Compliance is another huge issue. In the old days, people needed to know who had changed data. Now, many shops need to know who has looked at data. That capability is hard to build in without building in a lot of overhead. But people are looking to Microsoft for an answer.

There is also pain around change management. That isn't a big deal if you're an Oracle DBA with just one or two servers, but if you're a SQL Server DBA with 24 servers to patch, it can be a real pain in the rear. Right now, the answers mostly come from other Microsoft products, like Systems Management Server. But that doesn't soothe a lot of DBAs because they don't necessarily want to hand this [issue] off to another team.

Microsoft is expected to release SP2 of SQL Server 2005 early next year after Vista and Office 2007 ship. It ties in with collaboration features, especially in Office. What impact will there be on SQL Server DBAs? After a certain point, adding another spell checker or template doesn't change Office much. But SQL Server's tie-ins with SharePoint and Excel will help people make more sense of data and turn it into actionable information. Most DBAs are still assessing [SP2]. They don't know what work and how much is going to be involved for them.

Microsoft has made moves to increase compatibility with open-source technologies, such as the LAMP stack. How much interest do you see among users in mixing and matching? In the circles I run in, the honeymoon is over with MySQL. There is a strong feeling that open source is far from free, that the right people can be hard to find and that it's better to stick with the Windows stack. In applications that might have hosted MySQL in the past, I see it being supplanted by SQL Server Express.

Paul Flessner, the senior vice president who oversees development of SQL Server, is stepping down from that job at the end of the year, although he'll still work at Microsoft part-time. What does that mean for users? Paul is a tremendous champion of SQL Server. He brought a lot to the table in terms of understanding that data is not this abstract thing that companies have, it's an actual asset that can be improved and that needs to be available and accessible. Flessner had a progressive mindset in believing that data needs to permeate the entire company to enable better decision-making. He has helped to deliver tools to do that. In terms of his replacement, Ted Kummert, by all accounts he has a high reputation and skill set.