In Australia, almost certainly yes.
Australia recently saw two Azure data centres open, meaning that customers can now consider hosting data in Azure without worrying about it going overseas. Whether you’re considering SQL Database or having an Azure VM with SQL on it, the story has vastly improved here in Australia, and conversations will go further.
The impact of this will definitely reach the community…
…a community which is moving from strength to strength in itself.
I say that because in 2014 we have seen new PASS Chapters pop up in Melbourne and Sydney (user groups that have existed for some time but have now been aligned with PASS); many of the prominent Australian partner organisations have MVPs on staff now, which was mentioned a few times at the Australian Partner Conference in September; and SQL Saturdays have come along way since the first ones were run around the country in 2012. February will see SQL Saturday 365 in Melbourne host around 30 sessions, and build on its 2013 effort of becoming one of the largest ten SQL Saturday events in the world. Microsoft Australia seems more receptive than ever to the SQL Server community, and I’m seeing individuals pushing into the community as well.
From a personal perspective, I think 2015 will be an interesting year. As well as being a chapter leader and regional mentor, I know that I need to develop some new talks, after getting rejected to speak at the PASS Summit, but I also want to take the time to develop other speakers, as I have done in recent years.
I also want to write more – both blogs and white papers. I’ve blogged every month for at least five years, but many months that’s just the T-SQL Tuesday post. (Oh yeah – this post is for one of those two, hosted by Wayne Sheffield (@DBAWayne) on the topic of ‘Giving Back’.) So I want to be able to write a lot more than 12 posts in the year, and take the opportunity to get deeper in the content. I know I have a lot to talk about, whether it be in the BI space, or about query plans, or PDW, or security – there really are a lot of topics I could cover – I just need to reserve the time to get my content out there.
So challenge me. If you want help with an abstract, or a talk outline (which I know is very different to an abstract), or you want me to blog on a particular topic, then let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I want to give even more to the community, and if you’re in the community, that should include you!
