Historical Perspective

It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since I was offered a job to work at Microsoft to support its new SQL Server Windows NT product. I never thought I would find myself or our product in the position we are today. My previous experience was as a C programmer and database developer on UNIX systems mainly working with Oracle and Ingres. My perception of Microsoft was purely as a desktop company. The only database I had even seen on a PC was dBase. As I contemplated the job offer, I was naturally skeptical. How could Microsoft even create a product that could compete with the biggest names in the database industry? Fortunately for me, Andrea Stoppani, the director of SQL Support for Microsoft in 1993, convinced ...

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