If you weren't aware, Microsoft held a BI telelconference today which announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 R2. I traded a few tweets with Buck Woody (blog | twitter) about this and I see Brent Ozar and Denny Cherry have already provided some comments, too. Denny has covered the important technical details, while Brent's post is similar in tone to how this one will be. My comment is that Microsoft has a way to go to catch up with Apply with respect to a product launch. Here's why I said that (and maybe I'll be joining Brent in handing in an MVP award).

Buzzword Bingo

I know it's a media event. But when I see folks dropping off right and left almost immediately after the call has begun, all citing the amount of buzzwords, this isn't a minor problem. When those staying in are shouting "Bingo!" to break up the monotony as we waited on useful information, again, you have a problem. Buzzwords are so overused to virtually have no meaning. And for the techies out there, they make us suspect that the overall conversation/event is going to be more of the same. That's why folks started bailing right away. The buzzwords need to go. Talk in plain language. Give us useful facts. Speak to the abilities in SQL Server 2008 R2 that are new. There's some really good stuff there (see Denny's post). That should have been more emphasized than vapid words which convey nothing.

Don't Resell What An Older Version Already Did

We heard talk about Policy Based Management as if it were a new thing. It's not. It was introduced in SQL Server 2008, so it's not new in R2. If R2 improves on something, say it that plainly. Don't sound as if it's a new feature. There are plenty of new features to talk about already.

Customers Shouldn't Be Marketing

This caught me by surprise. It's one thing to say, "Hey, the product is great. It saved us 25% on the run time." That's factual. That's relevant. It's another thing to start talking in very broad, marketing language about how SQL Server 2008 offers greater efficiencies, etc. And one of the customers started talking in those generalities. If you are going to bring customers on, let them speak to their case study. Let your marketing folks do the market speak.

Customers Shouldn't Throw DBAs Under the Bus...

at a SQL Server teleconference. But that's exactly what one of them did, talking about how the DBA made mistakes which brought down systems. I would have figured for this teleconference, what they were going to say was previously reviewed. So I was quite shocked to hear one of the customers bash the DBA. Look, I get that sometimes we're the Rodney Dangerfields of the IT world. And if you're trying to sell a database product, you should, too. So don't let us get thrown under the bus during your press conference.

But I Can't Download It!

Yeah. Brent already covered this one, so let me just say, "Ditto."

EDIT: Fixed the link to Brent's post. Thanks to Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter) for pointing that out.