Rob Kerr, MCDBA, MCTS is a Principal Consultant for BlueGranite, a Microsoft Business Intelligence Gold Partner. The views expressed in this blog are his own and are not reviewed or endorsed by BlueGranite or Microsoft.
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Windows Firewall and SQL Server 2008

Recently I've been working on deployments of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.  I thought I'd start to post some of the nuances of these new product editions.  One of the first things to encounter is, not surprisingly, security.  Security is always loads of fun ... [More]
Posted:7/21/08, 01:58 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Little a vs. Big A

When planning a deployment of PerformancePoint Monitoring & Analytics (PPS M&A), an often overlooked component in the business solution is the ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS) application layer.   PAS is sometimes not deployed by customers, and their analysts are... [More]
Posted:5/24/08, 11:13 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Trouble installing software onto Windows server from a network share

Microsoft’s security focus over the last few years has brought many improvements in the overall level of security.  Along with this level of security also comes an increasing number of hoops to jump through to accomplish simple tasks. Recently I found that it became impossible to ... [More]
Posted:5/2/08, 20:58 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Encrypted e-mail in Outlook for free!

In this article I'll provide some basic guidelines for implementing X.509 PKI-based e-mail encryption that you can implement for free!  The goal for this article is a process you can use with your business associates and/or friends to exchange e-mail securely, with no additional software ... [More]
Posted:4/28/08, 01:28 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Analysis Services 2008 Improvements & BIDS Helper

Analysis Services cubes for OLAP analysis have improved substantially between SQL Server 2000 and 2005.  Still, there's always room for improvement.  The recent CTP (Community Technology Preview) editions of the upcoming SQL Server 2008 product shows that the product continues to imp... [More]
Posted:4/28/08, 00:33 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Favorite Visualization #2 – The Performance Map (Heat Map)

In a related post I wrote about one of my favorite visualizations, the Decomposition Tree.  This time I'll write about one I like even more--the Heat Map (or in Microsoft terminology, the Performance Map). As I said before, state-of-the art BI tools enable a level of explorat... [More]
Posted:4/19/08, 21:31 by Rob | 0 Comments
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Favorite Visualization #1 – Decomposition Tree

Business Intelligence is a broad topic, spanning a set of technologies and business improvements spanning from enterprise reporting to analytics to performance management.  One of the more interesting areas is in data exploration and visualization. State-of-the art BI tools enable a lev... [More]
Posted:4/19/08, 21:08 by Rob | 2 Comments
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SQL Server 2005 SP3

Francois Ajenstat wrote in a recent blog posting that Microsoft will release a SP3 for SQL Server 2005.  There has been a groundswell of support in the user community for this, and it's a relief to know it's on the way. This is especially great news for those of us dep... [More]
Posted:4/19/08, 16:54 by Rob | 0 Comments
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How do you select end-user BI tools?

In my work helping clients create their BI application architecture, one area that creates a great deal of uncertainty and confusion is what applications and tools to use.  Part of this confusion is brought on by an overwhelming array of choices.  Even in the Microsoft “stack&rdquo... [More]
Posted:4/9/08, 09:55 by Rob | 0 Comments
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