SQL Server Magazine: What other database platforms are supported? Is there a way to use other relational databases with Gemini?
Farmer: Absolutely! Yes. A relational database is to us a resource. SQL Server is a great source and the preferred source, I suppose, emotionally but not technically. We’ll consume from any source that is an OLE DB provider or an ODBC provider. So yes, Gemini is a very integrated environment from that point of view. There’s really no preference there.
SQL Server Magazine: You’ve been telling us there will be more announcements this year. What can our readers look forward to?
Farmer: What comes out after Gemini is the next release of SQL Server. That’s where we do more work to bring self-service BI and traditional BI even closer together. We’ll do more work on traditional BI. And there’ll be a set of features to help Analysis Services users move into a self-service environment. You’ll see the Gemini features become more integrated into the traditional OLAP environment. You’ll see more of the IT capabilities. We think we’ve got a great set of IT capabilities in Gemini, but you’ll see even more of that for people managing heterogeneous environments and that sort of thing. In the next version of SQL Server, we’ll revise the core Analysis Services engine to reflect some of the Gemini capabilities. That’s some of the things we’re doing.
SQL Server Magazine: It sounds like the SQL Server community has a lot of exciting things to look forward to!