Free, as in free, eBook - Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (direct download, no reg required)

Microsoft Press - Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

“We’re thrilled to publish another free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner!

The book contains 10 chapters and 216 pages, like so:

PART I   Database Administration

CHAPTER 1   SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements 3
CHAPTER 2   Multi-Server Administration 21
CHAPTER 3   Data-Tier Applications 41
CHAPTER 4   High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements 63
CHAPTER 5   Consolidation and Monitoring 85

PART II   Business Intelligence Development

CHAPTER 6   Scalable Data Warehousing 109
CHAPTER 7   Master Data Services 125
CHAPTER 8   Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight 145
CHAPTER 9   Reporting Services Enhancements 165
CHAPTER 10   Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot 189

Here’s more info about the book:

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From the eBook;

 

Introduction

Our purpose in Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is to point out both the new and the improved in the latest version of SQL Server. Because this version is Release 2 (R2) of SQL Server 2008, you might think the changes are relatively minor—more than a service pack, but not enough to justify an entirely new version. However, as you read this book, we think you will find that there are a lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2008 R2 that will have a positive impact on your applications, ranging from improvements in operation to those in management. It is definitely not a minor release!

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for anyone who has an interest in SQL Server 2008 R2 and wants to understand its capabilities. In a book of this size, we cannot cover every feature that distinguishes SQL Server from other databases, and consequently we assume that you have some familiarity with SQL Server already. You might be a database administrator (DBA), an application developer, a power user, or a technical decision maker. Regardless of your role, we hope that you can use this book to discover the features in SQL Server 2008 R2 that are most beneficial to you.

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Given the current news cycle (i.e. seems like everything is about VS2010/.Net 4/WP7/Kin/etc) this could be easily missed. That and it’s been like days and days since I posted about a free eBook… ;)

(via @giovanni – tweet)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
The March 2010 “SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Kit” update now includes VS2010 goodness

Free (as in Beer) Introducing SQL Server 2008 eBook (Reg-ware)