There has never been such an abundance of available and useful information as there is today both across the web and across your organization. However, users are challenged with effectively discovering and connecting to this information so that they can gain the meaningful insights they need. In this session we will discuss how to empower users with business intelligence through familiar Office tools, and how to manage all your data needs with a powerful and scalable data platform. See the full Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Countdown Webinar Schedule at: http://www.sqlpass.org/SS2014Launch. Please join our experts from engineering and technical marketing teams as they discuss new functionalities and enhancements in SQL Server 2014.
Power BI is an exciting new technology in the business analytics space from Microsoft. I’ve played with its current preview version & attended couple of sessions on Power BI at PASS Summit 2013. Based on my first impression, I noted down Problems that Power BI solves. Note that as of today, it’s in preview & so information around cost is not availale yet but I try to learn and understand as much as I can Today about how Power BI is going to help business users & power users in the future. As a part of that, I’m attending Business Analytics VC’s session on “Power BI Info Management and Data Stewardship” by Matthew Roche & Ofer Ashkenazi on Nov 7th 12 PM EST.
Topic: Power BI Info Management and Data Stewardship
“Business intelligence tools continue to improve, letting users shorten their time to insight and take that insight to more devices in more places. But this evolution of BI doesn’t change one fundamental fact of information management: You can’t gain insight from data you can’t access.
In this session, Matthew Roche and Ofer Ashkenazi will introduce the role of the data steward and the self-service information management capabilities included in Power Query and Power BI for Office 365, focusing on how Power BI empowers business users to add value to the organization.”
Closing note:
I recently volunteered at Business Analytics VC as VP of Marketing, so it’s in my interest to spread word about the event but I would not spread word about something unless it gets me personally excited about it! 🙂
I hope to see you at the session and for some reason if you can not make it, we usually record sessions & so you can check out the meeting archives section of the PASS BA VC site after the event.
I was selected to a be a speaker at SQL Saturday Trinidad! And it was amazing because not only did I get a chance to interact with the wonderful people who are part of SQL Server community there but also visited some beautiful places on this Caribbean island!
I visited Trinidad in January, just before their carnival season! And even though, people were busy preparing for carnival season, it was great to see them attend an entire day of SQL Server Training:
And here’s me presenting on “Why Big Data Matters”:
Couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a blog that had a logo of GiveCamp and the title that said “I support GiveCamp” – And curiosity got better of me and i clicked on the logo. And I landed on a page whose tagline “Coding for charity” was all I wanted to read. And I understood I would be developing a software for NGO – I was in! And (Lucky me!) there was one GiveCamp scheduled to happen in Dallas and so I signed up!
From my perspective, this is why I think it’s one of the best platforms for software professionals to volunteer:
I have volunteered at places where I paint, teach, serve food, etc – things that does not leverage what I do best.For instance, I volunteered at a place where I got to paint few walls. And since I had never painted houses before, it took me little time to figure it out and yes, I was not optimal in using paint. Now, Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy volunteering in any form – But a volunteering opportunity like GiveCamp that directly leverages what i am good at, is a Win-Win situation for me as well as the charity. So kudos to the person who came up with the idea and actually executed it. And kudos to organizers of various GiveCamp’s who must have put in countless hours to give a platform for volunteers and charities to connect and work together to create a software in short span of 48 hours!
I know! it’s an Amazing concept! Now, After my first GiveCamp – I am definitely going back next year [Update 2 Nov 2012: I volunteered at Dallas Give Camp 2012 too!] but five reasons of why I think every software professional should do so too:
– Make an impact
– Have fun
– Meet amazing campies!
– Learn things. Yes, i learned few things about WordPress that i didn’t knew before
– bag Goodies! Like books, computer hardware, magazine subscription, XBOX! etc..
And so if you have not been a part of GiveCamp, consider doing so. Even if you develop software’s on weekday’s – i bet, this experience of developing software for charity over a weekend is not just about “developing a software”. It’s much more than that…
Also don’t worry much if you are traveling from far – you can just sleep under the desk! Yes, people do that – and guess what, that is what camping is all about, isn’t it?!
And so, I had fun at this GiveCamp – And I bet you would too!
I had never attended a conference of this scale before – so for me, it was a novel experience! An experience I will cherish (Until I get a chance to attend the next PASS!). And I am just amazed at kind of work the PASS board and volunteers must have put in to make this all happen. I remember a time when I was a lead organizer for a national level technical festival for just 500 attendees – and trust me when I say I had no chance to rest for 3-4 weeks straight. So when I see a conference that is 10x in size and 100x in reputation – All I can do is stare in amazement:
– Met Amazing people who are passionate about same things I am!
– Met people who are part of the team that are responsible for developing/delivering products that I use daily => Met people with blue badges!
– Slept a little!
– Explored Seattle after PASS summit
– Volunteered as PASS ambassador
What was my job?! To guide people to find what they were looking for. So what I had to scout for confused faces – offer then help – point them to places – that’s about it.
– And tweeted a little during SQLPASS! #sqlpass rocks!
I highly recommend any student to go and compete to become a Microsoft student partner. It’s a one of it’s kind program and the best campus ambassador program you could ever find! check out: https://www.microsoftstudentpartners.com/ for details and learn about how to apply for the program. If you have any further questions, drop a comment here – I’ll try and answer to the best of my knowledge.
Anyways, I got the Microsoft student partner (MSP) graduation certificate for 2010 – 2011. Being a MSP was super fun and I learned a lot of things too! I will cherish my tenure as a Microsoft student partner forever. Thanks MSFT!
Paras Doshi,
Ex – Microsoft student partner (Nirma University, India)
It was fun presenting at inaugural Ignite Ahmedabad club. I presented on “what mobile devices plus cloud computing mean for the real world” in 5 minutes! yeah, Ignite has an unique format. 20 slides + 5 minutes + slides automatically change every 15 seconds. So for me, it was a novel experience! Learn more about Ignite: http://ignite.oreilly.com/.
More about my Talk:
My aim was to show that Mobile devices that could leverage the power of cloud computing could change the world for good! With cloud computing gaining momentum, we will see mobile devices that would delegate compute and/or storage to the cloud making the mobile device to do much more than it’s capacity may have allowed. Basically, I babbled about my Fantasies! The day my mobile device would become as powerful as a supercomputer – you know, by embracing the concept of cloud computing. Later, I also talked about Microsoft’s project Hawaii which facilitates cloud enable mobile computing. That was it! it was super fast, it was super fun!
I look forward to presenting at such forums again!
YUVA is a NGO based in India and one of their campaign is to spread computer literacy among slum children’s. For this campaign they partnered with Microsoft and the name of the initiative was Yuva + Microsot student partners Digital literacy campaign. I was a part of this wonderful initiative and the few snapshots that you see were taken when we volunteers used to go and teach this wonderful bunch of intelligent students basic computer stuff.
Here are the photos from some of our sessions in Ahmedabad, India:
It was indeed an honor and privilege to be part of an event that had his excellency Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as the chief Guest. I also got a chance to meet Bhaskar Pramanik, MD Microsoft India and Pratima Amonkar, Director Academia at Microsoft India. I also met some of the dynamic fellow Microsoft student Partners and some of the YUVAites (YUVA Unstoppable is a NGO that has been doing wonderful job across India) at the event. It was a great experience.
One of the best moment of the event was when Mr Bhaskar Pramanik, MD, Microsoft India acknowledged the work of spreading literacy that we Microsoft student Partner’s do! It really meant a lot to each and every one of us. Also, Microsoft was awarded because of it’s involvement in spreading Digital Literacy in India. Kudos! In words of Mr Bhaskar Pramanik – “We do not do it for the sake of CSR – we do it because we really should”
Thanks to Times Foundation and Yuva Unstoppable for Organizing such a wonderful event. And Thanks to Microsoft Student Partners program for providing a Platform wherein students can spread digital literacy by being a part of ‘Yuva – Microsoft Digital literacy campaign’!
Few clicks:
Invitation Card.
Key note by APJ Abdul Kalam Sir
APJ Abdul Kalam Sir, Extreme right: Bhaskar Pramanik (Microsoft Chairman)
Let's play a game called "try finding Paras in the picture"
30 Apr, 2011: It was time for Azure boot camp in Ahmedabad and I was looking forward to learn more about Azure from Mahesh Dhola, President of Ahmedabad user group and Gaurav Mantri, Azure MVP and Founder of Cerebrata.
The event started with Mahesh Dhola delineating event plan which seemed very interesting. He also informed the audience about an amazing windows competition (http://www.microsoft.com/india/azurecontest/ ) which is specifically for Indian developers.
Mahesh Dhola informing participants about an Azure contest!
Now, it was time for the session ‘Introduction to cloud computing and windows Azure’ to be delivered by Gaurav Mantri. He began by outlining the benefits of cloud computing in general. He compared traditional hosting methods with cloud hosting by giving thought provoking examples.
Gaurav Mantri presenting on 'Introduction to cloud computing and Azure'
For instance, he took a scenario for gaming Industry. Let me try and describe the scenario for you, so that you also can appreciate the beauty of windows Azure. Suppose a startup plans to roll out a Game. Now first let’s see the traditional on premise hosting model. Here, the challenge that they face is the upfront cost on infrastructure to deploy the Game. Now assume that the game becomes a decent hit and there is increase in demand but unfortunately the available infrastructure is not able to accommodate growing demand. So the startup purchases required infrastructure and sets it up. But the process is not instantaneous as the company has undergo the process of buying infrastructure, setting up network, installing required software’s and deploying application. Now, say the demand for the Game suddenly decreases because a rival firm has rolled out a similar but better game. So now, the startup is now sitting on an Infrastructure that is worthless to them now.
Now alternatively say, that the startup had decided to host the application on Window Azure. With the pay as you go model, there is no upfront cost. You pay for what you use. Also, Azure provides the elasticity to rapidly scale up and down. Here, in our example, the startup could just provision new instances as demand rises. Moreover, since Azure is a PaaS, the startup does not have to carry out tasks like OS patch, network administration and they can focus on things that they do best that is Build applications! And if unfortunately, the game does not take off, the startup could just decide pull the plug and delete all the provisioned instances. Thus opting for Azure makes sense when the load is unpredictable. He also described other load patterns for which Azure fits perfectly. But at the same time, it is very crucial to evaluate whether the cloud hosting model suits your needs.
After the excellent introduction to world of Azure, he shifted his focus to second session ‘Deep dive into windows Azure compute and storage’. Here he talked specifically two key components of Azure that are compute and storage. He described three components of Azure compute that are Web role, Worker role and the VM role (Beta). He differentiated each of the roles by giving their use cases which really helped better understand the need of each role. Next, he talked about the Azure storage which also has three components that are blobs, tables and queues. Each of the option was discussed in detail with code examples. Also different use cases were discussed which really help better understand each of the components. Thanks!
Now, Post lunch, we had a session from Mahesh Dhola. He took a session on ‘End to End application development with windows Azure storage and compute’. He started by summarizing the Azure stack and then moved on to describe the new Azure management portal. After that he showcased the application that he had built and deployed on Azure specifically for this session. He had used different components of Azure stack like web role, Azure tables, Azure queues to build his application. I learned a lot as he painstakingly explained how each and every code piece formed an Azure application! Thanks!
Mahesh Dhola presenting on 'End to End application development with Azure storage and compute'
Thanks for such a wonderful event! I learned a lot!
