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September 2, 2008
Catching up on recent news
I have not blogged for some time. Not that I had given up, I just found little time to craft posts that I thought were interesting enough to share. So this is a very overdue post.
Why get back on the horse now? That's simple to say. Over the last few weeks my mailbox has been full of questions about recent developments in BI and DW at Microsoft - so a new blog post seemed like a great way to provide a generic answer to the many questioners, especially where they were just asking for opinions rather than hard facts.
For those of you who prefer audio, I have cast my pod twice recently with the fine folks at the B-Eye-Network: one interview with Jill Dyche and one with Colin White. Both podcasts discuss recent events at Microsoft. As always, my views are not Microsoft's official position. They are my own, and often enough not even shared by both sides of my brain at once.
So what has been happening in Redmond that spurred all the questions? For those who need a reminder, here at least 4 issues.
The acquisition of DatAllegro
The acquisition of Zoomix
The release of SQL Server 2008
Bill Baker's leaving Microsoft
I'll be brief on each of these here, but do listen to the podcasts for more.
DatAllegro.
This acquisition made a big splash, if only because so many people had been eyeing the accelerator and appliance market waiting for the first signs of consolidation with BI or RDBMS vendors. However, although MS is first in the fray here, we have not really bought either an accelerator or an appliance - we have bought a significant step forward on our roadmap to greater scalability for SQL Server. The SQL Server team have been continuously improving scalability over the years - with some very effective case studies and proof points. DatAllegro just moves us effectively and efficiently along.
Two points have really got the BI bloggers chatting. The first is the sum Microsoft paid. (At this point, my legal rep is sweating and readying an email to donald.farmer reminding me that I cannot discuss this.) I cannot discuss this. But really, in a month or two this is a footnote. The most important thing about the price is how little it matters in the big picture. The second point the bloggers have enjoyed discussing is how long it will take Microsoft to integrate the DatAllegro codebase, while migrating it away from its open source roots. Again, I can't discuss in detail, but I can tell you that we bought a shortcut to massive scale implementations and a shortcut it will be.
It's a pretty exciting prospect: we'll be playing in a fascinating space. Other teams - management tools, ETL, reporting - also have challenges arising from this shortcut; we now need to ensure other elements of the stack are ready for the massively scaled deployments that we will support. In truth, there will be fewer problems here than you might expect. Our ETL product, SQL Server Integration Services, has already set a world record for ETL. See: http://tinyurl.com/5olqc6. Our Reporting Services in 2008 handles huge data volumes very effectively.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to me that few bloggers picked up on these issues at all: there was a very narrow view of the DatAllegro solution itself, rather than a broader consideration of how this would fit into the wider infrastructure of DW, reporting, performance management etc. This is pretty typical of the way in which we discuss the appliance and accelerator market as an industry: we tend to look only at the implications of massive scale for the database, without considering how the data is to consumed practically and efficiently.
Those of you follow the various BI blogs will of course be aware that there is actually a third issue that popped up around the DatAllegro acquisition - a legal action about some IP. Now that is something I surely cannot discuss - and I know nothing about it anyway. I'll say only one thing: my first reaction was simply "Here we go again." You may be surprised at how often this sort of thing happens, at MS and any other company with deep pockets. It's a bore, but it keeps lawyers busy and well-paid. (Which I like, because one of my attorney friends throws the best barbeques and wine-tastings.)
Zoomix.
I love Zoomix. They are a great wee Israeli company who addressed the problems of data quality in a new way, and did an awesome job of it. They were deservedly a Gartner cool vendor - if they were any cooler they could have solved global warming. I love the self learning capabilities and they have smart smart people on board. I first proposed the Zoomix acquisition, so I'm doubly pleased to see it happen. I moved teams meanwhile after that first proposition, and my old Microsoft team in Integration Services completed the acquisition. Great to see that happen, and great work by them to see the acquisition through - and I'm looking forward to being able to work more and more with a great data quality stack from Microsoft. And for sure I'll be writing a lot more about this technology in the future.
SQL Server 2008.
We shipped! In fact, we have our ship party this Friday. It's always a great feeling. Listen to my podcast for details of some of the great features: great end-user reporting, data profiling, best practices alerts for OLAP design etc.
The question I have had in my mailbox repeatedly about the release is: didn't you guys launch in February? Well, yes we did. That was the marketing launch of the product along with the other big releases of 2008: Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio. It made a lot of sense to roll all these big releases into a single (and very successful) worldwide roadshow. I am not in marketing, but I did appreciate the three-in-one launch when I was presenting on the roadshow. It made a big juicy story and gave an opportunity to tell a very integrated and compelling message to IT, developers and BI alike.
Bill Baker
Today is Bill Baker's last official day at Microsoft. Those of you who know me, or who have read my blog, know how much I admire Bill. I really owe a great deal to him, as do many others in Microsoft. He'll be sorely missed for sure, although he does leave us in a good state to carry on what he started when he first came to MS.
There have been many good things said about Bill over the weeks since he announced his departure. Aside from the personal friendship and mentoring, I would like to mention just two things that I think Bill did that made a huge difference.
Firstly, Bill really understands the BI industry - the customers, the vendors, the consultants and, of course, the technology. He is passionate about Business Intelligence, in a completely non-partisan manner. Any customer who speaks with him, comes away fired up with enthusiasm for how they can transform their business with this technology. Bill has a real feeling for this transformative power of and he can talk with anyone from accountants to zookeepers about specific, actionable and achievable steps they can take to improve their decision-making.
Secondly, Bill had a real knack for building a community of users. At any major Microsoft conference, the Business Intelligence community is present and has a genuine sense of shared purpose, and we enjoy a lot of fun together. When you look at the growth of Microsoft BI over the years, one of the most significant factors is how much of that growth was driven by customers who are new to BI. These new customers learned BI on MS technologies and built a strong and common experience together. Fortunately, one thing at which Bill also excelled was "making others great." The result is that, the MS BI community will be largely self-sustaining and I expect it to be sparky and vibrant for a long time to come.
So, thanks Bill, for all you have done here. I'm really looking forward to what you do next at Visible Technologies - they are now, more than ever, a name to watch.
Finaly, if you are interested, you can follow my current adventures on Twitter. I am enjoying micro-blogging, and for sure I'll be doing more macro-blogging too!
Posted by Donald Farmer at September 2, 2008 1:15 PM
Comments
Good to see you blogging again, Donald. Please let me join you in wishing the best to Bill Baker.
Posted by: Scott Humphrey at September 3, 2008 11:21 AM
Donald, you are obviously biased. Before you say Bill Baker was great I would suggest you check your facts. You have seen the Bill at the conferences, but most likely you have not seen Bill the GM at Microsoft. The Bill at Microsoft is the one that got pushed out by the team reporting to him (I do not even want to call it his team). The same team that made every effort to ship PPS v1 against his will and despite his bad decisions. Bill was a horrible GM, not worthy of the DE name. He left a disaster for others to clean up. 8 out of 10 people at MS that worked with Bill will tell you the side of Bill your are not taking about in your comments. There will be the 2 out of 10 that will praise Bill since they got promoted by Bill to high levels despite their incompetence. Bill got so desperate to have some people who will agree with him he had lowered himself to any tactic. The typical approach by Bill was : find a low level person who knows the Bill at the conferences, hire and promote him in 3-6 month to a level he did not dream of. Now you have him trapped : he can’t move anywhere else since he won’t pass the interview for the level and he will be stuck having to agree with Bill. Interesting enough Bill was not able to bring to work for him any of the people who reported to him in SQL. All of those he tried to build his inner circle were picked from other teams where they heard of Bill, but not worked for him. A sick organization eventually will implode or has to be reorged and that is what happened in less than 2 years since Bill took over. Destruction is what Bill excelled at. Bill’s creations immediately disappeared as soon as Bill had to pack. I personally was neither demoted or promoted by Bill, I was at MS long enough that I do not need to worry of what Bill is thinking. But, it does worry me to see people of Bill’s incompetence having a career of MS, even a temporary one. I’m glad to see MS did the right thing. People seeing him at conferences thought he was a great GM, but that was so far from reality. In the day to day work he was hated by the team reporting to him. Not all his presence at conferences was good either. Last year I attended during the BI conf in Seattle two of his presentations. In the one of them there were less then 10 people left in the room by the end of the presentation (he had some form of unscripted discussion with customers). Yes, Bill was entertaining acting as a clown during the power hour. Microsoft is a better place without Bill. Very happy to see he was fired.
Posted by: Stephen at December 10, 2008 4:23 PM
Good riddance - MS is a better place place without this jerk!
Bill was a terrible GM(?). Behind the facade of “BI guru” he was an incompetent, nor technical nor business savvy. He used his popularity at conferences to avoid accountability at MS. In time his responsibilities got downsized and slowly he was pushed out. At the end of SQL 2005 cycle he got pushed out of SQL division. He had a second chance with PPS that he failed. The product shipped but the team wanted him out. It took about 6 month for that to happen.
Bill has build his career on lies.
12 years ago when he joined MS he started by telling everybody he was under the Oracle NDA and can’t really be involved. Few years later the team was busy shipping SQL 2005. He was one of the many GMs(?) and PUMs in the SQL division. He could not really do harm since SQL division has many checks and balances such one cannot harm an entire product. People all around start noticing he does not add much value in Redmond and his team tend to have a turnaround higher than any other. To still get some use of of Bill he was the one sent out to conferences, that most do not want to go to avoid travel. This is how Bill’s BI guru tag started. He told everybody he is the GM of BI at MS while such a title never existed. He also mastered the art of speaking in behalf of others and make it look as his own work. The progress MS made on BI has little to do with Bill. The same with PPS v1. That one actually shipped almost against Bill’s will. Most of the decisions he though he made were worked around by the team under him to make it possible to ship. Good thing he never knew what was going on. The team also tried hard to avoid having his name attached to PPS.The DE title was his severance package to leave SQL division. He got his second chance in the PPS team. Over here his honeymoon lasted only 6 months. The team started to isolate him out shortly after. Bill had used any method to cling to his position. He was known for hiring low level people and offering them responsibilities beyond the company norm at those level just to keep his team staffed. He also highly valued people who did not question his decisions. Eventually all those mistakes added up. Bill was subject of a massive HR investigation that ended up with his departure.
Bill is capable of doing a lot of damage. This is why it took so long to get him out. Eventually the people above him were more skilled then him and got him out with minimal noise. Of course his departure is far from a loss. It actually took extra time and energy to see him gone and avoid damage.The people at Visible Technologies got themselves in a lot of trouble. Bill is very very expensive and he can treaten to do a lot of damage using whatever reputation he has left. He will start by wiping off their budget (the travel budget first). In order to be productive he needs a lot of headcount and cash. He also need agility meaning he should be hold accountable with mundane metrics. Above all he needs a large crown to tell him how great he is.
He has a good shot at driving Visible Technologies to a ruin.
Posted by: JellyBeans at April 8, 2009 2:39 AM
Time passes, and Bill Baker is fired from Visible Technologies…
A few people at Microsoft with names like Mosha, Venky, Stephen and Kirk will tell you that he is a wonderful manager. All the other 500 people that were touched by his incompetence will laugh…
Posted by: 60Wait at February 14, 2010 6:47 AM
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