I have been getting into cloud computing in a really big way/ I just read a great post from Oakleaf System that put a test harness on all the different cloud computing systems out there, With the exception of       s(s)ds (soon to come) and Google. It is a great through down and worth a read.  Here is a link to the article

http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/test-harnesses-compare-amazon-ec2-with.html

Here is a spoiler if you don’t have time to read the whole thing

Following is a comparison of EC2 execution times with those of the original OakLeaf Systems Azure Table Services Sample Project that’s described at Azure Storage Services Test Harness: Table Services 1 – Introduction and Overview, et seq.

Action:	Page	Count	Insert	Delete	Create	Update
EC2 with SQL Express	0.005	0.002	0.019	0.380	0.112	0.374
EC2 with SimpleDB	0.048	0.094	0.048	10.094	22.142	10.855
Azure Table Services	0.215	0.188	0.155	5.820	5.310	6.561

I was surprised to find Azure Table Services’ execution to be substantially slower than EC2 with SimpleDB for single-page SELECTS, iterative counts, and single INSERT operations.

With the exception of the Insert operation, you can verify the Azure Table Services timing data because the harness is available whenever Azure Data Services is up. EC2 services will be made available on request for brief periods (contact roger_jennings[at]compuserve[dot]com).

Make sure you read the comments there worth a gander.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11646261&postID=1093778038105568110&page=1

I am getting ready to do bunch of presentations this weekend and I realized half my computers were running the rc of Sql 2008

So I decided to got to the site and downloaded and selected to install SQL Exrpress 2008.

Went to look for SQL Server Express Management Studio Express 2008 annnnnd nothing!

Few search engine searches later and no clear direction found this on SQL Express home page:

You can manually download and install any edition of SQL Server 2008 directly from the Microsoft Download Center:

• SQL Server 2008 Express
• SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools
• SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services

Which edition of SQL Server 2008 Express is right for you?

SQL Server 2008 Express is available in the following 3 editions (each is available from the Install Wizard):

• SQL Server 2008 Express
  • SQL Server database engine - create, store, update and retrieve your data
• SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools
  • SQL Server database engine - create, store, update and retrieve your data
  • SQL Server Management Studio Basic - visual database management tool for creating, editing and managing databases
• SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services
  • SQL Server database engine - create, store, update and retrieve your data
  • SQL Server Management Studio Basic - visual database management tool for creating, editing and managing databases
  • Full-text Search - powerful, high-speed engine for searching text-intensive data
  • Reporting Services - integrated report creation and design environment to create reports

So make sure you download the SQL Server 2008 Express with ToolsSql

Though I save some people some time.

One last thing:

Step 1: Download and install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1.
Step 2 Download and install Windows Installer 4.5.
Step 3 Download and install Windows PowerShell 1.0.