This is my first time here at PASS and I got a swept away in all the excitement.  I tweeted about yesterday's keynote, but forgot to blog about it 🙂  Today I will combine both keynote speeches into a single compressed version. 🙂

Day One -

The focus in today's keynote was on community.  This is the largest PASS conference to date with over 4k registered attendees.  Last year PASS provided over 430k hours technical training and while that is a fantastic amount they want to push that to 1MM.  There is a lofty goal of 250k members and we're part way there at 80k, and increase just over 30% over last year (60k last year).  As if that was not lofty enough, PASS is looking to expand to 5 global regions! 

You might have heard about the MVP SQL Server Deep Dives Vol. 2 book.  What's so special about this book; all royalties go to charity.   THAT is the sql community.  That is the community here at PASS.  If you were here, you could have add some star power by getting it signed!  Think about that.  Dozens of MVPs in the room!  Nowhere else; nowhere.

While this is my first time at PASS, I feel as though it is a familiar experience.  It is not only see familiar faces, but PASS has done a good job of helping FirstTimers not just extract information from the conference, but to immerse themselves.  You should leave PASS with knowledge and a sense of community which has an immeasurable ROI.

On a more technical note, they did announce some new information.

Microsoft is not just providing software, but understands data grows and 'spreads'.  To help you accommodate this organic 'live' of your data, there are tools across all areas: Cloud, BI, Analytics.

We've all heard of BigData and Hadoop.  Microsoft has jumped into the space by submitting to the Apache community and partnering with HortonWorks.  They have submitted connectors for Apache Hadoop to SQL Server and SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse.  Apache Hive to Excel and PowerPivot via ODBC drivers and JavaScript Framework for Hadoop.  

Day Two -

Bill Graziano, in a kilt!  He mentioned something about buckling under the immense peer pressure 🙂

 Quentin Clark's Top 12 of SQL Server 2012:

 1.  The (9)'s

• SQL Server AlwaysOn
• HA for StreamInsight
• Integration Services as a Server

2. Performance

• ColumnStore Index -- Vertipaq engine now integrated into SQL Server.

3. Rapid Data Exploration

• Power View + PowerPivot
• Administration from SharePoint
  • Alert Reporting

4. Managed Self-Service BI

5. Credible consistent Data

• BI Semantic Model
• Data Quality Services
• Master Data Services

6. Organizational Compliance

•  Expanded Audit - User-defined, Filtering
• User-defined Server Roles

You can now pull out specific information that you need to be aware of within your audits.  This can be matched to the industry you are in, such as HIPPA.

7.Peace of Mind

• Production-simulated App Testing
• System Center Advisor & Management Packs -- Cloud based
• Expanded Support - Premier Mission Critical

8. Scalable Data Warehousing

• Optimized SQL Server Appliances
• HW + SW + Support - Just Add Power
• Choice of Hardware

The Parallel Data Warehouse is available from both HP and Dell.  You can service 700TB of data across 480 nodes.  Plug them in, turn them on and ....that's it!  These are as close to plug-and-play as you are going to get.  Private cloud offering known as Database Consolidation Appliance. 

9.Fast Time to Solution

10.Extend Any Data, Anywhere

• New drivers for PHP, Java & Hadoop
• ODBC drivers for Linux and Change Data Capture for SSIS and Oracle
• Beyond Relational: FileTable, 2D spatial, Semantic Search.

I think the Semantic Search will be incredibly useful (maybe that's because I come from the publishing world).

11.  Optimized Productivity

• SQL Server Data tools (Juneau)
• Unified Across Database & BI
• Deployment & Targeting Freedom 

12 Scale on Demand

• AlwaysOn
• Deployment Across Public & Private
• Elastic Scale