This is a blog chainposting as part of the UNSQL Friday topic “Which SQL (or SQL-adjacent) tech companies are doing right, either by product, by promotions, or by people?”
One day I found myself pouring through details about the uptime for our database servers. I am guessing I really had nothing better to do at that moment. I found a handful of them that were at 99.99% uptime for the previous 12 months (which I questioned, but that doesn’t matter for this post). I wanted to use the details to demonstrate the value of my team to the organization, so I asked my manager “would a 99.99% uptime reflect the great work of my team, or the great work of the server team?” His response was swift and cutting: “What about Microsoft? Aren’t they the ones that build the O/S and SQL to have a high level of stability, making such uptime possible?”
Wow. Why didn’t I think of that?
As I read the other UNSQL Friday posts and review the poll results I was struck by how few people mentioned Microsoft as a “tech company doing it right”. I mean, without them, where would many of the platform dependent vendors be? Even a company that supports more than one database platform (*ahem* Confio *ahem*), where would we be without MSSQL, Oracle, Sybase, and DB2?
Face it, we have dark overlords, and they demand a sacrifice, most likely a shrubbery. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that the company that does the most for the SQL Community is Microsoft. Hands down. Without them, none of what we do would be possible. Microsoft makes products that allow for others to make products or provide services to help Microsoft customers.
Is Microsoft perfect? Hog’s heaven no! That’s why we are needed, in order to help Microsoft get better. It is a symbiotic relationship, and one that I am happy to be a part of.
So thank you, Microsoft, for helping to make all of this possible.
Great post!! In fact, it’s given me an idea for a post of my own.
Well done!
I agree too. It’s so easy to constantly throw rocks at Microsoft, but, I, for one, have a twenty+ year career built on Bill Gates’ back. Thanks Bill.
You had me at shrubbery.
Strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.