Today is the second day of the SQL PASS Summit in Seattle, Washington. I’ll be live blogging today’s keynote address. This post will be updated throughout the keynote. Don’t forget you can watch the live stream on PASS TV.
Adam Jorgensen, current EVP of finance (and future president) of PASS shares about the financial status of the organization. Revenue has been steadily increasing, including a 10% increase over last year alone. Attendance at the Summit, which is the largest source of revenue, doubled since 2007. Adam reports that fully 78% of revenue goes back into community programs.
In addition to revenue updates, Adam reports that PASS hosted 99 events, including SQL Saturdays, 24 Hours of PASS, and the Summit, in the past year. PASS reports 150,000 members from 163 countries.
For Adam’s last update, he acknowledges outgoing board member Amy Lewis. I’ve known and worked with Amy for years, and I’ve never met anyone more dedicated to furthering community development. Thanks, Amy, for your service!
Denise McInerny takes the stage and acknowledges outgoing IPP Bill Graziano. Bill has been involved in PASS leadership for ten years, and has been an amazing asset to the organization. Denise also awards Lance Harra the PASSion Award for 2015. I don’t personally know Lance, but I’m very familiar with his work. Well done, Lance!
Denise gives a quick reminder about PASS TV. There are over 3,000 people who took part in the Summit remotely via PASS TV. Also, a reminder for the board Q&A later today – the board will respond to questions from community members this afternoon.
Finally, Denise reports that the PASS Summit will be again held in Seattle next year.
Next up, David Dewitt and Rimma Nehme take the stage. These two are among the most popular keynote speakers PASS has ever had. Be ready for your heads to explode.
Rimma Nehme starts off. She reports that she will be the appetizer, DeWitt will be the entree, and she will be the dessert.
The Internet of Things (IOT) is essentially a set of connected devices. Appliances, wearables, etc. Industrial IOT and consumer IOT are two variations. Consumer = FitBit, Nest, etc. Industrial = control processes for manufacturing, quality control, etc.
In 2008, the number of connected devices exceeded the population of Earth. And it’s grown exponentially since then.
David DeWitt now takes over. He reports some of the challenges associated with IoT: dirty data, offline sensors, security, battery life, etc. He describes cutting-edge IoT as being primitive. There are still many challenges to be overcome before it is mainstream. New terms: Device to Cloud (D2C) and Cloud to Device (C2D). It’s not just about sensors, but about two-way communication. Think sensors and actuators.
DeWitt is moving so fast that I’m having a hard time keeping up with blogging and tweeting. He mentions security a lot. I love that there’s a foundation in security concerns. He also acknowledges that pushing to the cloud brings some challenges. He’s not just a theorist, but is grounded in how things really work.
Nehme returns, and brings up a new term: Fog. In a nutshell, this involves moving the processing to the sensors and away from the cloud. Polybase for IOT is mentioned, not as a product announcement but as a vision.
As a parting announcement, Rimma Nehme and David DeWitt announce that this will be their last PASS Summit. David is looking to retirement, and Rimma is finishing up some additional coursework and will be moving on as well. Davis said that Rimma will almost certainly be delivering keynotes in the future for Microsoft or one of their competitors (for our sakes, hopefully the former). A big, big thanks to both of them for their contributions!
That’s it for today’s keynote.
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