I'm still amazed that another year has gone by and it's time to being another. 2008 seemed to go pretty quickly to me, though perhaps I'm just getting old. I have lots of memories from the last year, and I'm sure I packed a lot into 2008, but it seems that I was just beginning podcasting, which was something that took off at the end of 2007.
I wanted to stop and take some stock of what happened in 2008 from the SQL Server and technical perspectives. The end of the year is a time to look back at some of the events that occurred as well as enjoy a few of the memories that I collected throughout the year. Since it's my editorial, you get to come along for the ride 🙂
The first big event that occurred in 2008 actually happened on Jan 1 for me. I was awarded MVP status from Microsoft for the first time. That was exciting and even more exciting to have more SQLServerCentral community members like Gail Shaw, Jacob Sebastian, Jeff Moden, Michael Coles, Andy Warren and a few others awarded as well. If I've forgotten anyone, I apologize, but it seems that every quarter SQLServerCentral has a few influential members of the community recognized. That's a point of pride for me and I'm glad that people contributing to the community here are recognized.
In mid January I broke my first Dash cell phone. Insurance replaced it.
In late January we heard SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 was not going to be released. This was disclosed in the MVP forums and we were allowed to make this public. Thanks to a lot of votes from all of you out there, Microsoft agreed that they would work on SP3, but only after SQL Server 2008 was complete. I didn't think they would get it done by the end of the year, but I was happy to be proven wrong. It's out now if you haven't heard.
In March I broke my second Dash cell phone. Insurance replaced it and then cancelled me.
We had Sun acquire MYSQL, leading to speculation that SQL Server would have a major new competitor, but I haven't seen a lot of changes since late February when that occurred. I still think things will change in the future, but so far SQL Server seems to still include a lot more than MYSQL out of the box.
In June I damaged my third Dash and gave up. This time I unlocked an old ATT Motorola RAZR for use on the T-Mobile network and bought a used Nokia 6820. Neither has a lot of modern features, but they worked.
In July I started hearing rumors that SQL Server 2008 was near complete. This was after a public RC0 at TechEd in June, and sure enough it was completed in early August and released for sale. And I lost my 6820, but found an old Nokia 3860 in a drawer I could use.
Shortly after SQL Server 2008 was released Microsoft completed their acquisition of DATAllegro, with a plan to integrate that technology into SQL Server and tackle large data warehousing markets. I saw a demo of the initial integration at PASS and it looks pretty good. A release of this technology, along with some other BI technology is scheduled for the first half of 2010. Supposedly this is a point release, but we'll see.
In November the 10th PASS Summit was held in Seattle and many of the SQLServerCental community had the chance to meet up. Our opening night party was our largest yet, with nearly 200 people attending. We gave away a lot of presents and had a great time. Hopefully we'll see more of you next year. And I purchased a Sidekick 3 in early November to get me email access.
2008 has been an interesting year for databases. We had SQL Server Data Services come out and much talk of future cloud services for SQL Server. Less than 3 years after the release of SQL Server 2005, we had a new version, and Microsoft has promised us a more stable release and patch cycle in the future. Business social networking really became popular and I've seen more and more SQL Server professionals joining LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Overall it was an interesting year, and a hard one on the economy. I don't know what 2009 will have in store, but I'll have some predictions tomorrow.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 40.4MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 36.7MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 7.4MB
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.