Master Data Services in SQL Server Denali

If you didn’t make it to Tech Ed in North America last week, then you can download session recordings and take part in the labs at the Tech Ed site here. The session recordings are also available for streaming or download on Channel 9.

Today I wanted to highlight in particular John McAllister’s session titled Managing Master Data with MDS and Microsoft Excel. We’ve heard for a while about the use of Excel with the new version of MDS, so it’s great to finally see it. The key points from the session for me are:

• The new Excel add-in:
  • Allows the editing of Master Data (even lets you use Excel formulas) and allows you to publish back to MDS. It seems to provide the same functionality as the UI that we’re used to – it’s aware of the domain attributes, giving you drop downs in the relevant cells, and is aware of the business rules for an entity.
  • Also lets you actually build an MDS model from Excel.
• Improvements to the current web-based UI (Master Data Manager). The design has changed in several places, for example it seems that the grid now has a side bar to display the member that you’ve clicked on. This “side bar” looks to have better validation capability than the current R2 member editing experience.
• Integration with Data Quality Services. It’s a little unclear exactly what this will be, as it’s not shown in the video, so I think we’ll have to wait a while to find out.
• The database now contains a staging table per entity, as opposed to a single shared staging table.
• Improved Performance – this is in several areas of the product apparently, but it’s certainly visible in the video that the Master Data Manager UI is quicker.

I’ll be doing a series of blog posts on the new features once the new CTP/beta of Denali is released.