Our friends at Ace and Auldhouse have been busy getting some training opportunities ready for you to take advantage of.

Firstly there is a promotion going at the moment which Ace and Auldhouse are participating in.  Essentially, if you sit a course (there are a number to choose from), you walk away with not only enhanced knowledge of SQL Server 2008, but also a copy of SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (NFR).  Check out Auldhouse’s page with rego links here.  If you are looking to do a couple of courses, and you book them both with Ace they’ll give you 25% off a third course too.  Check out Ace’s promo page here (thanks Lettie!)

Secondly, if you are looking at migrating to SQL Server and are used to Oracle, there may be something we can do to help you out.  There is a course that we may be able to make available to you.  This is a four day course and is designed specifically to help Oracle DBA’s migrate their existing skill set to SQL Server.  For more details on this, please contact me directly via email here.

*Update* Fixed link

Registration for Tech Days is now open. This is the first ever Tech Days Microsoft has run.  The event is a little like a global Tech Ed event run entirely online.  There are a huge number of sessions to choose from on a variety of topics including developing for Windows, Windows Mobile, SharePoint, Office, .Net and more.

These are not just pre-canned sessions, there will also be the opportunity to tune in with a presenter at the other end to ask questions. 

It all starts on April 1 and will be spread across timezones, so that even here in New Zealand we wont be on the outside.

Registration is here.

Over the last little while we’ve been redesigning the NZ SQL website.  Today it is live.

The goal of the site is to focus on SQL Server in New Zealand.  Yes, we’ve provided links to key information based out of the US website, but for the most part the content is NZ based.

You’ll find there links to SQL Server communities in New Zealand – which includes the user group community as well as kiwi SQL Blogs.

I’m also trying to build a library of stories of people who have done work with SQL Server in New Zealand.  Currently the site is a bit light on kiwi stories and while I have a couple in the works, I’m looking for more.  If you have deployed SQL Server 2008 into production and are willing to tell your story from a business point of view, contact me and we’ll make it happen.  You can read the one story we have up there now here.

From time to time I also get questions which I try to answer here (1, 2, 3) but I’ll also be putting some of these up on the NZ SQL website.

I’ve got some more locally produced content coming that will go onto the site in the near future which I look forward to telling you about a little later.  In the meantime, take a quick look and send me feedback.