chrisn-585491 (7/31/2015)
Do you need to keep up with the latest features of the latest SQL Server? Why would I ask such a question?Many organizations are conservative and budget conscience. You may be lucky enough to be in one that upgrades constantly or has skipped some versions. Or you may be a MVP that's giving a talk at PASS and need new material. 😛
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One reason why some organizations are reluctant to upgrade is that they are unaware of the benefits that a newer release has to offer. They are unaware, because their IT is unware. But you should consider it part of your job to keep up to date on SQL Server, so you can then sell the idea to executive management.
For example, if your organization has a data warehouse with huge flat tables, and your reports currently take hours to complete on SQL Server 2008, then upgrading to SQL Server 2014 and leveraging Clustered ColumnStore would be a game changer. I'm talking about 75% reduction in the size of your tables and 90% reduction in the runtime of your queries.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho