Here are some of the more interesting links that I have found this week

SQL Server

SQL Server 2016 RC1 has been released. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/03/18/sql-server-2016-release-candidate-1-now-available/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter I've not had a chance to look at RC0 in too much detail yet. Although I did notice that Microsoft have split the SQL Server client tools installation from there server features. I'll hopefully get a chance to download install and setup RC1 this week. With the release candidates coming thick and fast RTM can't be too far away.

Queries to monitor replication backlog https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4179/queries-to-monitor-sql-server-replication-backlog/

Support for SQL Server 2005 runs out on April 12th - Less than a month from now. If you need help in upgrading to the latest version of SQL Server or perhaps the cloud is now a viable and cost effective solution for you check out our consulting page for more information on how we can help

SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster installation guide - https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4200/step-by-step-installation-of-sql-server-2014-on-a-new-failover-cluster/

Business Intelligence and Analytics

With the up and coming release of SQL Server 2016 and the integration with R and the Polybase feature for integrating SQL Server with other technologies, I found this article by fellow Learning Tree instructor Andrew Tait call an Introduction to Microsoft R Server particularly interesting.

This is a useful article looking at editing DAX queries in DAX studio from Dan Buskirk

An  article depicting some useful and free data modelling tools can be found over on Simple Talk. This article has five online data modelling tools

Got a problem SQL Server, need help fixing it, checkout our consulting page and feel free to contact us I'm sure we can help