Over the past two years, there have been a lot of interesting developments on the Microsoft Business Intelligence horizon. The releases of PerformancePoint Server, SharePoint 2007, Excel Services, and SQL Server 2008 have strengthened the stack. The announcements around the “Kilimanjaro” release of SQL Server, including the “Gemini” self-service BI offering and the “Madison” large-scale data warehouse technology have created great anticipation. And the just-announced integration of PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics into SharePoint and the discontinuation of the Planning module has created some confusion, not to mention controversy.

Is Microsoft a real BI company, or just a software company with some mid-range BI offerings? Is its strategy of focusing on the Office and SharePoint user-base a savvy game plan, or mere folly? Does the recession help or hurt Microsoft in its BI execution? Come discuss these topics and more with Andrew Brust, of twentysix New York. Andrew has worked with Microsoft BI since its inception, is a co-author of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Microsoft Press) and sits on Microsoft’s BI Partner Advisory Council. He is also a self-styled strategist who is interested not just in pontificating on all this stuff, but in picking the brains of all in attendance for their views on these very matters.