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Peter Myers of SolidQ gave a great overview of SQL Server PowerPivot to the Bay Area Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group.  The timing was good because we haven’t had an in depth discussion of PowerPivot since the  group launched in April of 2010 in conjunction with the SQL Server 2008 R2 launch events.

About 20% of the attendees had used PowerPivot so far.  Peter gave a good overview, and then walked us through an example app, step by step, using a variety of data sources, including SQL Server and Excel.  He’s a great speaker (and very fast typist!), and we learned a lot.

The timing of this meeting was ideal for me.  I had just met that afternoon with a client about how they pull data from spreadsheets, line of business applications, and other sources. Their process is tedious, labor intensive, prone to error, and needs to be repeated weekly.  I could clearly see how we could solve their problems with PowerPivot and easily distribute the information across their global organization via Access Services and their SharePoint 2010 portal.  Thanks again for a great talk, Peter!

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Sidewalks aren’t the only thing that’s hot in Houston. (There’s a wicked heat wave hitting Texas right now.)  Solid State Drives were the topic at the Houston Area SQL Server User Group (HASSUG) meeting on July 12th. Raul Salas (MCITP) spoke about how adopting SSDs (Fusion-io drives in this case) allowed his company to keep a client’s third party application running way beyond its intended capacity in both TPS and data volume.

I had a chance to catch up with Nancy Hidy Wilson, the leader of HASSUG, and Tyler Chessman of Microsoft,  who recently started the Houston Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group – soon to become our newest PASS Chapter. I also had a great conversation with Jonathan Gardner of Insource Technology.  Jonathan was a key organizer for Houston’s SQLSaturday #57 in January.

Idera Software, developer of a suite of SQL Server tools, sponsored the meeting. It was good to see Vicky Harp, the lead developer of Idera’s SQL Diagnostic Manager tool. I met Vicky at SQLRally 2011 in Orlando. She’s interested in learning more from DBAs in hopes of adding useful features to their products.

There were some great conversations both before and after the event. Kevin Kline of Quest Software will speak to the group next month. 

I’m headed back to California now. Stay cool Houston! 

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