SSWUGtv – Safe Data
In todays edition of SSWUGtv Stephen discusses the importance of changed rules and roles of security to keep your data safe.
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The Microsoft SQL Server Strategy
A couple brave folks have responded with their perception regarding the Microsoft Strategy for the SQL Server platform. Most agree that Microsoft appears to be moving away from the self-hosted installations of SQL Server for SMBs.
The question seems to be, “what is going to replace that market?” Microsoft appears to be putting their eggs in SQL Azure (SQL in the Cloud) and for many good reasons. For those who continue to insist on hosting their own database engine it would appear Microsoft is going to charge a premium in SQL Server Enterprise, or users will be looking to other vendors or open system products.
For many, I would guess SQL Azure is a decent replacement for self-hosted databases. The architecture will pretty much require moving to Azure completely in order to get reasonable performance. We’ve gotten used to having gigabit speeds between our servers and systems. We won’t want to pay for gigabit internet speeds, and will need to host our applications in Azure in order to keep up.
I still have concerns about the inability of Azure to do backups with point-in-time recovery. Personally, I have only had to do this kind of recovery twice in 30 years. However, I would hate to have a system that needed this capability, and had to roll it on my own. Every version of SQL Server has this feature except SQL Azure. Microsoft continues to insist this isn’t necessary because they have triple redundancy. All the redundancy in the world won’t fix a system that had a large batch process of "bad data" run through successfully. That is one of the reasons we use SQL Server instead of other less expensive engines. Add transaction recovery to SQL Azure, and I think they have something hard to beat.
Here’s what others think:
Jonathan
Thank you for your insightful recent articles on the direction of SQL Server. I’ve been following the breadcrumbs with interest as my entire organization is on a Microsoft backbone, we’ve have several enterprise applications that have grown from SQL Server 6.5 through 2000 and the various editions of 2008. We are now beginning the transfer to 2012.
Like you, I’m not sure where Microsoft is planning on taking SQL Server. I am particularly disturbed by two trends you have editorialized on recently:
1. An enterprise-level tool should be capable of more than glorified CRUD, yet it seems Microsoft is intent on forcing adoption of middle-tier model. (See editorial on elimination of 4-part RPC syntax sometime back, and the sharding discussion from last Thursday).
In the enterprise applications I work with, we utilize RPCs and scheduled tasks to move data between the systems. I’m not sure I like being forced into a middle tier for this functionality.
2. In my mind, there’s a difference between enterprise-level and some of the functionality that disappears when using SQL 2012 Standard. I can understand requiring Enterprise for always on, redundancy, replication, etc., but why the limitation of Sharepoint integration tools such as PowerView?
Edward
Microsoft want to be the dominant player in the new market of Database as a Service. It assumes DaaS will quickly take over from on-premise installations of SQL Server, and therefore dealing with on-premise needs is taking lower priority.
I think its customers are not as ready to move to the cloud as fast as Microsoft wants them to, and many that do will be more comfortable with Infrastructure as a Service than starting directly with DaaS. IaaS means installing SQL Server on cloud-based servers in just the same was as it is installed on on-premise servers.
By the time of the next major release of SQL Server (2015) we will know if a) Microsoft made a wise and far-sighted choice because it has captured the market, b) it has become just one of many IaaS players, c) cloud has become the preserve of the West, with the huge developing world market not contributing much to cloud vendor revenues because unreliable broadband means they have innovated with on-premise solutions.
I will be more surprised if a) happens than if b) and c) happen.
Send your comments to btaylor@sswug.org to get into the discussion.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
SSWUGtv
With Stephen Wynkoop
You may have missed Stephens interview with Laura Rose. Together they consider what happens when you have to change your path (whether within your company or completely changing careers)…what are the steps to a smooth transition?
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