Table of Contents

Introduction

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Microsoft creates a lot of content designed to drive early adoption for new releases of SQL Server.  We use this as a tool to arm trainers, consultants and evangelists with the content they need to introduce developers and IT Professionals alike to key improvements in a new release so they can help us drive adoption.  We don't always do a good job of communicating what all of these content assets are.

This wiki is intended to serve as a master index of some great SQL Server 2012 early adoption content being created by Microsoft.  Rather than announcing new bits of content on various blogs, we will simply update this wiki so there is one place to find all the latest information about early adoption content assets. 

It's probably worth stating up front the specific SQL Server 2012 improvements we hope to drive adoption for using this content. Here is the criteria for how we evaluate whether an application or solution is considered a "design win" for early adoption programs like SQL Server 2012 Metro: 

​Criteria Description
​Database Engine AppCompat ​Solution supports SQL Server database compatibility level 110.
Selecting this option indicates your intent to perform upgrade and application compatibility testing with SQL Server 2012 database engine functionality.  This is the "low bar" criteria that all solutions must meet to be considered a SQL Server 2012 design win.
Database Engine AlwaysOn​ ​Solution supports SQL Server AlwaysOn client connectivity and contained databases for high availability.
Support for this criteria means your solution supports AlwaysOn connectivity and failover behavior in the application tier and data tier of your solution.
​Database Engine Beyond Relational ​Solution manages files using SQL Server FILESTREAM and leverages one or more of the following related capabilities: FileTable, Fulltext Search, Semantic Search.
Support for this criteria means that your solution supports the storage, search and retrieval of non-structured or semi-structured data in the form of documents, BLOB’s and files using SQL Server 2012 FILESTREAM functionality.
​Data-tier Application Framework ​Data-tier portion of solution developed / deployed via Data-tier Application Framework.
Support for this criteria means that you deploy the database schema(s) associated with your solution using DAC packages.
​StreamInsight ​Solution uses StreamInsight runtime engine to query streaming data.
Support for this criteria means that your solution implements standing queries over streaming data using StreamInsight.
BI Semantic Model​ ​Solution leverages BI Semantic Model to enable self-service reporting / analytics. 
Support for this criteria means that your solution includes self-service reporting and analytics against your solution using either PowerPivot or Power View, or that you support access to the BI Semantic Model from an existing Analysis Services application.
​Integration Services S​olution leverages Integration Services for data integration / ETL workloads.
Support for this criteria means that your solution includes SSIS packages.

This wiki is a great place to start to if you want to learn more about how to exploit these great SQL Server 2012 Improvements  See the Wiki Page Index to get started.  We hope you find this wiki useful, thanks for your interest in driving early adoption of SQL Server 2012!
 

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Data Platform Evangelism Team (sqldevx@microsoft.com)

Wiki Page Index

Use this section to help you navigate all of the information in this wiki.

Other Great Early Adoption Resources

Here's some great resources contributed by other teams that you may find useful to drive early adoption of SQL Server 2012.