I was in an inflammatory mood at the beginning of the week and tweeted the following at #sqlpass:

DBAs don’t like it, but Excel IS the database for many. This hasn’t and won’t change. Manage to this reality.

The lion’s share of people (DBAs, I guess) who responded…Well, let’s say they didn’t agree.  I don’t know, maybe I’m nuts or something but the users I work with generally take the path of least resistance.  Of course Excel isn’t a real database, but do users care? No. They just want to get their work done. If the data they want is available right now from an IT-provisioned data source, they’ll use it. If it’s not, the average user will end-run you so fast your head will spin. 

Are spread marts a good thing? No, they suck.  Are they a fact of life? Who knows…but I see just as many “mission critical” excel workbooks now as I did 5 or 10 years ago. That says something.

So why not embrace Excel as a potential solution for certain scenarios? Introduce them to Project Gemini (PowerPivot!)  and now you at least can get a view into what they’re up to – you can actually begin to manage some of their output.

What do you think? Honesly, I’m curious…I could be out of my mind, after all.

I’m giggling like a little girl because today (well, last night) CTP2 (also known as the “August CTP”) hits the streets.

I jumped out to MSDN and TechNet and see subscribers will be able to download it today – I’m actually looking at the bits out on TechNet right now.  A general release will be available two very long days from now, on Wednesday the 12th.  You can go for here for more information. The download link is here.

So what’s in CTP2? That’s sort of a good news / bad news proposition, actually.  As you know, R2 is hitting on the self-service BI theme with all cylinders. The main focus of this effort will be Project Gemini, but don’t forget about SQL Reporting Services which has much new coolness, too.

Project Gemini

I’m sure you all know about Project Gemini, and if you don’t, you should read about it here. Gemini is part of the next wave of innovation represented in the R2 / MOSS 2010 and Office 2010 releases. It is generally discussed in relation to the SQL 2008 R2 release. However, the CTP2 release of SQL doesn’t actually include the Gemini add-in for Excel 2010 – and most folks don’t have access to Excel 2010 yet, anyway.

The next community tech preview, CTP3 will contain Gemini bits. And, no, I don’t know when it will be released. I’m also unclear if this will be a public CTP or if you have to be invited.  In any case, if you want to sign up for notifications about CTP3, go here:   https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=27d33a54-f9f5-4357-b652-6f03ba8a4d23&lcid=1033.

For those of you lucky enough to be part of the Office 2010 Tech Preview, you can get your hands on a CTP2 synced version of the add-in right now. More information. You’ll see links at the very bottom of  the page that allow you to register and then download.

SQL Reporting Services

In terms of SSRS, you’re going to be able to play with Report Builder 3.0. It includes the new mapping functionality, which is still a work in progress in CTP2. It’s quite cool, however.

For all you recovering Microsoft Access junkies: Remember the love-hate relationship you had with DLoopkup? The function everyone maligns and then uses anyway? Well, SSRS has got it! Ours will be called Lookup(), and I won’t spoil the fun…check out Lookupset() and MultiLookup(), too.

Some really compelling functionality isn’t in the CTP yet, and I’m not sure whether the SSRS team has talked about it yet, so I’m not going to name/whine about its absence and inadvertently let the cat out of the bag.  Additional good stuff is coming, though!

Books Online

Don’t forget to RTFM! Download it here.