Microsoft University

 Even if you love to hate Microsoft Corporation (MS) they are still the software provider of choice for companies you may be working for in the future.  Microsoft certifications are often listed in job requirements, despite years of academic debate that those with job experience would be more in demand those with certifications. Software and infrastructures have become increasingly complex and sophisticated.  Check your major job sites, such as, Monster.com,  Dice.com or The Ladders for open positions and you will find that vast numbers can require or prefer certified professionals for entry level or intermediate openings and for some advanced openings especially in Federal government, it is expected.  Training courses and software prices can be daunting.

We will look at some of the software Microsoft offers for free or at deep discounts for college students.  It may come as a surprise to some, to know that Microsoft has an education website where you can download free or minimal cost student versions of their software.  This is not the typical student version you may find in Office Depot.  If you are in college and enrolled in a technology curriculum, there are sites that work in concert with Microsoft and your schools software administrator.  There is a process you will need to follow and you school can provide that information.  Onthehub is an academic reseller of student software, as is JourneyEd.  There you can enter the name of your school or university to see if they participate in the program.  If they do not, there is another link where you can get your educational institution signed up.

Some of the software I was able to download for free a few years back were: MS Office XP, Microsoft XP with SP2, Windows Server 2003, MS Sharepoint,  MS Project, MS Visio, MS Visual Studio 6.0, MS Visual Studio Library, MS Visual Basic.Net, MS SQL Server 2000 and MS Exchange Server.  Many of  them you could get on CDs for backup or to reinstall on a new PC, for example. It is possible the delivery options may have changed since, but the program is still exceptional.  

There are other options for non-technology students or aspiring professionals who may not be able to avail themselves of an academic program.  Microsoft Education  offers product tutorials, lesson plans and how-to-articles on the various suites of Microsoft products.  You can self design a plan that amounts to a learning experience valuable enough to jumpstart your career which might cost you thousands of dollars in a training academy.  If you have the discipline and are prone to this self motivated learning then I highly recommend training yourself on MS SQL Server 2005 or 2008.  Microsoft's Business Intelligence tools introduced in SQL Server 2005 not only rival, but holds its own against Cognos,  Oracle's Hyperion Performance Suite, Business Objects and their competitors.  Check your job sites again for 'Microsoft Business Intelligence'  to confirm the demand for this role.  Getting back to the plan.  Peruse the options on Microsoft's website, then. 

Choose from SQL Server versions 7.0, 2000, 2005 or 2008

Choose your edition: Enterprise Edition, Developer Edition or Express Edition. 

Get a good overview of SQL Server at Microsoft Technet, the library for Microsoft products. 

Decide which version you want to master and download the SQL Server Server Books Online for that version.

When you are ready to begin hands on, download a fully functional 180 day trial of SQL Server.

The Business Intelligence suite of tools are available beginning with 2005:

SSAS - SQL Server Analysis Services

SSIS - SQL Server Integration Services

SSRS - SQL Server Reporting Services

BIDS - Business Intelligence Development Studio (which is Visual Studio)

To make this a real world experience, once you have installed SQL Server, you can download the Adventure Works sample databases and load them into SQL Server.  You may have to research the right one and try a few times to get it right because the databases versions must match to the server versions.  You can download AdventureWorks OLTP, the relational database and AdventureWorks Sample Data Warehouse  the OLAP cube.  If your mouth is not watering yet then dig into the real world by working through the tutorials for building cubes and creating reports.  Don't forget to bookmark a Transact-SQL tutorial and an MDX tutorial which you will need to query cubes.  If you run into problems there is an extensive Knowledge Base to ask questions, find solutions or surf the web for Microsoft experts around the world.  Who knows, by the end of six months you can be the Microsoft Guru on the block. 

This is the 2nd in a series of articles especially composed to encourage high school and college aged students to pursue careers in technology.