SOURCE 

From the source:

Friends, the final and complete version of Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012, by Ross Mistry (@RossMistry) and Stacia Misner (@StaciaMisner), is now ready as a free download! You can download the PDF version of this title here (288 pages; 10.8 MB).

We will update this post soon with links to EPUB and MOBI files. We expect these files to be available by March 23. If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here for $14.99.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 includes 10 chapters:

PART I   DATABASE ADMINISTRATION (by Ross Mistry)

1.   SQL Server 2012 Editions and Engine Enhancements

2.   High-Availability and Disaster-Recovery Enhancements

3.   Performance and Scalability

4.   Security Enhancements

5.   Programmability and Beyond-Relational Enhancements

 

PART II   BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT (by Stacia Misner)

6.   Integration Services

7.   Data Quality Services

8.   Master Data Services

9.   Analysis Services and PowerPivot

10.   Reporting Services

SQL Server 2008 SP 2 is available for download.

From the TechNet Flash:

Both the Service Pack and Feature Pack updates are now ready for download on the Microsoft Download Center. Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 includes new compatibility features with SQL Server 2008 R2, product improvements based on requests from the SQL Server community, and hotfix solutions provided in SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 to 8.

• - SQL Server 2008 SP2

• - SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express

• - SQL Server 2008 SP2 Feature Packs

From Scott Guthrie’s blog:

Last month we released a beta of the Microsoft Web Farm Framework. The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free product we are shipping that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers.  It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them.  It also supports integration with load balancers - and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or unavailable to customers (it can automatically pull servers one-at-a-time out of the load balancer rotation, update them, and then inject them back into rotation).

Downloads: X86 / X64

Features:

- One step provisioning of servers added to a farm
- Platform Provisioning using Web PI
- Application Provisioning using Web Deploy
- Policy-based Provisioning
- Installation of additional platform components and content
- Reduced down time with load balancing integration using ARR
- Up-to-date status and trace logs of server farm servers
- Extensible model that allows you to write additional providers

Resources:

- Microsoft Web Farm Framework web site

- Official post on Scott Guthrie’s blog (includes tutorial)

Best of Microsoft Management Summit 2010

Best of MMS 2010 will provide the opportunity to learn more about IT Management solutions from Microsoft and how you can adopt them in your datacenter. MMS is an annual event in Las Vegas where we deliver deep technical content on our latest management solution offering.

In a year packed with new management product releases, MMS 2010 will provide the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter, Device and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft. This year 5 of our Belgian Experts from the System Center User Group will attend this event and bring back all the valuable information and present them to the Belgian IT Professionals.

register now!

Date:
May 11,2010

Location:
Microsoft Office
Da Vincilaan 3
1935 Zaventem

With the release of the Windows 7 operating system, new capabilities, working scenarios, and efficiencies are emerging. In the area of green IT, Windows 7 contains new features that, when combined with Microsoft System Center, drive the reduction of operational costs through centrally controlled power management. 

In this webcast, we describe the enterprise-class power management capabilities that were introduced in the newly released Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Configuration Manager 2007 R3. From integration with Intel vPro technology, to power management planning, to centrally controlled policy application, to industry-standard reporting formats, join us to learn why Configuration Manager should be your technology of choice to help reduce energy costs.

System Center and the Green Client (Level 300)

Duration:
60 Minutes

Date:
Monday, May 24, 2010

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TechNet Flash Feed post

Keith Combs’ blog

TechNet Flash Feed reports:

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