Kamal Hathi from Analysis Services/Gemini and
Mark Theissen from DATAllegro, visited the BBBT from the Microsoft SQL Server group. They covered the SQL Server roadmap, Project Madison, and Project Gemini. We first unscrambled the name cloud around the Kilimanjaro release of SQL Server, the next
normal release (vNext), Project Gemini, and Project Madison. See previous
blogs for details.
We discussed six referenceable customers (Premier Bankcard, USDA, HMC, Crossmark, CLALIT, US Veterans Affairs) who have operational data warehouses in the 2 to 15 TB range using the current SMP product. With the DATAllegro technology, the target is to move SQL Server from SMP to MMP architecture and from 10's of terabytes to petabytes. Mark tied the motivation for supporting mixed workloads to cost reduction by reducing surplus processing capacity. Goal is to offer an
appliance-like experience for DW customers via reference platforms from major hardware vendors -- one SKU, one pallet, pre-configured, and hopefully one-throat-to-choke. The Microsoft Data Warehousing Product Unit was created to house the DATAllegro folks. The significance of this is that they are assisting in extending all of the SQL Server components into best DW practices.
Unfortunately I missed the discussion on Project Gemini by Kamal to catch a flight. But see the previous blogs.
