PASS Data Summit 2025 Recap

Last week, I attended the annual PASS Data Summit in Seattle. This was the fourth year of the event since Red Gate took over stewardship of PASS after that organization ceased operations in 2021. This has always been my favorite data community event; I first attended in 2005, and since 2009 I haven’t missed a single Summit.

This year’s Summit seemed smaller than those in the past couple of years. Since Microsoft’s Ignite event and the Live 360 conference were held the same week, I expect part of the lower attendance was due to losing potential speakers and attendees to those other events. Nonetheless, for connecting with fellow members of the SQLFamily crowd, there’s no other event like PASS Data Summit.

There were several exciting product announcements from this week. I won’t try to rehash all of these, but I’ll summarize a few of them I found particularly interesting. I also spent a good bit of time talking with fellow attendees about the landscape of the data business, and I’ve got a few takeaways to share on that front.

Microsoft Product Announcements

SQL Server 2025 is GA

The most significant product announcement this week was that SQL Server 2025 is now generally available (GA). For the type of work I do, I found the built-in JSON support (including a native JSON type and JSON indexes) particularly compelling as I’ve been working with JSON data at a rapidly increasing pace lately. Also, I learned about the new REST API, which is interesting since much of the integration projects my company has worked on in the past couple of years have included some use of REST APIs. I’ll admit being a bit skeptical about this latter feature, since it puts a lot of programming work (including error handling and other concepts) directly in T-SQL, but I am interested to test this out to see if it could supplement or replace external code for ingestion of data from APIs.

Deprecation of SSRS and new licensing of Power BI Report Server

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a fan of SQL Server Report Server (SSRS). Sure, it isn’t the newest or sexiest tool on the market, but for the many, many enterprise reporting needs that require traditional tabular paginated reporting, SSRS remains the go-to tool in the Microsoft ecosystem. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that there would be no standalone version of SSRS with SQL Server 2025, but instead, Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) would be included with the licensing of SQL Server Enterprise and Standard Editions. This means that SSRS isn’t dead, but it’s alive and well and now includes Power BI on premises. The Power BI Report Server option was available in prior versions of SQL Server, but only with Software Assurance or an additional licensing cost. As one who believes that there’s a need for both Power BI and SSRS reports in the enterprise, I’m going to count this one as a win.

Azure HorizonDB

HorizonDB is Microsoft’s managed implementation of Postgres. Postgres has come on strong lately, taking the reins as the go-to open-source relational database. I’ve used Postgres on a few hobby projects of mine, but haven’t worked with it in an enterprise setting. Now that it’s a member of the Azure family of products, I’ll be interested to see how this might be used in real business applications.

Summit Takeaways

I have something to admit: I don’t go to PASS Data Summit for the sessions. Yes, I do attend sessions (and I watch even more of them afterward when the recordings are published), but the biggest value for me is the “hallway track”: talking with fellow attendees, presenters, and group organizers to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the industry. I know the sample size is relatively small, but here are a few things I gleaned from my week at this year’s Summit.

Microsoft’s improvements to SQL Server 2025 are a big deal

To those who have wondered whether on-premises (or VM installable) versions of SQL Server would still be relevant, Microsoft answered this week with a solid “Yes”. Microsoft has long said they’d add new features first to Azure SQL and later to installable versions of SQL Server, and the numerous changes made GA this week demonstrate that they are still honoring that commitment. This is welcome news to my numerous colleagues and I who still support customers planning to continue to use installed SQL Server instances for years to come.

Fabric isn’t as prevalent as the buzz suggests

Microsoft Fabric is seemingly everywhere. Marketing materials, vendor presentations, and even the selection of Summit sessions suggests that Fabric is where real business is done. But in my conversations with data professionals, I’ve learned that there are many organizations that aren’t using or trying out Fabric, and some of them have no plans to do so. Fabric is one of many tools available to data-driven enterprises, but it’s not the de facto standard data platform. A few colleagues I spoke with said that Fabric sounds like it would be fun and challenging to work with, but their organizations didn’t yet see the cost benefit of making the switch. Plenty of data professionals and the companies they work for are finding continued success in non-Fabric cloud options (Azure and otherwise), as well as many who still rely on reliable on-premises resources. Microsoft Fabric can be a good option for many organizations, but the amount of coverage it receives seems disproportionate to how much it’s actually being implemented. For those who feel some FOMO by not using Fabric, rest assured: you’re in good company.

Data professionals still have a healthy skepticism of AI

I’ve chatted with quite a few colleagues about the impact and potential uses of AI on this business, and I’ve gotten a mix of reactions. There’s a good deal of excitement – many data professionals report having used AI as a virtual coding partner, putting it to work on tasks that free up the human to do the work that can’t easily be automated. But the average data professional I spoke with this week isn’t concerned about being replaced with AI. These modern data professionals expressed cautious optimism that AI could eliminate some of the lower value work they routinely do, but on average they don’t see artificial intelligence taking away their jobs. A few of them also expressed some weariness about the seemingly constant pressure to use AI. Likewise, company leaders I have spoken with are curious about the value of adding AI, and many of them are allowing its use on some projects, but they’re not yet willing to bet the business on it.

There’s a strong desire to rebuild the data community

Our community has shrunk. Unfortunately, the effects of the COVID pandemic are still being felt through smaller event sizes, a tightening of training and travel budgets, and a general loss of momentum in sustaining our community. Many folks, myself included, have felt a different vibe at events (not just the PASS Data Summit) since in-person attendance resumed a few years ago, and many of those long for the “good old days” of event excitement and camaraderie before 2020. There’s less event buzz now than there was in pre-2020 events. Those of us who thrived in the fellowship of SQLFamily would love to get back to a time when events such as the PASS Data Summit were anticipated much like a family reunion. I don’t have any quick answers on this one, but I will encourage fellow community members to do what you can to keep connecting, invite others, and share your experiences on social media. We should also be on the lookout for colleagues and peers who are new to (or completely unfamiliar with) our awesome community, and find ways to introduce them to the greatness of SQLFamily.

Next Year’s Summit

Next year’s PASS Data Summit has been announced for November 9-11, along with PASS On-Tour events in Chicago (May) and Frankfurt (June). Let’s help continue to regrow the community by attending these events if you are able, and by helping to promote them on social media and to your colleagues.

If this year reminded me of anything, it’s that the data community isn’t just about technology- it’s about people. I’m excited to see how we continue to grow and connect during the upcoming year.