Build your BI skills in SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse programme

Fast Track learning and Jump start of your skills is a recent buzzword in Cyberworld.

What is required when you need to deploy a new technology?

What kind of hardware is required for the deployment?

Project Madison is the answer as a whole. The answer to first question is skills and training in the new technology that is introduced by keeping up to the level on the enhancements as compared to the previous versions.

Coming to the second one, when buying hardware for large databases there are usually many unknowns that need to be verified and tested before committing to a purchase. In my personal experiences I have seen many times that you are at the whim of the hardware vendor’s sales and a proof-of-concept will go a long way to arriving at a costly decision. Reducing the cost is a major goal for every Enterprise and no matter how you do it, the achievement must be accomplished.  But that all takes extra time, here is what you need a Vendor (Hardware) that can match up to the levels of current technologies (Software) and this is what Microsoft has done here is to provide three major hardware vendors with "tried-and-tested" specifications that can be purchased with SQL Server 2008 to support large database implementations out-of-the-box!

This is what called a Fast Track Data Warehouse which is a new set of Reference Architecture for SQL Server 2008 technologies that will enable every customer to accelerate their Data Warehouse deployments and reduce cost! Well the point of reducing the cost involves testing and deployment of action which depends on the every individual choice of deployment. 

Ok getting the reference for new architecture and hardware vendors is not an end of story, in addition to this the users must have the process to upgrade the skills to this new & enhance Data Warehouse design within SQL Server. There must be new solution templates and virtual labs required to feel the new deployments and simulate their environment for testing. In this regard here is another advantage to the users to jump start their Data Warehouse design skills with new industry solution templates provided by Industry System Integrators – Accenture-Avanade, Hitachi Consulting, Cognizant and HP.

All of the new reference architectures that consists the storage capacity upto 32 TB were unveiled with major Hardware leaders and completely tested by Microsoft, in special they are balanced to optimize for better data warehousing techniques. So what will customer get:

• Better price performance than competitive solutions.
• Fast Track Data Warehouse offers similar performance to the competition at 1/5th the price
• Faster time to value and lower cost to setup and configure
• Better performance out of box through pre-tested hardware.
  

As the platform is ready to deploy the Customers have got major task to test and deploy this environment to choose the right Fast Track Data Warehouse method with the right performance, storage capacity and pricing to suit their business needs. So the licensing part of this deployment is available from the preferred hardware vendors and Microsoft partners too. Further read on about this fast trace and Project Madison review the additional resources given below:

SQL Server 2008 Fast Track
SQL - Project Madison
SQL Server 2008 - Podcast (wma)