Tag Archives: MCSE

Lumia 900 release window confirmed

One of the hottest devices to be announced at CES 2012 was Nokia’s Lumia 900. Nokia and Microsoft already gave us the lowdown on the big brother of the Lumia 800, but one detail that they left out was a release date. All we had to go on was “the next few months.” Now it appears that we can narrow down that timeframe: the Lumia 900 will be launching on AT&T in March.

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The info was spilled via the Nokia Developer portal. In an otherwise typical press release announcing the Lumia 900, it is revealed that the Lumia 900 “will become available exclusively through AT&T in March.”

The Lumia 900 is, by most people’s measures, a gorgeous phone. Its polycarbonate build is complemented by a 4.3-inch display that uses ClearBlack technology for darker darks. Its software is the real deal too, sporting the latest edition of Windows Phone, version 7.5 Mango. The Lumia 900 will run on AT&T’s burgeoning LTE network.

Microsoft and Nokia wanted to wait until after the 2011 holiday season to launch the first fruits of its collaboration. This was allegedly because it wanted to have its own moment in the spotlight. This may prove to be a smart strategy: apart from maybe Intel’s Medfield announcement, the Lumia 900′s unveiling may have been the biggest smartphone news to come out of CES 2012. March shouldn’t be a crowded field for big smartphone releases, though the expected release of the iPad 3 will surely dominate tech headlines in that month.

There still isn’t any pricing info for the Lumia 900, but it would be wise for Nokia and AT&T to keep it at $200. Verizon’s annoying habit of pricing its new LTE phones at $300 may work for the Android fans who always want the latest-and-greatest. But it wouldn’t be a wise pricing strategy for a platform that’s still unfamiliar to most Americans. $200 would match it up evenly with the iPhone, which is a comparison that Microsoft and Nokia will gladly accept.

CES 2012: Following the new startups

Whenever I go to a large show such as CES, I always try to make time to look around on the fringes of the show, where the small and (hopefully) up-and-coming companies are. This year, the CEA pointed directly at some very early startups with its Eureka area, which featured companies and products which (at least most of them) aren’t quite ready for prime time, but which show potential for the future.

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Many of the companies seemed to be approaching tech from a for-fun point of view. For example, a company called Modular Robotics was showing electronic building blocks it calls Cubelets, which it is marketing as a toy for children but which I think not a few adults wouldn’t mind spending some time with — you attach power blocks, sensor blocks and action blocks together to make small robots that move, light up or perform other actions.

Another company was creating small robotic vehicles that used smartphones as the driving intelligence. Romotive lets you either preprogram your smartphone — Android or iOS — to drive a small wheeled device in a preprogrammed pattern, or you can use your tablet to direct its movements. According to one of its representative, Phu Nguyen, kits are now being sold to developers, and they hope to come out with a consumer-ready product in another year or so.

Another not-quite-ready startup showing at the Eureka area was nVolutions, which was developing cases that would power up your mobile phones using a small wheel attached to the back of the case that powers it via a spinning motion. It’s an interesting idea, certainly; one of several companies trying to figure out how people can keep their smartphone batteries going without having to constantly search for a power source.

Whether nVolutions, or any of the other startups showing this year, will make it will be interesting to follow. I’m glad that, despite the overwhelming presence of large companies at CES, there are still tiny, ambitious developers out there ready to enter the fray.

Speeding up the computer running on Windows 7

Windows 7 have numerous design, performance and security enhancements over its predecessors. Still new or old computers running on Windows 7 face sluggishness in their performance. Be n number of reasons if an old computer is working slowly but what for a new one. A Windows OS have numerous performance settings, which are set to default in a new machine. In this write up, we will discuss how you can speed up a computer running on Windows 7. Let us have a look upon them.

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Low RAM
The first and foremost thing about the performance is hardware configuration. Make sure to have an adequate amount of RAM in the computer. If it seems low then you can also think to upgrade it. The minimum required RAM to install Windows 7 is 1GB but it is recommended to have 3GB RAM for optimal performance. If you working as a photographic professional or facing slow computer problem then have a look at this option too. You can consult an expert at Windows 7 Tech Support to know the minimum amount of RAM required as per your configuration and requirements.

Limiting the startup
Almost each application is designed to load at startup with the Windows automatically in order to have maximum use and fast launch. However, this option lets the Windows to start the computer slowly. The bottom right corner of your screen nearby the clock is the system tray. Here, all the programs loading on startup will appear. You can also click the arrow icon to see the hidden programs.

One can use Microsoft Startup System Configuration utility or Autoruns to block the programs from loading on startup. Blocking unnecessary applications can decrease the startup time but selecting the system default utilities can stop the proper functioning of associated programs. Therefore, it is recommended to have expert assistance for limiting the startup.

Cleaning up the junk
Use Disk Cleanup to remove the unwanted, temporary, and system-generated junk files from your computer. This will also let you to remove the unnecessary old system log and empty the Recycle Bin. Removing these files helps your processor to work faster and focus only the work related files.

Performance Troubleshooter
Go to Start menu and click Control Panel. Type ‘troubleshooter’ in the search box, click ‘Troubleshooting’ in ‘System & Security’. Now, select ‘Check for performance issues’. This will open the Performance Troubleshooter Wizard. Follow it step by step to analyze the performance issues. If you’re not able to understand or resolve the problem then it is the time to buzz Windows 7 tech support.

Virtual Memory
As the name suggests, it is the virtual memory assigned on the primary or secondary disk drives for the system work. Windows recognizes this area as primary memory. It is recommended to assign 1.5 times of the RAM as minimum and 2 times as maximum amount of virtual memory. By default, it is selected to be assigned automatically by Windows. Set the virtual memory properly from 1.5 to 2 times of RAM and see a difference between in the computer performance after a restart.

Conclusion
You can follow above steps to optimize the performance of a Windows 7 computer. If it still runs slow with these steps then it is advised to take help of third-party Microsoft Support for resolving this performance glitch in your computer.

Kindle Fire Tablet Review – New Product from Amazon

On Wednesday Amazon on officially introduced not one, not two, but four new Kindle devices. And of the Main is full color Kindle Fire. This new Tablet is very reasonable, will cost you only $199! This is a killer price for any color tablet. It’s cheaper than the iPad

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Amazon’s color tablet has a 7-inch 16-million color display same like the iPad. It has wide viewing angle and great color saturation. It is made of Gorilla Glass with multi-touch display screen and a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. This resolution is pretty dense: 169 pixels per inch. The display is chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes. It has its own unique Android interface. It has Android 2.x. Amazon Kindle Fire is powered by a dual core CPU. Dual-core processor gives fast, powerful performance

Highlights of the Kindle Fire :
• 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
• Amazon Appstore – thousands of popular apps and games

• Ultra-fast web browsing – Amazon Silk
• Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
• Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle
• Fast, powerful dual-core processor
• Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows

Kindle has Wi-Fi connectivity. All synchronization of Data is invisible, on wireless and in the background. It doesn’t have cameras or microphone. So there is no videoconferencing available and there is no option of 3G connectivity also. There’s only 8GB of storage on the device available.

The Drawback I can see is the device does not feature any Home button and instead of that you have multi-touch capabilities option to help you navigate the tablet’s applications and features.

Amazon Kindle Fire’s battery life also very good, provides you with eight hours of continuous reading and seven-and-a-half hours of continuous video playback as long as the wireless connection has been turned off. The tablet also has one USB 2.0 port which can be used as both purpose, charger when plugged into your computer and USB. It only weighs 14.6 ounces.

You can enjoy movies, magazines and children’s books come alive on a 7″ vibrant color touchscreen with high resolution. Kindle Fire uses IPS technology same technology is that used by Apple on the iPad – for an extra-wide viewing angle, perfect for sharing your screen with others. Enjoy your favorite magazines with glossy, full-color layouts, photographs and illustrations.

Android Platform gives you Top game applications like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, The Weather Channel and more, plus a great paid app for free every day. Amazon digital content is available on the Amazon Cloud. There is free Amazon Cloud Storage So that means you’ll be able to start a movie on Kindle Fire and transfer it to your TV. Your books, movies, music and apps are available instantly to stream or download for free, at a touch of your finger. You can enjoy your social life with facebook and twitter and many more apps and also stay in touch using built-in email app that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc.) into a single inbox. The Kindle Fire can access all the content offered by Amazon (includes MP3 and video streaming)

The main advantage of buying kindle fire that it has all Kindle books, Android apps, and movies and TV shows… Full Entertainment Tablet…

Kindle Fire is best tablet with killer price. If you want to buy Kindle Fire Visit us at Technoeshop.com. At Technoeshop you can find many deals and special offers related all Tablet PCs in different brands.

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Microsoft 70-442 Q & A / Study Guide

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QUESTION 1
You work as a contract developer for National Retailers. You are currently working
on the online order application the National Retailers database developer has
informed you that the product parts and components will be stored in a xml data
type column. National Retailers employees are allowed to request product
information regarding a doll or action figure line by clicking a button on the Web
form. The data will only be retrieved if the employee requests details.
You need to design the appropriate data access technologies and must thus choose
the object that you need to use to store the query results for product parts and
component information.
What should you do?

A. Make use of a DataSet object.

B. Make use of an XmlElement object.

C. Make use of an XmlDocument object.

D. Make use of an XmlDocumentFragment object.

Answer: D

Explanation: An XmlDocumentFragment object can store either a well-formed
XML document or a fragment of a document. This would be consistent with the xml
data type which has the ability to store well-formed documents as well as fragments.
1. The National Retailers management wants to expand business by selling their
exclusive doll line on the company Web site
Incorrect Answers:
A: A DataSet object is used when the method returned a relational data set, akin to the
method that is generated from a SELECT statement.
B: An XmlElement object is used to store the results of a SELECT … FOR XML query,
not the contents of a single value.
C: An XmlDocument object must store well-formed XML Documents. It is thus not
compatible with the xml data type.


QUESTION 2
You work as the database developer for National Retailers. You need to optimize
the indexing strategies and are thus designing the indexes for the Sales.Orders table.
The query in the following exhibit is frequently executed, though it is not the most
commonly executed query.
SELECT Salesrepresentative, SUM(Commission)
FROM Sales.Orders
WHERE Date BETWEEN @ startDate AND @ endDate
GROUP BY Salesrepresentative
ORDER BY Salesrepresentative
You need to use the appropriate statement to create the best index to accommodate
this query.
What should you do?

A. Use the following statement:
CREATE INDEX ix_Commission
ON Sales.Orders(Salesrepresentative, Date, Commission)

B. Use the following statement:
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX ix_Commission
ON Sales.Orders(Salesrepresentative, Date)

C. Use the following statement:
CREATE INDEX ix_Commission
ON Sales.Orders(Date)
INCLUDE (Salesrepresentative);

D. Use the following statement:
CREATE INDEX ix_Commission
ON Sales.Orders(Date, Salesrepresentative)
INCLUDE (Commission);

Answer: D

Explanation: The Date column is used to select the records and the
Salesrepresentative column is used to group and order the records. This means that
both these columns have to be key columns. The Date column is used in a
BETWEEN comparison, thus it should also be the first in the query. Furthermore,
it has higher selectivity than the Salesrepresentative column.
1. Sales Representatives should also be allowed to check the current commissions due to them.
Incorrect Answers:
A: The column used for equality or BETWEEN comparisons should be listed first. This
must then be followed by the most selective column, then the rest of the predicate
columns in order of decreasing selectivity. And, although it is possible that you can
create an index by using a computed column as the key column, it is recommended that
key columns be kept as narrow as possible. This means that making use of an included
column for Commission is a better option.
B: A Clustered index should have high selectivity. The Salesrepresentative column does
not have high selectivity. This means that this clustered index will not be appropriate for
any other queries done against the table like retrieving order information for instance. A
table can only have one unique index.
C: The Salesrepresentative column is used in the GROUP BY clause. Thus it would be
better suited as the key column rather than an included column. Furthermore, this is not a
covering index as it does not include Commission as an included column.


QUESTION 3
You work as the database developer for National Retailers. While busy designing
queries for the retrieval of data from XML sources, you are writing a script that
will generate an XML file to be imported into the collections application. This
application assumed XML data includes both elements and attributes.
You need to make a choice of the most appropriate type of Transact-SQL statement
to use to retrieve the data from the database.
What should you do?

A. Make use of the OPENXML Transact-SQL statement.

B. Make use of the sp_xml_preparedocument stored procedure.

C. Make use of the SELECT … FOR XML AUTO Transact-SQL statement.

D. Make use of the SELECT … FOR XML PATH Transact-SQL statement.

Answer: D

Explanation: The FOR XML PATH clause of the SELECT
statement will allow you to use XPath to define the structure for the XML data that
is returned. This structure can include both elements and attributes.
1. The Chicago office handles debt collection. All customers with an outstanding balance
over 60 days are also sent to the Chicago office. The accounting department makes use of
a collections application that imports XML data.
Incorrect Answers:
A: The OPENXML statement is used to insert XML data into relational tables. Not to
retrieve a resultant set formatted as XML from relational tables.
B: The sp_xml_preparedocument system stored procedure is used prior to calling OPENXML.
C: The FOR XML AUTO clause of the SELECT statement will generate a result set of
nested elements and as such do not make allowance for a mix of elements and attributes.


QUESTION 4
You are busy designing the database query strategy for National Retailers that will
retrieve the result set used to report on monthly sales trends. To this end you are
designing the stored procedure. This stored procedure will be used by an
application that makes use of Microsoft Visual C# .NET.
Of the requirements that you need to keep in mind is that the analysts need the
ability to retrieve a result set with approximately 100 records and scroll through
them to gather information. These analysts will need the ability to locate records
based on either factory or product I
D. They do NOT update any data. You thus
need to design the most appropriate cursor strategy for National Retailers.
What should you do?

A. Create a server-side static cursor.

B. Create a server-side dynamic cursor.

C. Create a client-side forward-only cursor.

D. Use a default result set and do not create a cursor.

Answer: D

Explanation: The Default Result Set caches all records in the result set to the client.
This will thus reduce round trips across the network to one and prevent data from
being stored in the tempdb.
1. Regularly at the end of each month, reports are generated manually and e-mailed to the
Chicago office. Monthly sales and invoice aging information is included in these reports.
Incorrect Answers:
A: If you create a Server-side static cursor it will consume server resources and require a
round-trip across the network each time the client fetches data. Furthermore the cursor
will then be stored in tempdb.
B: A Server-side dynamic cursor does require a round-trip across the network every time
a client fetches data.
C: Creating a Client-side forward-only cursor will not allow analysts to scroll through
the data the way that they require to. These cursors only support the ability to fetch the
next record and not to move to a specific record.


QUESTION 5
You work as the database developer for National Retailers. You are currently
designing the code that will retrieve the product information for the online order
application. To this end you need to determine the appropriate type of object that
you should create to return to the Web application. The Web application will
require that information such as product name, product description, and product
price information be returned in response to a search request.
What should you do?

A. Use a Transact-SQL stored procedure.

B. Use an extended stored procedure.

C. Use a table-valued user-defined function.

D. Use a Common Language Runtime (CLR) user-defined function.

Answer: A

Explanation: The online application accesses data via a Native XML Web service.
This means that you are limited to using an object that can be exposed as a Web
method. A Transact-SQL stored procedure can return the required information and
can be exposed as a Web method.
1. The National Retailers management wants to expand business by selling their
exclusive doll line on the company Web site.
2. The future online Sales application will be outsourced. NRCH-DB02 will host a
database to support the e-commerce application. The e-commerce application will make
use of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to retrieve product information and submit
orders.
Incorrect Answers:
B: An Extended stored procedure cannot be exposed as a Web method.
C: A Table-valued user-defined function cannot be exposed as a Web method.
D: A CLR user-defined function is not required because the data can be retrieved using
Transact-SQL.


QUESTION 6
You are designing the error-handling routines for National Retailers. You are
creating a function that will be used to check the audit trail for the products. This
function must raise a custom error in the event of the audit trail not being
verifiable. Do bear in mind that the code to check the audit trail requires a query
and a cursor.
What should you do?

A. Use the following error-handing method:
— Perform query and open the cursor
— Run code that iterates through the cursor and checks the audit trail
IF @@ERROR
RAISERROR @@ERROR

B. Use the following error-handing method:
BEGIN TRY
— Perform query and open the cursor
— Run code that iterates through the cursor and checks the audit trail
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
RAISERROR (@myCustomError, 15)
END CATCH

C. Use the following error-handing method:
–Perform query and open the cursor
–Fetch the first row
WHILE /*not the last row*/
IF /*Code that checks the audit trail*/
–Fetch the next row
ELSE
SET @@ERROR = @myCustomError
END WHILE

D. Use the following error-handing method:
–Perform query and open the cursor
–Fetch the first row
WHILE /*not the last row*/
IF /*Code that checks the audit trail*/
— Fetch the next row
ELSE
RAISERROR (@myCustomError, 15)
END WHILE

Answer: D

Explanation: You need to pass the error message back to the application via an IF
ELSE statement to check the values in a row, then calling RAISERROR in the event
of the values being invalid. The RAISERROR function will allow you to send an
error message up the calling chain.
1. Industry regulations require an audit trail for all components and parts that go into a
doll or action figure. The audit trail must be able to use the UPC number on the package
to trace all the components and parts, who supplied the components and parts, and what
date the components and parts were shipped. Components and parts information must be
entered at the time the product line is created and cannot be altered after the quality
inspection. Attempts to modify components and parts information after the inspection
time must be logged.
2. Only product lines with an intact audit trail can be shipped. If an audit trail is not
available, the product line must be destroyed. The product line application includes a
verification routine that checks a specific product line’s audit trail. The application makes
use of structured error handling to react to a product line that must be destroyed.
Incorrect Answers:
A: The requirements will not be met if you use @@ERROR after iterating through the
cursor. The @@ERROR global variable contains the error number generated by the last
statement. Thus if will only include an error number if the last statement to process the
cursor is responsible for the error.
B: Using a TRY … CATCH block within a function is not possible.
C: @@ERROR is a global variable that is automatically set by SQL Server every time a
statement executes. Thus you cannot set @@ERROR.


QUESTION 7
You are designing the error-handling routines for the National Retailers Web
application. In the event of a customer failing to enter valid payment information,
you need to send a custom error to the calling application. Furthermore, this error
message has to be localized to the user’s language. The Web application will pass the
language when it opens a connection to the database server. You thus need to decide
which would be the most appropriate way to support error messages in multiple
languages.
What should you do?

A. A CASE statement should be added to the CATCH block.
Then call RAISERROR with a different error message for each language.

B. A different error number should be used for each language version.
Then a CASE statement should be added to the trigger and call RAISERROR with
the language-specific error.

C. Add a message for each language using sp_addmessage.
A different error number should be used for each language version.
Raise the error in the @@ERROR global variable.

D. Add a message for each language using sp_addmessage.
The same error number should be used for each language version.
Call RAISERROR from the trigger.

Answer: D

Explanation: The same error numbers should be used when adding an error
message for each language. This will allow SQL Server to match the session
language to the error message language when you call RAISERROR. The
sp_addmessage stored procedure is used to add an error message.
1. The National Retailers management wants to expand business by selling their
exclusive doll line on the company Web site.
2. The future online Sales application will be outsourced. NRCH-DB02 will host a
database to support the e-commerce application. The e-commerce application will make
use of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to retrieve product information and submit
orders.
Incorrect Answers:
A: A CASE statement should not be added to the CATCH block and then call
RAISERROR with a different error message for each language. This will make
maintenance quite difficult since you will then be required to modify the code that calls
RAISERROR if a message changes or you need to add a language.
B: There is no need to use a different error number for each different language version
and then add a CASE statement to the trigger. This option will work, though it will be
difficult to maintain since the trigger will then have to be modified each time a language
is added. It will also require more programming effort instead of allowing SQL Server to
choose the right language for the error message.
C: If you raise the error in @@ERROR, then the error associated with the last statement
will be raised and not the custom error message. Also, there is no need to define a
different error number for each language version.


QUESTION 8
You are designing the error-handling routines for National Retailers. You thus need
to design the code that will validate the audit trail for a product batch.
Users that do not enjoy membership of the sysadmin role will run the
fn_ValidateBatch function. You need to use the appropriate statements to ensure
that in the event of an invalid audit trail, an error is raised to the calling application
and an event is written to the application log.
What should you do?

A. Use the following statements:
sp_addmessage (@msgnum=50888, @severity=15, @msgtext=”Batch” + @b “cannot be
validated.”)
and
RAISERROR(50888, @batchnum, WITH LOG)

B. Use the following statements:
sp_addmessage (@msgnum=50888, @severity=16, @msgtext=”Batch %b cannot be
validated.”)
and
RAISERROR (50888, WITH SETERR, @batchnum)

C. Use the following statements:
sp_addmessage (@msgnum=50888, @severity=16, @msgtext=”Batch %b cannot be
validated.”)
and
RAISERROR (50888, %batchnum)

D. Use the following statements:
sp_addmessage (@msgnum=50888, @severity=16, @msgtext=”Batch %b cannot be
validated.”)
and
RAISERROR(50888, @batchnum, WITH LOG)

E. Use the following statements:
sp_addmessage (@msgnum=50888, @severity=21, @msgtext=”Batch %b cannot be
validated.”)
and
RAISERROR(50888, @batchnum, WITH LOG)

Answer: D

Explanation: By specifying the 16 severity level, you ensure that the users who do
not belong to the sysadmin role have the ability to raise the error. Also this option
displays the correct syntax for using arguments in a message text string. By default,
only messages with a severity level of over 19 are logged to the application log. This
can be overridden by specifying WITH LOG when calling RAISERROR.
1. Industry regulations require an audit trail for all components and parts that go into a
doll or action figure. The audit trail must be able to use the UPC number on the package
to trace all the components and parts, who supplied the components and parts, and what
date the components and parts were shipped. Components and parts information must be
entered at the time the product line is created and cannot be altered after the quality
inspection. Attempts to modify components and parts information after the inspection
time must be logged.
Incorrect Answers:
A: This option would be correct except for the severity level of 15. By default, only
messages with a severity level of over 19 are logged to the application log. This option
does not offer any overriding probabilities to have the error logged to the application log.
B: This option is only partly correct. But you should not raise the error by specifying
SETERR. This will result in @ERROR and ERROR_NUMBER to be set to 50000. You
do not make use of a concatenated string to use an argument in the message text.
C: The RAISERROR (50888, $batchnum) is the incorrect syntax. A local variable starts
with an @ and not a %. Also this option will not cause the application to be logged to the
application log.
E: You should not specify a severity of 21. Messages with this severity level can only be
raised by members of the sysadminrole.


QUESTION 9
You work as the database developer for National Retailers. You are currently
designing the indexes that will be used for the OnlineSales.Customers table. The
following exhibit illustrates the most common query that will be used.
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State, Zip
FROM OnlineSales.Customers
WHERE CustomerID = @emailAddress
You thus need to select the best statement that should be used to create this index
that will accommodate this query.
What should you do?

A. Use the following statement:
CREATE INDEX ix_custInfo
ON OnlineSales.Customer(CustomerID)
INCLUDE (FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State, Zip);

B. Use the following statement:
CREATE INDEX ix_custInfo
ON OnlineSales.Customer(LastName, FirstName)
INCLUDE Address, City, State, Zip;

C. Use the following statement:
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX ix_custInfo
ON OnlineSales.Customer(CustomerID, FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State,
Zip);

D. Use the following statement:
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX ix_custInfo
ON OnlineSales.Customer(CustomerID)
INCLUDE (LastName, Address, FirstName, City, Zip, State);

Answer: A

Explanation: Making use of this statement will create an index with a small unique
key that covers the entire query. For optimal performance a small key size that
includes the columns used in the
WHERE clause and other predicates or in joins are recommended. In this scenario
the only required key column would be the CustomerID column. Then you can
include the rest of the columns as non-key columns. This means that you need to
create the index as a non-clustered index because non-key included columns are not
supported for clustered indexes.
1. The National Retailers management wants to expand business by selling their
exclusive doll line on the company Web site.
Incorrect Answers:
B: This index would not be used for the query because the CustomerID column is not
listed as a key column.
C: This statement, if created will result in an index with 344 bytes in the key column.
Though it is possible, it is not optimal since it is better to create an index with a smaller
key column and included columns.
D: This is incorrect because you cannot make use of included columns in a clustered
index.


QUESTION 10
National Retailers require a database that will support the e-commerce application.
You need to find a way to provide the e-commerce application with information
about the existing inventory. The database must determine the nearest factory that
has the product ordered in stock and send the order to that specific factory to have
it fulfilled.
You thus need to determine how the inventory information should be made
available to the e-commerce application while providing the best possible
performance when placing the order.
What should you do?

A. Query the database server at each factory using OPENROWSET from a stored
procedure run on NRCH-DB02.

B. At each factory implement an https: endpoint on the database server and expose a
Web method that checks inventory.

C. Replicate the data from the database servers at the different factories to the
NRCH-DB02 server using merge replication.

D. Use a linked server for the database server at each factory at NRCH-DB02.

Answer: C

Explanation: Using merge replication to replicate all data from the factories to
NRCH-DB02 will make the data available locally and improve query performance when
an order is placed. This is the best type of replication to use in this case because there
could be conflicts by orders placed over the Web and order places by the Sales
representatives at each factory. Also in a case where the different sites/factories are not
well-connected making use of merge replication makes sense. And in this case the
factories are connected to the Chicago office by demand-dial links.
1. The National Retailers management wants to expand business by selling their
exclusive doll line on the company Web site.
2. The future online Sales application will be outsourced. NRCH-DB02 will host a
database to support the e-commerce application. The e-commerce application will make
use of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to retrieve product information and submit
orders.
Incorrect Answers:
A: Making use of OPENROWSET to query each database server at each factory from a
stored procedure on NRCH-DB02 will result in one or more remote queries to be sent
across the network for each product ordered.
B: Making use of an https: endpoint will result in more overhead than is required. There
is already a demand-dial connection between the Chicago office and the different
factories. Thus there is no firewall that restricts incoming protocol to only https:. Making
use of a SOAP request will result in even more overhead than a remote query.
D: Making use of a linked server for the database server at each factory and performing a
remote query is not the best solution because each product that is ordered will cause at
least one, and possible more, remote queries to be sent across the network.

 

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Why Colocation Services Are Economical

Colocation centres or facilities give clients a safe place where they can house their hardware and equipment. Housing them in office premises or warehouses is simply too risky as there is always the possibility of fire, theft and vandalism. A colocation centre or facility is also a carrier hotel where a dedicated server or a fully managed server can be housed. They are also geographically positioned to attain the best internet connection possible to secure uptime and to prevent latency.

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Colocation centres or facilities have building features that are necessary for protection and risk reduction. For one, they have fire protection systems designed to protect their equipment and to minimize possible damage. These include smoke detectors, hand held fire extinguishers, fire sprinkler systems and the installation of passive fire protection elements. Usually, nineteen inch racks are provided for data equipment and servers while twenty three inch racks are provided for telecommunications equipment plus cabinets and cages that can be locked depending on how clients want to access their equipment. Air conditioning and air cooling systems are also provided to control room temperature. Physical security is also provided round the clock to protect the facility. In some facilities, employees are required to escort clients to their respective equipment and in some facilities they implement the use of biometrics or proximity cards for access. Similarly, generators and back up batteries are essential to ensure a hundred percent uptime in the event of power outages. These generators are designed to run indefinitely until the main power supply is restored to working condition. Lastly, they have multiple internal and external connections that ensure uptime in the event where a set of lines are damaged.
One great benefit a client gets from utilising colocation services is the free installation of hardware and equipment. All a client has to do is ship or deliver their equipment. Installation comes as part of a bundled service.
Another real benefit is the savings one gets from the facilities and equipment of a colocation centre. For an entrepreneur, purchasing advanced fire protection systems and hiring physical security to man the grounds at all times may not be practical especially if the business is home based. Chances are it will be more expensive to build your own data centre rather than leasing one. Provided that the servers and other equipment are yours, maintaining this equipment is still going to be more expensive because you will need generators, back up batteries and fibre optic lines to cite a few, for continuous performance. These are not exactly affordable to the average entrepreneur so colocation services are the practical solution.
To ensure round the clock uptime for your website, a colocation facility offers continuous electrical power, onsite technical support and physical security. This becomes a welcome solution for those who have to maintain and manage their equipment as this can be truly a challenging task and time consuming. If you have someone else tending to these matters for you, then you will have more time to focus on the more important aspects of your business.
Also, having your equipment elsewhere reduces many risks in the event that you cannot afford a security team or a fire protection system. Theft is a rampant crime so it is imperative that you secure your home by not having expensive and state of the art equipment. It is important that this equipment is offsite and secure in the hands of the most reliable people to avoid losses when incidents happen. Plus, colocation centres are designed to be able to respond correctly in case of fire. Trying to put off fire on your own can cause more damage to your equipment.
Lastly, colocation centres need to live up to certain standards and levels of reliability. They need to be audited to be able to function as a colocation facility. This alone gives peace of mind that the equipment is in good hands.
By utilising a highly reliable and reputable colocation services provider, it is clear that this will dramatically reduce overhead expenses for any company. The affordable costs that these services come with are merely a fraction of what one would spend in building their own housing. The internet is now a way of life and every individual entrepreneur capitalises on this fact. A website running all the time is the key to succeed in this competitive industry. To this, a fully managed server, dedicated server hosting, UK based, and colocation services can be the answer.

Ice Fishing Tackle and Tools

The hype around cloud computing is hard to ignore and as each vendor is trying to put the word “cloud” in front of all its products, enterprises are finding it extremely difficult to sift through the noise and really find which products work best specifically for their data center.

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While the ability to utilize the public cloud is extremely appealing due to the reduced infrastructure management needed in a public rather than private environment, CIOs and data center managers are hesitant to place important data and applications in the public cloud. With this cautious viewpoint, enterprises are turning to private and/or hybrid cloud solutions that will enable them to receive the benefits of a public cloud while keeping their infrastructure under their control and experience improved agility and infrastructure utilization—leading to dramatic cost and time savings.

Therefore, the popularity in turnkey, ready to go, cloud solutions has skyrocketed over the past year as enterprises are on an active search for the simplest and quickest way to get their private cloud infrastructure up and running. A turnkey cloud promises some appealing benefits like simplicity, quick roll-out, and cost savings, but many organizations are still perplexed by how to evaluate a turnkey solution—or even what capabilities one should include—and how to integrate it with their existing network, compute and storage infrastructure.

To help enterprises evaluate here are the three essential elements that should constitute any turnkey private and/or hybrid cloud solution:

1. Intelligent and reliable automation features:

A turnkey cloud solution must be able to automatically provision configurations when needed and decommission devices when not needed. Additionally, it should be able to combine all known devices, discover new devices and compile them into a resource pool. With the introduction of hybrid cloud computing the importance for intelligent automation features significantly increases. Enterprises need to be able to reliably and securely burst into a public cloud when resources are not available in the private cloud.

One of the most important elements of ensuring the selection of the correct turnkey solution for an environment is selecting a solution that not only provisions virtualized resources but physical and public cloud resources as well. Today, when organizations think of cloud solutions they seem to jump right to technology that only handles virtualization. However, this is only a partial solution as enterprises on average have only 50 percent of their applications virtualized. Therefore, when building a private cloud using a tool that provisions hardware is a necessity to gain the full benefits of a private cloud. The ability to provision and decommission entire hardware and virtualized topologies that include compute, network and storage is a crucial element of a turnkey solution. This feature is crucial to controlling resource sprawl and maximizing the utilization of existing resources.

2. Out-of-the-box adaptors for existing infrastructure:

Seamless integration of a cloud management tool into an enterprise’s existing infrastructure is extremely important as CIOs and data center managers are trying to get the most out of their existing infrastructure. All environments these days are heterogeneous with equipment from multiple systems, network and storage vendors. So, when enterprises bring in a private cloud solution it needs to be able to work across these multi-vendor devices.

If additional resources need to be added to a workload IT should not have to hesitate because they have a Dell system but would like an HP system. Similar to the frustration that arises if someone gets a flat tire and has a Goodyear right around the corner but all they can use is Michelin, a turnkey solution that is not able to provision a wide variety of devices can cause a lot of headaches for IT.

There are thousands of hardware devices and several virtualization vendors that exist today and writing an adaptor for each of these resources is extremely time consuming which is why enterprises need to look for tools that have pre-built adaptors for most of the popular hardware devices and virtual resources from vendors including Dell, IBM, HP, NetApp, EMC, Cisco, Juniper, VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, etc. By creating a private cloud out of existing hardware it not only saves on time, but also creates significant CAPEX savings by re-utilizing existing resources and spare capacity for new workloads instead of purchasing new equipment.

3. Predefined templates for commonly used compute, network and storage configurations:

It is important to first mention that without predefined templates a cloud solution cannot be turnkey. The initial starting point to ensure this requirement is met is looking for the library of predefined templates. The greatest expense for building a private cloud is in the designing and crafting of the templates for the topologies that will frequently be used. Additionally, with most cloud solutions one can build custom templates that need to take the existing environment in the data center into consideration.

When the turnkey cloud solution offered a pre-built library of templates for commonly used topologies then enterprises are able to significantly speed up the time it takes to get a private cloud up and running, thus accelerating their time to value. These predefined templates can deliver 50 to 90 percent of the design for an environment and all they require is IT making easy customizations to make the template fit their specific environment perfectly.

The purpose for a turnkey solution is to be able to quickly and reliably convert an existing static environment into a self-service dynamic environment. And in order for this environment to be successful the turnkey solution must contain the three elements discussed. These capabilities will be crucial for enterprises looking to deploy a turnkey private or hybrid cloud.

By Garima Thockchom, VP of Marketing at Gale Technologies, a leading provider of infrastructure automation software solutions that power IT as a Service for labs, enterprises, and service providers.

Microsoft 70-447 – Q & A / Study Guide

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QUESTION 1
You work as DBA at Certkingdom.com. You administer two Windows Server 2003
computers named Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B. You install SQL Server 2005 on both
Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B to host a new company database. Certkingdom A hosts a
read-write copy of the company database in which all changes are made. Certkingdom B
subscribes to a publication on Certkingdom A and is only used for reporting. A Windows
domain administrator provides you with a domain user account named SQLSRV to use as
the security context for the SQL Server services. A password policy of 42 days exists in
the Default Domain Group Policy object (GPO). You install the database on Certkingdom A
and Certkingdom B and configure replication. Everything works fine for six weeks, but then
all SQL Server services fail. You need to correct the problem. What should you do?

A. Ask the Windows domain administrator to grant the Log on as service right to the
SQLSRV domain user account.
B. Configure the SQLSRV domain user account with a new strong password. Configure
the new password in the properties of each SQL Server service that failed.
C. Create a local user account on Certkingdom A named Certkingdom A and a local user account
on Certkingdom B named Certkingdom B. Configure Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B to run under the
context of the appropriate local user account.
D. Ask the Windows domain administrator to grant the SQLSRV domain user account
membership in the Domain Admins group.

Answer: B

Explanation:
The Default Domain Group Policy object requires that passwords are
changed every 42 days. In order to correct this problem you have to change the
password in the Active Directory AND configure the new password on both you
SQL Servers to the newly changed password.


QUESTION 2
You are a database administrator of two SQL Server 2005 computers named Certkingdom A
and Certkingdom B. You have a Microsoft .NET application that has been modified so that it
now accesses a database on Certkingdom B in addition to Certkingdom A. You do not want the
user application to connect directly to Certkingdom B. You need to enable the data retrieval
from Certkingdom B while maintaining the ability to assign different permissions to different
users who use the .NET application. What should you do?

A. Change the .NET application to define a new server connection to Certkingdom B.
B. Configure a linked server on Certkingdom A to point to Certkingdom B.
C. Change the stored procedures called by the .NET application to include the
OPENXML command.
D. Configure a linked server on Certkingdom B to point to Certkingdom A.

Answer: B

Explanation:
SQL Server lets you access external data sources from your local
Transact-SQL code. You need to define a linked server for each external data
source you want to access and then configure the security context under which your
distributed queries will run. After you create a linked server, you can use the
Transact-SQL OPENQUERY function to execute your distributed queries.


QUESTION 3
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. Your company uses a different
company’s application that is based on SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. The
application executes a query that uses an index query hint. The index query hint is not
suitable for your environment, but you cannot modify the query. You need to force the
application to use a different query execution plan. What should you do?

A. Create a plan guide for the query.
B. Clear the procedure cache.
C. Create a new covering index on the columns that the query uses.
D. Update the statistics for all of the indexes that the query uses.

Answer: A
Over the past few years, Microsoft SQL Server has increased its
presence in the industry and has reduced its TCO. This reduced TCO is a direct
result, primarily, of the numerous self-tuning mechanisms built into Microsoft(r)
SQL Server. These mechanisms automatically perform tasks that would otherwise
have to be performed by experienced database administrators. One such
mechanism is the cost-based optimizer (CBO) that is used to dynamically generate
query execution plans. The CBO probes several system-wide resource states and
employs many complex, heuristical algorithms to generate the best possible plan for
a given query and the underlying table and index structures. This mechanism works
well for the vast majority of user queries, but there are times when experienced
users need to force a particular query plan, based on some prior knowledge or
insights into future uses.


QUESTION 4
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. Your SQL Server 2005 computer
contains one user database that holds sales transaction information. Users report that the
queries and stored procedures that they use every day are taking progressively longer to
execute. You also notice that the amount of free disk space on the SQL Server computer
is decreasing. You need to create a maintenance plan to correct the performance and
storage problems. What are two possible ways to achieve this goal? (Each correct answer
presents a complete solution. Choose two.)

A. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Check Database Integrity option.
B. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Reorganize Index option.
C. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Shrink Database option.
D. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Clean Up History option.
E. In the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard, use the Execute SQL Server Agent Job
option.

Answer: B,C

Explanation:
When you indexes are not heavily fragmented you can reorganize
indexes, which uses few system resources and runs automatically online. In SQL
Server 2005, certain operations such as large delete operations or -one-time data
loads might leave database files larger than they need to be. SQL Server 2005
enables a DBA to shrink each file within a database to remove unused pages and
regain disk space.


QUESTION 5
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You are responsible for a SQL
Server 2005 database that has several indexes. You need to write a stored procedure that
checks the indexes for fragmentation. Which Transact-SQL statement should you use?

A. DBCC INDEXDEFRAG
B. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats
C. SELECT * FROM sys.indexes
D. DBCC DBREINDEX

Answer: B

Explanation:
The index_physical_stats function takes five parameters: database_id,
object_id, index_id, partition_id, and mode. This function returns row size and
fragmentation information.


QUESTION 6
You work as DBA at Certkingdom.com. You administer two SQL Server 2005 computers
named Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B. Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B contain a copy of a
database named Sales. The database is replicated between Certkingdom A and Certkingdom B by
using transactional replication. A full backup of each database is performed every night.
Transaction log backups are performed every hour. Replication latency is typically less
than two minutes. One afternoon, the Sales database on Certkingdom A becomes corrupted.
You are unable to repair the database. The Sales database on Certkingdom B is unaffected.
You need to return the Sales database on Certkingdom A to normal operation as quickly as
possible. You must ensure a minimum loss of data and minimal impact to users of either
server. What should you do?

A. Perform a full database backup on Certkingdom B. Restore the backup to Certkingdom A.
B. Restore the most recent full database backup and all transaction logs made since the
full backup was made.
C. Restore only the most recent transaction log backup.
D. Detach the Sales database on Certkingdom B. Copy the database file to Certkingdom A, and
attach the database on both servers.

Answer: A

Explanation:
Detaching the database will not apply to the minimal impact on users
as it will be offline during copy. Restoring only the latest transaction log will not
give you a working database and restoring last full backup and all transaction logs
after that will not apply to the restore normal operations as quickly as possible part
of the requirements.


QUESTION 7
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. The company runs a popular
database-driven Web site against a SQL Server 2005 computer named Certkingdom B. You
need to ensure a quick response time and appropriate audit trail in the event that
Certkingdom B experiences excessive traffic due to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Which
two actions should you perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution.
Choose two.)

A. Configure the new performance alert to start a SQL Server Profiler trace.
B. Create a new performance alert to monitor the Current Bandwidth counter.
C. Configure the new performance alert to start a Network Monitor capture.
D. Create a new performance alert to monitor the Bytes Total/sec counter.

Answer: C,D

Explanation:
Using alerts, System Monitor tracks specific events and notifies you of
these events as requested. An alert log can monitor the current performance of
selected counters and instances for objects in SQL Server. When a counter exceeds
a given value, the log records the date and time of the event. An event can also
generate a network alert. Characteristic for a typical DoS attack is a large number
of Bytes/sec. Characteristic for a DDoS attack is also a large number of Bytes/sec
but also a large number of connections made from a large number of hosts.


QUESTION 8
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. One of the databases on a SQL
Server 2005 computer contains a stored procedure. Users run this stored procedure to
import data into a table. The stored procedure needs to use the TRUNCATE TABLE
command before importing new data into the table. However, the users who run the
stored procedure do not have permission to truncate the table. You need to provide a way
for the stored procedure to truncate the table before it imports new data. What should you
do?

A. Configure the stored procedure to use the EXECUTE AS command.
B. Configure the stored procedure to be owned by the same database user as the table.
C. Assign the users DELETE permission in the table.
D. Add the users to the db_datawriter fixed database role.

Answer: A

Explanation:
In SQL Server 2005 you can implicitly define the execution context of
the following user-defined modules: functions (except inline table-valued functions),
procedures, queues, and triggers. By specifying the context in which the module is
executed, you can control which user account the SQL Server 2005 Database Engine
uses to validate permissions on objects that are referenced by the module. This
provides additional flexibility and control in managing permissions across the object
chain that exists between user-defined modules and the objects referenced by those
modules. Permissions must be granted to users only on the module itself, without
having to grant them explicit permissions on the referenced objects. Only the user
that the module is running as must have permissions on the objects accessed by the
module.
Syntax:
Functions (except inline table-valued functions), Stored Procedures, and DML Triggers
{ EXEC | EXECUTE } AS { CALLER | SELF | OWNER | ‘user_name’ }


QUESTION 9
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You have separate SQL Server 2005
development and production environments. You use the Business Intelligence
Development Studio to create a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package in your
development environment. Then, you use the SSIS package to import data into your
development environment from one of your company’s trading partners. You need to
deploy the SSIS package to your production environment. Your production environment
uses different table names than your development environment. What should you do?

A. Save the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package to a file. Copy the file to the
production server. Configure the SSIS package on the production server to use the new
file.
B. Back up the master database and restore it to the production server. Rename the
appropriate tables inside the master database.
C. Create a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package configuration. Build a
deployment utility. Copy the deployment folder for your SSIS project to your production
server. Execute the manifest file.
D. Back up the msdb database and restore it to the production server. Rename the
appropriate tables inside the msdb database.

Answer: C

Explanation:
You have to use a SSIS package to accomplish this but you can not use
the package built for your development environment as the table names differ.


QUESTION 10
You are a database administrator for Certkingdom.com. You notice that one of the data files
on a SQL Server 2005 computer is corrupted. You need to restore the database from the
most recent set of backups. You want to perform this task as quickly as possible, with a
minimum loss of data. What should you do first?

A. Restore the most recent transaction log backup.
B. Restore the most recent full database backup.
C. Perform a full database backup.
D. Perform a transaction log backup.

Answer: D

Explanation:
In order to restore from the most recent set of backups, you have to
first ensure that you can restore all transactions that have occurred between the
time of the backup and the time when the database went corrupt. In order to
accomplish this you should backup the transaction log.

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Verizon says it doesn’t use Carrier IQ software

Verizon Wireless said Thursday it doesn’t add to its phones any software from Carrier IQ, the company that has come under fire in the past few days for what some say amounts to spying on mobile phone users.

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Also, Carrier IQ put out another statement clarifying what its software does, in an attempt to calm the uproar, which began when a security researcher published a report showing the software could be used to collect data such as user locations, keys pressed on phones and what applications are running. Phone users typically aren’t aware that their phones have the software and they aren’t able to turn it off.

Apple, AT&T, Sprint, HTC, Samsung and T-Mobile have said some of their phones use the software. Research In Motion and Nokia have said they don’t load the software onto their phones.

On Twitter, Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson wrote on Thursday: “We do not add Carrier IQ to our phones. We do not use other similar software on our devices.”

Carrier IQ, meanwhile, continues to assert that it doesn’t collect any private information about phone users. In a statement it reiterated that its software does not record, store or transmit the contents of text messages, emails, pictures, audio or video. It captures information such as whether an SMS was delivered and which applications drain the battery, the company said. It “vigorously disagrees” with people who allege that Carrier IQ violates wiretap laws.

On Wednesday, Al Franken, the U.S. senator from Minnesota, sent a letter to Carrier IQ asking it to respond to questions about what kind of personal information it collects about users without their knowledge. He suggested the company might violate privacy laws.

His letter followed Carrier IQ’s threat to sue Trevor Eckhart, the researcher whose report kicked off the uproar. Carrier IQ has since withdrawn that threat and apologized for it.

Eckhart reported that Carrier IQ software runs on Verizon phones as well as those from RIM and Nokia. Developers have reported that they have some evidence that shows some Verizon phones run the software. Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about those findings.

Ten Great Strategies For Today’s Climate

This is a challenging time to be in business but there lies the opportunity. I’ve listed 10 specific characteristics of downtimes and 10 positive strategies that embrace and capitalize on them.

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More time to create a focused business: Use this slower paced market to revisit the business you are in – what defines you. This is the perfect time for repositioning, selling off non-core subsidiaries, sharpening up product road maps and value propositions.
Flight to price and quality: Now is the time to revisit your product mix and pricing strategies. Buying behavior changes dramatically in a recession. Lower priced versions of your product or subscription based business models may be relevant to ease customer cash flow pain.
Measuring the signals is vital:> Mistakes made in downtimes can prove fatal.
Convert your Accounts Department into a Metrics Center. Trap and visualize your key performance indicators. Audit the signals and constantly interpret the significance to your strategies.
Acquisitions just got cheap: PE ratios of the majority of public companies are in single digits and the valuations of private companies are low. Consider a proactive approach to acquisitions by building a robust acquisition process that is proven to work.
The “C” level suite just got a free pass to visit their customers: Never has there been a better time for the inner cabinet to visit their customers to understand the specific issues challenging them. It’s not only productive, it’s essential for shaping strategy. Define your engagement strategy and get on site.
Value Propositions must improve a customer’s performance: Receiving a purchase order, confirming a big deal is very satisfying but it’s not enough. You need to be invested in the improved performance that will be achieved because your customer uses your product. Does your sales process achieve this?
Curiosity & Urgency of managers dramatically increased: Well it certainly should have. This new level of alertness (perhaps it’s fear) needs to be channeled to produce results. Difficult projects shelved in better times are prime candidates for this energy. Staff want to be effective and busy to get things moving again. Tap into this momentum.
People and tasks are mis-aligned: Now is the time to think like a start-up. The key –Define Performance Profiles that your company needs to be executed, not job specs but tasks that need to be done well. This will cause old jobs to be merged and new jobs to be created.
Silo Management is broken: Urgent initiatives will fail without cross-functional support. Company visions need to inspire and flow across functions. Build cross functional teams to execute top priorities.
Competition thins out: It might be difficult to create double digit growth but you can grab market share. The best companies don’t just survive bad times; they grow and develop into more robust and valuable businesses.

As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. The Portfolio Partnership offers Corporate Development Services on an advisory, operational or investment model. Specifically we execute growth strategies by repositioning companies organically and/or by acquisition.

Ian was educated in Scotland, earning a BA degree from the University of Strathclyde and qualified as a Chartered Accountant of Scotland with Grant Thornton. Post qualification he joined Thomson the publishing giant and became one of their youngest divisional Finance Directors at 26 and was awarded the prestigious, UK Accountant of the Year ahead of many experienced FDs. From 1988 to 2000 he successfully built up two major boutique M&A advisory firms, Livingstone Guarantee and Capita Corporate Finance. During this period he completed over 40 acquisition, disposal or finance transactions, many cross border, many in the technology sector. He assisted dozens of entrepreneurs execute their vision.

In late 2001 he moved to the states to successfully reposition and grow Teamstudio, an IBM business partner with HQ in Beverly, MA and offices in the UK and Japan. During the next 5 years the top line was grown by over 45% and losses were turned into EBITDA of over $10m. high achiever, Ian expects the highest performance from his staff but always mixed with a Glaswegian sense of humor!