Archive for October, 2015

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SQL Server 2016 – 10 things Synergy Software Systems likes.

October 31st, 2015

Microsoft announced the release of SQL Server 2016 in May 2015. Since that time a number of Community Technical
It will not be too long until SQL Server 2016 tili ts ready for shipping.

There are many new features , here a few we like:

Always Encrypted
With the Always Encrypted feature enabled SQL Server data will always be encrypted while within SQL Server. Always Encrypted enables client application owners to control who gets access to see their applications confidential data. The client application has the encryption key and that key is never passed to SQL Server.

If you want to store confidential data in a cloud managed database then it can be always encrypted even to your cloud provider.

Dynamic Data Mask
Dynamic data masking can obscure confidential columns of data in a table to SQL Server for users that are not authorized to see the all the data. For instance for define a masking rules so that unauthorized logins can only read the last four digits of a credit card number, whereas authorized logins can see all of the credit card information.

JSON Support
JSON – Java Script Object Notation. SQL Server 2016 can interchange JSON data between applications and the SQL Server database engine. This gives SQL Server the ability to parse JSON formatted data to be stored in a relation format. With JSON support also turn relational data, into JSON formatted data. .

Multiple TempDB Database Files
It has been a best practice to have more than one tempdb data file when running on a multi-core machine. In prior tSQL Server versions , you had to manually add the additional tempdb data files after you installed SQL Server. With SQL Server 2016 you can configure the number of tempdb files while installing SQL Server.

PolyBase
Use PolyBase to write adhoc Transact SQL statements queries to join relational data from SQL Server with semi-structured data stored in Hadoop, or SQL Azure blob storage. Get data from Hadoop without knowing the internals of Hadoop. Leverage SQL Server’s on the fly column store indexing to optimize queries against semi-structured data

Query Store
Prior versions of SQL Server can see existing execution plans by using dynamic management views (DMVs) but, those DMVs only allow you to see the plans that are actively in the plan cache. You can’t see any history for plans once they are rolled out of the plan cache. The Query Store feature, saves historical execution plans. and also saves the query statistics for those historical plans.

Row Level Security
With Row Level Security the SQL database engine can restrict access to row data, based on a SQL Server login. Security policies will ensure the filters get executed for every SELECT or DELETE operation. Implementing row level security at the database layer means application developers will no longer need to maintain code to restrict data from some logins, while allowing other logins to access all the data. With this new feature, when someone queries a tables that contains row level security they will not even know whether or not any rows of data were filtered out.

R Comes to SQL Server
Revolution Analytics is now available inside of SQL Server to support advance analytics against big data. This will eliminate the need to export your SQL server data to perform R processing

Stretch Database
Stretch the storage of your On-Premise database to Azure SQL Database. The stretch database feature allows you to have your most frequently accessed data stored On-Premise, while your less accessed data is off-site in an Azure SQL databases.
When you enable a database to “stretch”, the older data starts moving over to the Azure SQL database behind the scenes. When you run a query that might access active and historical information in a “stretched” database the database engine seamlessly queries both the On-Premise database as well as Azure SQL database and returns the results to you as though the data comes from a single source. This feature will make it easy for DBA’s to archive information to a cheaper storage media without having to change any actual application code. Maximize performance on those active On-Premise queries.

Temporal Table
A temporal table is table holds old versions of rows within a base table. Use temporal tables in SQL Server to automatically move old row versions to the temporal table every time a row in the base table is updated. The temporal table is physically a different table then the base table, but is linked to the base table. This simplifies the management of row versioning.

Where to find Additional Informationabout SQL Server 2016.

SQL Server 2016 data sheet: http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/D/3/FD33C34D-3B65-4DA9-8A9F-0B456656DE3B/SQL_Server_2016_datasheet.pdf

SQL Server 2016 release notes: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/dn876712.aspx

What’s new in SQL Server, September Update: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/bb500435.aspx

Summary

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Posted in SQL

Synergy Software Systems at Inforum Dubai 2015

October 31st, 2015

At ‪#‎InforNext15‬ Dubai last week, Infor’s CEO, Charles Phillips, delivered the keynote address . He highlighted how running critical operations and providing real-time analytics in the cloud has reached a tipping point that has driven 18% growth for Infor in this region.

He also discussed Infor’s disruptive approach to business software :allowing customers to take their technology for granted, ensuring out of office does not mean out of touch, and recognizing the potential of systems without borders.

Prior to Infor, Charles was president of Oracle Corporation and a member of its board of directors. During his seven and a half year tenure, the company tripled in size and successfully acquired 70 companies. Earlier, Charles was a Managing Director in the Technology Group at Morgan Stanley, where he was an Institutional Investor All Star for ten consecutive years.

Infor has earned a reputation for ‘beautiful software’ and for delivering the ‘last mile’ with industry niche solutions.

Synergy Software Systems, a specialist in financial solutions, is one of the oldest SunSystems partners for Infor SunSystems and has an impressive portfolio of Sunsystems clients across the Middle East in many verticals, from real estate to distribution, and particularly in Financial Services and Hospitality.

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Posted in Dubai and regional news, Events, Infor Financial solutions

Holo lens – augmented reality

October 24th, 2015

Both Microsoft and Google are trying to replace your computer, your tablet, and your smartphone with the next step in personal computing: augmented reality.

In the future — so the idea goes — you’ll interact with your digital life seamlessly in reality. Everything from email to video games to navigation will simply be overlaid into the world around you using sunglass-like shades that provide the functionality of your computer/smartphone/tablet/etc.

But that’s still in “the future.” What we’ve got right now is Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google-backed Magic Leap. Here’s the incredible Microsoft augmented reality set that turns your hand into a laser gun. This is HoloLens:

There are many ways to apply the technology – visualising BIM models -or collaborating on design across geographies.

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Posted in Microsoft, Technology

Synergy Software Systems at Gitex 2015 – Microsoft and IOT

October 22nd, 2015

It was good to catch up with old friends at Gitex and to meet so many new faces looking for our solutions.

Windows 10 IoT will power a range of intelligent, connected IoT devices. From small devices like gateways, to mobile point- of- sale to powerful industry devices like robotics and specialty medical devices, Windows 10 IoT offers a converged platform for devices with enterprise-grade security from the device to the cloud, and native connectivity for machine-to-machine and machine-to-cloud scenarios with Azure IoT Services. The newly released Azure IoT Suite offers preconfigured solutions built on Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Azure IoT Suite integrates with the device assets and IoT systems that customers already have. This lets businesses quickly pull together a more complete view of what’s happening. With the Azure IoT Suite, immediately see when a business asset or device needs attention. This allows a business to move from reactive to proactive maintenance—and then to full automation.

The Microsoft stand was as busy as ever – Jennifer Vaz, Synergy Software Systems, Executive Director, added a touch of glamour during her visit.

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Technology

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 end of life.

October 22nd, 2015

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Extended Support will end on April 12, 2016. With the end of support, security updates and hotfixes will no longer be available from Microsoft.

Unsupported software means increasing vulnerability to data issues and exposing other devices and applications of SQL Server to these same vulnerabilities.

– Plan now to upgrade and end the business disruptions caused by slow-performing databases and downtime.
– Take advantage of the powerful database functionality now available with SQL 2014.

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Posted in SQL

Dynamics Ax 2012 R3 CU9 and Windows 10

October 22nd, 2015

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Cumulative Update 9 is now compatible with Windows 10. The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 System Requirements are updated to reflect this change.

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax

Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS >

October 19th, 2015

An informative presentation from a Microsoft MVP that will help to understand what the ‘cloud’ means and what factors need to be considered. Cost security governance, scalability, services, public, private or hybrid – a common sense introduction.

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Security and Compliance

LinkedIn, Lithium, and Dynamics CRM

October 17th, 2015

CRM integration saves up to 30 minutes of time every day while increasing sales productivity by 17%, per rep. Source: Accenture study

To enable companies to more easily connect their social selling activities to their customer engagement efforts. LinkedIn are building deeper integration between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

LinkedIn online professional network, claims more than 364 million members worldwide. With LinkedIn information embedded right into Dynamics CRM, sellers can better identify and build relationships with new and existing customers.

With the LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration, sellers can send connection requests, view the latest lead and account updates, discover similar decision makers, and send InMail messages directly from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

In June this year Microsoft entered into an nalliance agreement to integrate Lithium social interactions and community data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

That agreement extends Lithium’s community platform to customers who rely on Microsoft Dynamics and offers enterprises more capabilities and choice in their customer relationship management (CRM) needs.

Lithium provides a community platform with more than 100 million members participating in the Lithium-powered community every month.

The close integration of Lithium community data within Microsoft Dynamics offers businesses greater insights from the wealth of customer signals embedded in communities.

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Technology

Management Reporter updated CU13 files

October 17th, 2015

A critical issue was found in CU13 that could impact any customer setting up a new Management Reporter installation and using SQL authentication.

The original installation files were removed from CustomerSource and a new set of installation files were posted last month. The re-release also contains the hotfix for the missing web viewer scroll bar.
• Delete any downloads containing the 2.12.13001.13 build
• Download the new CU13 build 2.12.13002.1.
This can be used as an upgrade from the initial CU13 release, or as the CU13 full install including the fix for this issue.
Go through the Configuration Console to perform a quick update
• If you choose to not apply the new install at this stage then you will receive the fix with the Management Reporter CU14 upgrade

• Any additional bug fixes released as a hotfix will rely on the new 2.12.13002.1 Re-release build as a prerequisite for the hotfix
• Both the EN-US and localized versions are available to download now.

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Posted in Corporate Perfomance Management, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Technology

Cortana Analytics any time soon – powerful, predictive analytics for the IoT

October 13th, 2015

Cortana Analytics refers to a cloud-based ecosystem hosted in Microsoft Azure for building and deploying elastic, scalable modern data warehousing and advanced analytics solutions. The entire data workflow — from event ingest/data capture, to data storage, to analytical processing and transformation, to modeling, to real-world deployment — is covered by a set of cloud-based services are intended to be combined to collect events and data and turn them into actionable intelligence, enabling human or automated action
– Cortana Analytics is a fully managed big data and advanced analytics suite that enables you to transform your data into intelligent action.
– Cortana Analytics Suite enables core analytics scenarios such as real-time recommendations, customer churn forecasting, fraud detection, predictive maintenance and many more.
– Take action ahead of your competitors by going beyond looking in the rear-view mirror to predicting what’s next.
– Enhance your business applications with machine intelligence to evolve from simple descriptive analytics to prescriptive recommendations.

The Cortana Analytics Suite encompasses a set of these data-oriented Azure PaaS offerings, including:
• Azure Event Hub
• Azure Data Catalog
• Azure Data Factory
• Azure Data Lake
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse
• Azure Stream Analytics
• Azure HDInsight
• Azure Machine Learning
• Power BI
• Cortana

Integrate with Cortana, a personal digital assistant that works with the Cortana Analytics Suite to enable your business, and your customers’ businesses, to get things done in more helpful, proactive, and natural ways.
• Helpful: By intelligently learning about your business needs over time,
• Cortana is increasingly helpful when connecting data to intelligent action.
• Natural interaction: Interact with you data with natural language and speech, through Cortana.
• Proactive: Cortana can analyze business and customer data to pro-actively suggest helpful actions, trends and insights.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, the largest hospital in northern New England, USA is developing a remote monitoring and predictive analytics solution called ImagineCare using the Cortana Analytics Suite. Leveraging predictive analytics, ImagineCare will enable dynamic treatment plans based on the individual patient’s history and profile and patterns observed from a broad corpus of data. ImagineCare aims to significantly enhance patient outcomes by predicting the probability of catastrophic events such as heart attacks and emergency readmissions before they happen.

Rockwell Automation created a solution to monitor expensive capital assets for petroleum capturing data from the well to the forecourt pump. It uses that data to improve efficiency, drive better performance and enable innovation. Based on Microsoft Azure Internet of Things services, the solution collects, integrates, and organizes sensor data from remote equipment across global supply chains to support real-time insight, predictive analytics, and preventive maintenance.

Corporate Vice President James Phillips describes how Microsoft is reinventing business intelligence (BI) with Microsoft Power BI, a rapidly growing business analytics service with groundbreaking data analysis and visualization capabilities.

Cortana Analytics Suite will soon be available as an integrated offering with a simple monthly subscription model that takes advantage of all the relevant analytics and big data capabilities. Make better, timely decisions and intelligently automate operations. The offering, while customizable to fit the unique needs of organizations, will also provide preconfigured solutions to speed deployment of common scenarios we see across many industries, such as fraud detection, churn analysis and recommendations

• Compliant: Ensure infrastructure compliance with your industry through our broad set of compliance standards such as ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 1 and SOC 2
• Scalable: Elastically scale to petabytes of data as your business needs grow over time, while keeping the flexibility and choice to manage multiple data repositories in the cloud

For ideas on how Cortana Analytics can help your business see https://gallery.cortanaanalytics.com/?fromlegacydomain=1

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Technology