Latest All Up BI VPC (7.1)

I was recently made aware that there’s a newer version of the Microsoft All Up VPC than the one I’m running. Apparently it’s been out for some time now, but I thought I’d mention it. What is it you might wonder? It’s a (in my opinion) very cool VHD that, once mounted and set up, contains literally everything Microsoft has to offer in the field of Business Intelligence. The image runs Windows Server 2003 en contains, among others, SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP1, ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3, Office 2007, ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3 and lots and lots of demos. Unfortunately there image hasn’t been upgraded to Windows Server 2008 and/or SQL Server 2008 and is missing some Service Packs, but I’m sure this will come in the next version (whenever that is).

The image is time bombed and set to expire in April 2010 and may be used for testing and demonstration purposes. If you want to have a look at some of the Microsoft BI stuff, without having to install everything, this is the way to go. I must warn you that you need a will need a kick-ass PC/notebook to be able to run the image. I’d recommend running it on a disk different from your operating system and with at least 2GB of memory (I’m running it with 8GB on my Microsoft Hyper-V Server) dedicated to it.It’s also recommendable to use the Save state functionality of Virtual PC, instead of shutting it down.