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[Focus]

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SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007
Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007 help you develop business intelligence by using the power of SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 to analyze your organization's data.
 — Tyler Chessman

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[Features]

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A Dependency Checker You Can Depend On
Discover why SQL Server's built-in dependency tracking functionality doesn't work well and how the dependency checker avoids the same problems.
 — Omri Bahat


A Practical Approach to Database Mirroring
Looking for high availability? You can implement database mirroring as an alternative to expensive third-party solutions. Here’s how.
 — Sean McCown


SQL Server Consolidation
Learn what steps to take to assess your SQL Server environment and determine whether planning a workload consolidation makes sense.
 — Allan Hirt


SQL Server Integration Services
Create an SSIS package that connects to all your SQL Server machines, pulls information into a central repository database, and feeds the combined data to a report.
 — Rodney Landrum

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[Editorial]

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Licensing Answers
As you prepare to use either multicore CPU's or virtualization, you must be aware of the licensing ramifications for the OSs that support them and aplications such as SQL Server 2005.
 — Michael Otey

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[Reader Challenge]

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Check for Objects Created Without SET Options Enabled
Test your SQL Server savvy in this month's Reader Challenge. Submit your solution in an email message to challenge@sqlmag.com by May 10.
 — Umachandar Jayachandran

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[Reader to Reader]

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Leverage Clustered Indexes to Avoid Bookmark Lookups
Here's a technique that you can use to improve the performance of queries that run slow because of bookmark lookups.
 — Kent Mitchell

Searching the Web for SQL Topics? Give SQL Hunter a Try
Here's a search engine that targets SQL-related Web sites, which means you can enter fewer parameters when conducting searches for SQL material.
 — Bill McEvoy

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[Solutions by Design]

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Consolidating Databases
SQL Server sprawl is becoming an increasing headache for DBAs everywhere. But database consolidation's no picnic either. A centralized structure will ensure you keep your consolidation as simple as possible.
 — Michelle A. Poolet

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[T-SQL Black Belt]

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DATETIME Calculations, Part 4
This fourth part of a series about datetime challenges and calculations focuses on techniques for calculating the date of the first and last occurrences of a weekday in a month, based on a given event date.
 — Itzik Ben-Gan

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[New Products]

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New Products
Check out new and improved SQL Server–related products.
 — Blake Eno

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[SELECT TOP(X)]

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Virtualizing SQL Server
Do you run SQL Server in a virtual environment? Learn these best practices for virtualization, from memory allocation to clustering, and more.
 — Michael Otey

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[Review]

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SonaSafe for SQL Server
Simplify your SQL Server backup and recovery efforts with this disk-to-disk backup solution.
 — John Green


Spotfire DXP Professional 1.1
This BI tool offers a rich set of visualizations to provide insight into your data.
 — Jason Picker

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[Industry Bytes]

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Industry Bytes
Our editors share insights from their conversations with AppDev Products and Pillar Data Systems.
 — Editors