Add-on Components for SSIS

I've just discovered a new 3rd party add-on for Integration Services by Ivolva.com. There is a SSIS wizard http://www.ivolva.com/ssis_wizards.html which simplifies the process of creating a custom task or data flow component.

There is also the Extra Sort component http://www.ivolva.com/extrasort.html which apparently provides enchanced performance for sorting large data sets. I'll take a look at these add-ons and post my comments later.

Using SQL Server 7.0/2000 in a Hyper-Threaded Environment

I've just read an good article which discusses using SQL Server in a hyper-threaded environment http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322385. To cut a long story short, we recommend that the maxdop (maximum degree of parallelism) setting should remain equal to the number of physical processors that are being used.
Performance

"[]...The performance of hyper-threaded environments varies. Conservative testing has shown 10 to 20 percent gains for SQL Server workloads, but the application patterns have a significant affect. You might find that some applications do not receive an increase in performance by taking advantage of hyper-threading. If the physical processors are already saturated, using logical processors can actually reduce the workload achieved. For example, applications that cause high levels of contention can cause decreased performance in a hyper-threaded environment. We recommend that you test your application thoroughly to make sure that a hyper-threaded environment provides you the performance gain that you want versus the purchase of equivalent physical CPUs. Hyper-threading can be very helpful but hyper-threading cannot replace the full power of an additional physical CPU"

Sneak Peak at Developer Enhancements

The PDC session abstracts have been published, and although they are written in a fairly oblique way (very deliberately I suspect) they still provide an early taster of the fun to come for developers with Office 12.

Forms Server

Creating Browser-Based InfoPath Forms...hosting the server form control in an interactive custom aspx page. [More details on the Forms Server that first saw the light of day last week]

InfoPath 12

...deeper integration with Visual Studio Tools for Office…new all-managed object model...reuse your work through form template parts...integrate InfoPath forms into your own application by hosting InfoPath as an ActiveX or WinForm control [Yes! I know so many ISVs who will love this! ]...extend InfoPath itself through COM add-ins.

User Interface

...new, declarative model for customizing the Office user interface using XML [mmm… a kind of XAML for Office then]

Outlook 12

...fundamental changes that will make 'Outlook 12' a better development platform...more robust, usable and manageable...significant changes in programming the user interaction, the core object model and performance. [This sounds like a big one. Outlook has always had a pretty tricky object model to master.]

Word 12

...takes XML document programmability to a new level, offering new flexibility and intuitive user interaction...enable a greater use of custom-defined schema [Good to see the commitment to XML in Word continuing]

All the PDC session abstracts are available at http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/sessions.aspx.

If you want to get along to PDC this Sept, registrations are still open.