TFS (Team Foundation Server)

TFS is the heart of the Team System and helps to tie together all the resources and the activities that are involved in the application life cycle. If you are new to TFS, here are some good resources to use to get up to speed:

Microsoft Site: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181232.aspx

Guide to Team Build: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/08/14/tfs-2008-a-basic-guide-to-team-build-2008.aspx

Community Site: Team System Rocks: http://teamsystemrocks.com/default.aspx

Community Site: TFS Times: http://tfstimes.com/news/

Add-ons for TFS: http://widgets.accentient.com/default.aspx

TFS Power Tools: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/tfs2008/bb980963.aspx

In a very simple 50,000 ft. overview, TFS does all of these:

1. Version Control: Bye-Bye VSS (Visual SourceSafe) - we will blog in the coming days the differences and advantages of TFS over VSS,
2. Automated Builds for applications and databases,
3. Reporting - SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) reports are integrated since the data store is SQL Server 2005 and higher up,
4. Full integration with Visual Studio,
5. Handles bugs, requirements and tasks, and
6. Uses Analysis Services for enhanced reporting.

From an installation perspective, it requires:

1. Windows 2003 - IIS 6.0, .Net Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5, Sharepoint Services (WSS).
2. SQL Server 2005 - Standard/Enterprise Edition: Make sure to install SSRS and SSAS.

In the days to come, we will blog about the different feature sets.

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

I don’t know how many of you are aware of this but MSFT has a product called “Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007″ which can be used for managing all real time communications like IM (Instant Messaging), Audio, Video conferencing. In this day and age as people work together outside of the office boundaries and at times even across continents, this might be something that your company or your client might be interested in evaluating for your tele-communications or collaboration needs. You can read up more on this from the MSFT site for UC (Unified Communications):

http://www.microsoft.com/uc/products/ocs2007.mspx

Microsoft’s answer to Amazon’s SimpleDB

This was an interesting post:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1245

Microsoft is following the footsteps of Amazon and is launching SSDS (SQL Server Data Services). It is touted to be highly scalable, on demand data storage and query processing web services. They are looking for testers and getting involved at this stage might be a way for you to get a head start on this new way of implementing solutions for your clients.

You can read up more on Microsoft’s site: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx

iPhone opens up to MS Exchange e-mail

The market for iPhone seems to be opening up for the corporate world also as it seems that iPhone will soon start supporting MS Exchange e-mail in version 2.0 of the product. You can read more in this Infoworld post.

Virtual Labs

MSFT virtual labs is a good way to try out new technology through a guided hands on labs in their virtual online environment. They have virtual labs available for Business Intelligence, SQL Server (including SQL Server 2008), Windows (including the latest 2008 OS),Exchange and many others. This is a very good way to get your hands dirty and gain some knowledge without investing into the software, hardware or training. Check out this link on TechNet for the virtual labs:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb467605.aspx?wt.svl=leftnavvirtuallabs

Also, here is the link for Windows Server 2008 virtual labs:

http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/windowsserver2008.aspx?tab=virtuallabs

Voice Over IP

BizTech Magazine featured a very nice article on VoIP in their recent edition. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article.asp?item_id=396

Amazon SimpleDB

SimpleDB is Amazon’s latest Web Services offering. As is mentioned by Amazon on their site:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=342335011

“This service works in close conjunction with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), collectively providing the ability to store, process and query data sets in the cloud”

This is yet another step towards parallel distributed data management for large data stores.  This web-service is based on the YOYODA model - You Own Your Own Data - Always. It will take some time to become familiar with the new terminology and the similarities as well as the differences between what SimpleDB offers versus what conventional RDBMS offer.  In the days to come, we will write more on this.

Wikipedia’s listing on Oracle, SQL Server and DB2 LUW

Wikipedia has some interesting short history for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and DB2 LUW. It is an interesting read and also has architecture diagrams and some useful links:

Microsoft SQL Server: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server

Oracle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Database

DB2 LUW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_DB2

MODL - a new way of learning

Everyday new training methods are evolving to reach out to the customers and enhance their learning experience. Portals and online applications are coming up which allow for sharing of content pertaining to high-tech training to topics such as gardening, high school mathematics etc.. Microsoft has also taken a couple of such concepts and has a program called MODL - Microsoft Official Distance Learning. The official site for MODL is:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/modl/default.mspx

This is a good combination of the instructor led training plus web based CBTs plus virtual reality concept like Second-life. This sounds like a very neat concept since it merges the best of all those worlds. Not only is it less expensive since the travel and lodging costs are saved (if going out of city for training), it preserves the benefits of one-on-one instructor based training classes and at the same time lets the students to work on their own pace. In addition, one of the exciting things about MODL training is the phase in which the students work through a real world problem in a virtual workspace (you can draw parallel to Second life concept here) - this really helps since application of what you learn in the class to a real world problem helps cements those concepts. We are sure that MSFT will be adding more courses in their MODL training as time passes by - right now, the list of available courses can be seen at this link.

Software Development and Failures

This is an excellent read - http://www.inc.com/magazine/20071101/how-hard-could-it-be-five-easy-ways-to-fail.html?partner=fogcreek

The article delves into the top 5 mistakes that lead to failures in the technology world.