January 2009 - Posts
If you have worked with Performance Point Server before this change in strategy is not all that surprising. The product is ( at least the Monitoring and Analytics) is very focused on delivering items via SharePoint. In moving Performance Point Monitoring and Analytics into the SharePoint stack, this functionality is now available to all SharePoint Enterprise customers. And for free assuming you are licensed for SharePoint Enterprise.
Going forward the functionality will be further integrated into the Office stack increasing the inroads of these BI technologies into a large number of users within the enterprise. Here is another post from Russell Christopher on some of the benefits of this announcement.
In my opinion this is a great strategic move by Microsoft to promote these BI technologies in the Enterprise.
Have you ever thought, "Gee, I would really like to play with some of the cool BI technologies, but I really would rather not go out and install everything". "Plus, I would really not have to try and come up with a bunch of sample data so that I can play with some of the new functionality?"
If you have ever found yourself saying those things then the Microsoft All-Up BI VPC is what you are looking for. You can access the links to download all the parts of the VPC here: (http://performancepointblog.com/2008/12/all-up-bi-vpc-71-available-for-public-download/), I have setup up the VPC and played around a little bit and things seem to be working really well. I will definitely be looking at potentially using this for demos and presentations.
Enjoy!
Just a reminder to all my SoCal readers out there that the SoCal Code Camp (http://www.socalcodecamp.com) is just around the corner. Next weekend hundreds of your fellow geek enthusiasts will be joining you at one of the best Code Camps out there. There are going to be over 90 sessions over two days to allow you to "geek out" until your heart is content. And not only that, we have an awesome Geek Dinner on Saturday night with live Music.
Remember, that this is all FREE, paid for by the generosity of our sponsors. Be sure to check them out and say thanks for being a supporter of the local Tech Community.
I look forward to seeing you all there.