Sunday, May 17, 2009

BI Conference - Tech Ed 2009, SQL Server 2008 R2

Last year Microsoft shared information about Kilimanjaro at the company’s second annual Business Intelligence Conference, which kicked off on October 6 in Seattle. Kilimanjaro is set to include self-service analysis tools (codenamed “Gemini”) that Microsoft is saying will allow information workers to better “slice and dice data and create their own BI (business intelligence) applications and assets to share and collaborate on from within the familiar, everyday Microsoft Office productivity tools they already use.”

But last week at TechEd 2009 conferences, Microsoft announced SQL Server 2008 R2, which you might recall as previous code of Kilimanjaro. What? You thought Kilimanjaro was SQL Server 2010? Well, if you Google it, you'll see that many others think the same, and in fact there are announcements from very significant sources over the last few months talking about SQL Server 2010. So the information now is that there is no SQL Server 2010. "Never was." That the BI and self-service tools that were part of the release were actually the R2 release. That "Kilimanjaro" always referred to R2. The next full release of SQL Server will follow the R2 release by about 24-36 months. You can expect to see full release of R2 in the first half of next year - CTPs should follow later this year for testing.

I understand that Microsoft, like any company has to adapt its strategy when the world is currently in a big financial problem. In my opinion, Microsoft will be easier to convince customers to upgrade a SQL 2008 to SQL 2008 R2 than convince SQL 2008 to SQL 2010... well ... but starting to be many products, many names, many service packs, many cumulative packages, many functionalities ... truly begin to create confusion in people, that usually have great difficulty accept the change. I hope at least, that Microsoft does not change the format and design of the next version of Excel which is expected to have many more capabilities than Excel 2007. We shall see ... I am very curious about the improvements on the analytical tools and on the "Master Data Services"
Also, their advertising video is pretty funny (the introduction part). You can also sign up to receive notifications of the CTP. You can see it here:

8 comments:

Amin said...

Hi Pedro,

It was very interesting. I also thought that the next version of MS SQL Server would be 2010.
As you said, it is easier to convince customer to upgrade themselves to another release than another version ;)

Best regards,
Amin

Pedro said...

Hi Amin! :-)
We are all waiting for you in BIResort.net!!!
Let's move! :-)
Cheers!!
Pedro

Ella Maschiach said...

Hi Pedro,

Great post, very informative, you raise very good points about the balance of new products \ versions on the side of Microsoft.

Ella

Pedro said...

Thanks for the comment Ella!
I hope Microsoft will make my dreams come true!
:-)
Pedro

Steve J. Laye said...

Let us wait and watch what microsoft is upto! Symtex Business Intelligence is delivered through a trusted and familiar environment that solves the business needs of organizations of all sizes. Powered by the flexibility and horsepower of Microsoft SQL Server and delivered through the trusted and familiar 2007 Microsoft Office system, our business intelligence
solutions work together to provide value to all users across your organization.

Pedro said...

Steve,
What you offer from Symtex? services or products?
Let us know more in deep what you do.. seems very interesting!
Regards,
Pedro

Software Consultants UK said...

Hi Pedro

Just visit my site and have a look at what all we have and do.

Best regards..

Pedro said...

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the visit... I'll check in more detail.
I hope we can share some experiences and knowledge!
Regards,
Pedro

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