PASS Summit 2018 – Keynote Day 2 Live Blog

It’s keynote time again! The second full day of the conference starts now, and like yesterday, I’ll be live-blogging during the keynote announcements.

Our community

Wendy Pastrick starts us off by sharing a bit of the softer side of the Summit – some of the stories, the networking opportunities, and the relationships built around this now 20-year-old event.

We learn a bit about the way the PASS organization uses data. They are using Power BI (yea!) to analyze attendance trends in attendance and spending. And then, in what must be a first ever, she sings to us a financial summary, a fun twist to what is usually a boring part of the precon. Well done!

Next, Tim Ford gives recognition to one of the ways he first got involved with PASS – the Special Interest Groups, which are now branded as Virtual Chapters. He also takes a moment to recognize those individuals from our community whom we have lost during the past year. Although they were not named individually in the keynote, we all mourned the passing of wonderful souls including Tom Roush, Robert Davis, Aaron Lowe, and Naomi Williams.

Microsoft announcements

Mark Souza takes the stage next, and shares that this year is the 25th anniversary of SQL Server. He introduces four of his current and former Microsoft colleagues who helped to shape the product over its two-and-a-half decades:

• Ron Soukup (1989 – 1995)
• Paul Flessner (1995 – 2005)
• Ted Kummert (2005 – 2014)
• Rohan Kumar (2016 – present)

Going through the history of SQL Server gives me a new appreciation for the product we have now. Yes, it has some warts, but I believe we are working with the best data management platform on the market today. My hat is off to those who helped to get the Microsoft data platform to where it is now.

In going through the history of SQL Server, Mark Souza shows a brief video of Microsoft employees talking about being “all-in on the cloud”. That reminds me of the messaging from Microsoft from 5 or so years ago, when it was obvious that cloud, not on-prem, was their focus. As I mentioned yesterday, they have wisely pivoted from that cloud-only focus, now fully embracing hybrid architectures.

Next up, Raghu Ramakrishan from Microsoft takes the stage. He shares some detail about SQL Hyperscale (Project Socrates). The content here is deeper and more technically complex than what we’ve seen so far this week, reminding me of the deep-dives that David DeWitt and Rimma Nehme from prior PASS Summit events. There’s so much technical detail here that I didn’t even try to write down all of the design elements he discussed; I’d encourage you to watch this part of the keynote once it has been made available on PASSTV.

That’s a wrap from the keynote floor! Now I’m off to do my final session prep for this afternoon’s presentation.