Last June, Bill Gates left full-time employment with Microsoft. You might have been wondering, like I have been, who will be deciding what direction Microsoft technologies take in the future. Bill transferred the mantle of Chief Software Architect to two people: Ray Ozzie, who was hired in 2005 as a Chief Technology Officer, and Craig Mundie, who had been Chief Research and Strategy Officer. But it’s going to take more than those two technologists to fill Bill’s shoes. I just discovered an interview on MSDN’s Channel 9 with Bill Gates (http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Bill-Gates-Transitioning-into-the-Future) in which he stated that there are 22 additional people who will be taking over parts of his former role at Microsoft. These are the Microsoft Technical Fellows, whose expertise spans the entire range of Microsoft products, including products that haven’t even been developed yet.

I had actually heard of this group of Technical Fellows a while ago, when I was telling my editor at Microsoft Press about David Campbell, the SQL Server engineer who was going to be writing the foreword for my next book. I was looking on the Microsoft website to see if there was any information about David and found a list of the members of this elite group at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/techfellow/default.mspx. I was pleased (although not really surprised) to discover that David was in very exalted company. Although I had heard of only three other people who were on the list, the fact that Dave Cutler, the "Father of Windows NT," was one of the three was more impressive than the 18 unrecognized names combined. Another SQL Server engineer, Peter Spiro, is on the list, and I’ve talked to Peter occasionally when in the SQL Server building on the Redmond campus. The other person I recognized on the list was Mark Russinovich, with whom I have had a few email exchanges regarding his SysInternals tools suite. After following some links, I found that ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley is trying to interview all 22 of the Technical Fellows, who she refers to as the "Big Brains" on her blog at blogs.zdnet.com/topic/Microsoft+Big+Brains.html.

Because David is the person on the list with whom I have had the most interaction, I feel that "Big Brains" just doesn’t do him justice, as he also has a big heart. Yes, David is probably one of the smartest people I know, but there are a lot of smart people at Microsoft. David is also one of the nicest people I have met in all my years of working with people at Microsoft.

Check out David Campbell's thoughts on cloud computing, SQL Server 2008, and more in the SQL Server Magazine article Dave Campbell on SQL Server 2008, Cloud Services, and More.

Deprecated T-SQL Features
by Itzik Ben-Gan

Find out which features are missing or are deprecated in SQL Server 2008, as well as which features SQL Server won’t support in a future version.
http://www.sqlmag.com/Article/ArticleID/100697/sql_server_100697.html


Change Many Server Configuration Options in One Fell Swoop
by Eli Leiba

You can change many configuration options in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000 simultaneously by using a.config file and a T-SQL stored procedure that automates the use of the sp_configure system stored procedure.
http://www.sqlmag.com/Article/ArticleID/100516/sql_server_100516.html

Microsoft's IT function is currently consolidating its SQL Server environment of around 100,000 databases on 5,000 SQL Server instances to reduce operating and capital expenses as well as to reduce its environmental footprint. In following its practice of making various internal IT operations public for educational purposes, Microsoft has released some of the details about this SQL Server consolidation initiative, which is expected to reduce its annual SQL Server operating costs by $11 million per year and save more than 700 racks.

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Solutions for Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership for Your Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence
Explore how SQL Server 2008 running on Intel® Xeon 7400 series processor-based servers offers a trusted, cost-effective, and highly available data warehouse and BI platform that enables you to run your most demanding mission-critical applications, reduce time and cost of application development and management, and deliver actionable insight to your entire organization. Join this live event and have your questions answered by Intel and Microsoft experts!


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SQL Connections, March 22-25, 2009—Orlando, FL
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