Last October I learnt my company wanted to put together a new blog/social networking policy. I decided that out of respect for my employer I wouldn’t blog until this was sorted out.

This was perhaps was an easy decision to make as I was separating from my ex-wife at the time and frankly needed the time to concentrate on other things.

So now the company has a brand new policy and I’m back into the dating game I thought I would blow off the cobwebs and get back to what I enjoy doing.

First and foremost SQL Server 2008 R2 is almost here and to mark that fact I will be in London on Thursday at the Microsoft UK Tech-Day’s event.

The subjects I most want to see are …

Power Pivot – this is such an exciting technology! I’ve been a fan of Qlikview for years so it will be good to see how it compares

SQL Azure – Cloud Computing is big right now, so it will be interesting to see what the RTM product can do. I have afew ideas for its use and will be interesting to see if SQL Azure is the right product … more on this in the next few weeks.

Master Data Services – This is one of those technologies that Microsoft hasn’t been making much noise about … and frankly should have because it is a game changer. Hmmm, queue future “What is … ?” post

StreamInsight – An exciting events technology, again another “What is … ?” post is around the corner on that.

So, you thought that SQL Server 2008 R2 was just a release to make sure the years between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2010 weren’t so long?

I am however disappointed that Clustering across Subnets didn’t make it and not sure if Control Points made it but all will be revealed later on this week. Till then I will have to wait!