Snow
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OK, I admit that snow was on my mind last week. We had a(nother) blizzard in parts of Denver and my house lost power for over 30 hours. Since we need electricity for water and heat in addition to Internet connectivity, this was a rude awakening. We're installing a generator for the future, but being prepared for problems is something you should all consider.
Especially at work. You don't need a disaster like a hurricane, earthquake, or blizzard to disrupt operations. I worked in one place where a bagel burning in a toaster shut down a 10 story building for an hour. Be prepared and ensure you have alternative procedures for a few different types of disruptions.
For me Starbucks and T-mobile usually keep me going 🙂
In the database world, it was a fairly quiet week. The IDC released preliminary figures on the database market that showed SQL Server is in third place among the big three, with Oracle leading and IBM second. However the growth of SQL Server far outpaced that of the other 2 with 25% growth. Of course, it's easier to grow when you're the smallest of the three. Oracle has 44% of the market by sales and Microsoft just over 18%, and I'm not sure I expect that to change anytime soon. Part of that is the fact that Oracle costs 2-4x as much as SQL Server, so using those numbers, it seems SQL Server is doing very well.
Sales figures don't mean too much to those of us in the field other than to show our bosses that lots of other people are buying SQL Server, so it's a good investment.
Katmai is coming and I'm starting to hear more about it. Most things are still under NDA, so I can't and won't mention anything, but Brian Welcker had a blog entry about SSRS changes in Katmai that you might want to check out.
I don't think they're feature complete now, though a private Beta 2 is out. Look for the Beta 3/CTP1 to come out at TechEd and I'll get some info as soon as I have it that week.
So my guess is we'll really see SQL Server 2008 in 2008. I guess there's a chance if testing goes well that Microsoft will hit their two year mark and release it late this year (Nov seems to be a popular SQL Server release time), but my money is still on next year. Nothing official, but after nearly 2 decades of working with MS products, that's what I think.
Steve's Pick of the Week : Celko on Celko
I meant to drop this in last week and I think I missed it. Love him or hate him, he's an icon on the database world and I certainly respect his SQL skills, even when I disagree with his views. He's interviewed by Ken Henderson and has some interesting thoughts on data in the world today.
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"Especially at work. You don't need a disaster like a hurricane, earthquake, or blizzard to disrupt operations. I worked in one place where a bagel burning in a toaster shut down a 10 story building for an hour. Be prepared and ensure you have alternative procedures for a few different types of disruptions."
Kind of nice to know it happens elsewhere too!
For us its not bagels (not yet anyway) but plain ordinary toast. Oh, and a dodgy toaster that keeps sticking.
It cleans out ten linked multi-storey buildings for us, as all the fire alarms are linked :
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Katmai.
We are upgrading to a new domain and named the AD server katmai.
Like its namesake, it blew up taking out the AD and everything else with it. Good thing we were still in testing. It now sits behind me on my bench, dormant like Katmai is today. Well mostly anyway.
Here is a link to the real Katmai. Very interesting website when all is working.
<http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webcam/webcam.php?cam=Katmai>
As part of my DR plan, I am linked to AVO for e-mail notice of eruptions or tsunami. While the latter is not a direct threat (they can't turn corners), the other is with ash fallout shutting down the power generators.
At that point, its time to go home anyway.
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