Datascape Podcast: Key Announcements from Microsoft Ignite

Today on the show we are going to be discussing the most interesting announcements that came out of the Microsoft Ignite Conference. To help us navigate this part of the Datascape, I have invited Warner Chaves back to the show. Warner is a SQL Server Certified Master, MVP, and Principal Consultant at Pythian, a global Canada-based company specializing in data and infrastructure services. At Pythian, Warner manages multiple clients of different sizes and industries. He leads a highly-talented team of data professionals that keep things running smooth and innovate with all kinds of data solutions.

Also joining us today for the first time is Suniel Sahi, Solutions Architect at Pythian. Suniel has spent 20 working in the IT business, with extensive leading edge industry experience with large firms in various financial, telco and other sectors, and has been in the Microsoft space for all of his career. He has also spent 15 years in the consulting business, and has led global delivery projects, managed pre-sales and contract negotiations for large contracts and managed vendor relationship.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Overview of the Microsoft Ignite Conference; understanding the experience.
• Building an ecosystem that is hybrid for a Microsoft program.
• The Microsoft Roadmap: knowing what is to be released.
• Why the announcement of Azure Stack is a big gamble.
• How Microsoft is protecting the initial user experience of Azure.
• Overview of the Azure database migration service between platforms.
• The mindset shift from having an on-prem database to being in the cloud.
• Why Microsoft is still playing catchup with AWS on many fronts.
• A misconception that migrating to the cloud will save money.
• The biggest changes and different features in SQL 2017.
• How SQL 2017 has streamlined the process for data scientists.
• Azure machine learning in the cloud versus on-prem SQL 2017.
• Why security is on top of mind for Microsoft at these conferences.
• The major improvements of ADF V2 compared to the first edition.
• Why the cloud needs killers apps that you just cannot do on-prem.
• AI updates and driving the Microsoft intelligence experience.
• Quantum computing; what is a realistic time frame for quantum computers to exist?
• And much more!