Skills required to become a MS BI Architect : Download Tech Ed Videos FREE

Microsoft Tech-Ed is like a feast of knowledge and tons of information is raining all over the place. It becomes a big confusion to figure out what to learn and what to skip, as there are mountains of topics in front of you. As an Architect you cannot simply stick to one tool / technology, but you need to select a platform and study the eco-system surrounding it.

For example, I consider Microsoft Business Intelligence as a platform and eco-system surrounding it are:

1) Custom .NET and cross Microsoft platform based applications that integrate with MS BI
2) Cloud setup and configuration using Windows Azure platform
3) Infrastructure used with MS BI and related components like SAN, Load Balancers etc
4) Collaboration platforms like Sharepoint
5) Storage platforms like data warehouses
6) Application Design patterns like MVVM as they impact data access methodology from MS BI based data stores using LINQ and other methods
7) Reference architectures like fast track data warehouse
8) Cross BI platforms like SAP and Duet Architecture from an integration aspect
9) Hosting patterns using virtualization
10) Security models like federation services and much more.

In my personal experience, as an Architect, you deal with solutions and eco-system around the platform of your strength / expertise, which in my case is MS BI. Below are the Top 30 Tech Ed sessions (in no particular order) from the hundreds of session delivered at the Tech Ed. These are the topics which are of prime interest to me. All of them would not be of equal importance, I would take most of them with a MUST KNOW sincerity level, and might glance over the rest just to keep up the pace with the winds of change. For a list of all the sessions, you can visit and download Tech Ed 2011 videos from Channel 9.

1) Using Windows Azure Virtual Machine Role

2) Getting started with Cloud Business Intelligence

3) Creating Self-Service Analytic BI Applications with Microsoft SharePoint 2010

4) MVC , MVP and MVVM : A Comparison of Architectural Patterns

5) Application Development with HTML5

6) Managing Master Data Services with MDS and Microsoft Excel

7) Combining Public and Private Clouds into Useful Hybrids

8) Architecting for a Secure Cloud

9) Creating Great End-User Experiences with Fast Search for Sharepoint 2010

10) The Taming of the Clouds: Integrating SaaS with your On-Premise Environment

11) What Are the Bridges between Private and Public Cloud

12) Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track: A Reference Architecture for Private Cloud

13) Fast Track Data Warehouse Version 3.0 New Features and Best Practices

14) Microsoft SQL Server in Virtualization and Private Cloud

15) Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Design Challenges

16) Let's Get Visual: The Art of Report Design

17) Innovative Storage and Data Management Strategies to Power Your Microsoft Enterprise Applications

18) SAP Interoperability with Duet Enterprise for Microsoft Sharepoint and SAP , BCS , and Microsoft Office 2010

19) Active Directory Federation Services , Part I : How do they really work ?

20) Active Directory Federation Services , Part II : Building Federated Identity Solutions

21) Best Practices for Private Cloud Implementation

22) Advanced Business Intelligence Solutions Using Microsoft Excel + Excel Services

23) Scale-Out Deployment of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

24) Developing Enterprise-Grade Mobile Solutions

25) IT-Centric Dashboard in Minutes with Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Using Microsoft Visio / Visio Services

26) Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server with Hyper-V

27) Connecting Cloud and On-Premises Applications Using Windows Azure Virtual Network

28) Using Microsoft SQL Azure with On-Premises Data : Migration and Synchronization Strategies and Practices

29) Managing Windows Azure Applications

30) Using Knowledge to Cleanse Data with Data Quality Services