Leaders are embracing the need to partner with IT to help them gain actionable insights from data. Attesting to this, The Economist recently published a study, “Big data evolution: Forging new corporate capabilities for the long term,” which found that companies “that have a well-defined data strategy are much more likely to say that they Read more
Security is unquestionably a major priority for Microsoft. A recent news story reported that the company “is spending $1 billion a year to make Microsoft products more secure.” The Microsoft data platform, including SQL Server and Azure SQL Database, is at the top of the list of products investing in security. But, be aware that Read more
The annual PASS Summit provides an opportunity for the SQL Server community to meet, share expertise, and gain firsthand insights into advances in the Microsoft data platform technology directly from Microsoft executives. The fall 2015 PASS Summit gave attendees the opportunity to learn about the upcoming release of SQL Server 2016 when Joseph Sirosh, corporate Read more
What does the industry leading SQL Server 2016 have in common with spaghetti sauce? Just the fact that if you need something, “it’s in there.” With SQL Server 2016 the advanced capabilities you need in a data platform are built in. You don’t need to purchase expensive add-ons to get necessary functionality immediately: Looking for Read more
As data becomes the center of digital business, your organization’s ability to secure data is crucial for compliance and confidentiality. But data security is so important that it can also be a competitive differentiator. Indeed, Forrester Research reports a focus on data security can help drive customer loyalty and retention, create opportunities for premium offers Read more
To invest in the data platform technology that will serve the future of your business and allow it to grow, it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of the data driving your business strategy, as well as the data that will let you deliver on that strategy. This distinction is subtle, but important. A recent Read more
The previous two blogs (here and here) in this series discussed how to evaluate the cost effectiveness of SQL Server and the Microsoft data platform and leveraging the asset of an expert community. As part of that discussion, experts in the data community identified several factors that contribute to the value of the Microsoft platform. Read more
As discussed in the previous blog in this series, an Ernst and Young study, CFO-CIO: a growing collaboration, finds that “To succeed, organizations must make bold technology investment decisions that are driven by corporate strategy.” To achieve this goal, CIOs and CFOs need to work together with business leadership to ensure that, beyond cost effectiveness, Read more
“Technical debtor’s prison” is a term I recently came across in a Forrester Research report, “CIOs’ Top Five Career-Ending Digital Transformation Challenges” by Bobby Cameron with Peter Burris, Rachael Klehm, and Rachel Birrell. The idea is that CIOs sometimes feel indebted to the specific technology that has a history of serving the organization well over Read more
