more here.
The graphic is from a  Microsoft Technet site
I checked out the preview portal (https://portal.azure.com/), I do not see it. Possible by the end of the year.

Cost effective Data Warehousing with Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Azure SQL Data Warehouse Service is now in preview. You have to go to the preview portal to get started. If this is your new account, you can have a free trial.

Following on the heels of April's Build Conference Microsoft has announced the enterprise-class elastic data warehouse as a service- the Azure SQL Data Warehouse available for public preview.
The driving forces are of course the elasticity and cost effectiveness. If you have already invested in Azure cloud you have at your disposal Azure related tools, utilities and skills.

With SQL Data Warehouse Microsoft is offering:

• The first enterprise-class elastic data warehouse that includes the separation of compute and storage, enabling customers to pay for what they need, when they need it
• The ability to pause the database so you only pay for commodity storage costs
• Full SQL Server experience that includes PolyBase that allows you to combine queries for your structured and unstructured data using the skills you have today 
• Hybrid options – your data, your platform, your choice

Azure SQL Data Warehouse Service is based on massive, parallel processing architecture and integrates with PowerBI and Azure Machine Learning for advanced analytics. It also integrates with Azure Data Factory for event processing and its big data offering, the Azure HD Insight.
Here is the big picture:

You need to get to the preview portal to get started.