SQL Server 2008 Evangelism Kicks Off

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It's hard to believe that SQL Server 2005 has been out there for a couple of years, but it has.  Things have really stabilized with Service Pack 2, and all of the Office 2007 Business Intelligence functionality that exploits SQL Server 2005 is shipping (with the exception of Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 which is nearing completion).  I just completed a year of driving Microsoft Business Intelligence adoption in the ISV community through a program I called Microsoft BI Voyage.  We worked with nearly 300 partners worldwide to help them understand how to build value-added reporting and analytics functionality using the Microsoft BI Stack.

So what's next?  Well the SQL Server 2008 wave has begun!  You can check out some early Community Technology Previews on Microsoft's Connect site.  I'll continue to focus on driving early adoption of SQL Server 2008 in the developer community, and I'm happy to say that I won't be doing it alone!  I am joined this time around by Zach Owens, newly hired Technical Evangelist.  Together Zach and I will be responsible for driving early adoption of SQL Server 2008 through a variety of programs sponsored by Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism Division.  Zach comes to the team with a wealth of BI expertise, so he's going to take the lead on BI.  I'll shift my focus to Developer, Database Infrastructure/Scalability, and Upgrade / Application Compatibility. 

I'm also pleased to announce that we've selected some top services partners to join the evangelism team.  They will help us build and deliver all that interesting new SQL Server 2008 content.  SQLSkills will be helping us with our Developer, BI and Database Infrastructure/Scalability content.  Scalability Experts will be helping us with Upgrade / Application Compatibility content.  I'm extremely excited to have these partners on board because of the depth of SQL Server experience they bring to the table.

Things will be a bit quiet for the time being.  I'm going on vacation at the Jersey Shore in Stone Harbor for a week in September, and Zach is new to Microsoft and still ramping up.  But you will be begin to see a trickle of SQL Server 2008 related R & D posts from various members of the team in the next few weeks.  Eventually we hope to have tons of good stuff up on Channel 9, and we'll be hitting the road in November 2008 to bring all the new content to a Microsoft location near you.