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In that brief moment after the latest version of SQL Server has shipped and before the next public release cycle begins, SQL Server pros have a perfect opportunity to assess what they want out of the current release and what they're looking for in the future. As always, SQL Server Magazine is here to help. SQL StTiw Magazines Michael Otey, senior technical director, and Sheila Molnar, executive editor, joined Ted Kummert, senior vice president of Microsoft's Business Platform Division, for an exelusive interview about SQL Server 2008 R2 and the future of Microsoft's data platform. Ted is responsible for setting the strategy for SQL Server, cloud services, data programmability. and modeling technologies. We spoke with him in mid-summer, before the fall product announcements. For an update, see the web-exclusive sidebar 'Ted Kümmert Comments on SQL Server Product Announcements," InstantDoc ID 125984.
SQL Server Magazine: What do you see as Microson's competitive edge in the relational database market?
Kummert: We talk about building SQL Server in terms of the Information Platform Vision, which encircles how we think about what we build. We talk about a comprehensive set of capabilities that forms the foundation of the mission-critical platform. We talk about each of the communities we serve in terms of the IT pros, the developers, and every end user who wants business insights. I look at our overall approach: We're delivering the SQL Server platform to the desktop, in the data center, in the cloud. We have a very intensive and broad scope. We can start with a departmental workload and scale missioncritical workloads to the highest levels of scale. And we bring all of those capabilities together in one product. We think this kind of comprehensive and complete approach is unique in the market.
Now I'll talk about our philosophy in terms of how we bring it to market. We feel very good about our hardware ecosystem and our partners. They're a big pari of the overall equation being able lo bring these solutions to market built on industry-standard server platforms with a lot of choice for customers. And, given how we approach and price our product and how we work with our hardware ecosystem, we think it's a great value for our customers in...