On Friday Microsoft released the first service pack for SQL Server 2012.
The news was delivered at the company’s PASS event, held last week in Seattle. Corporate Vice President Ted Kummert introduced a number of demos showcasing existing and new technologies at work. He also gave an overview of Microsoft’s overall direction in addressing business needs with its flagship relational database management system.
Key themes of the talk included access to self-service business intelligence (BI) through the use of user-friendly Excel-based tools, the use of “in-memory” technologies and the ability of organizations to tap unstructured data sources to gain business insights. Kummert said that Microsoft has “fully integrated Power View and PowerPivot into Excel 2013.” According to Microsoft’s self-service BI conception, knowledge workers can use those familiar tools to glean business insights from piles of data without bothering IT too much.