A few customers requested updates in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP3 are:

• Enhanced upgrade experience from previous versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 SP3. In addition, we have increased the performance & reliability of the setup experience.
• In SQL Server Integration Services logs will now show the total number of rows sent in Data Flows.
• Enhanced warning messages when creating the maintenance plan if the Shrink Database option is enabled.
• Resolving database issue with transparent data encryption enabled and making it available even if certificate is dropped.
• Optimized query outcomes when indexed Spatial Data Type column is referenced by DTA Database Tuning Advisor.
• Superior user experience with Sequence Functions e.g Row_Numbers in a Parallel execution plan.

Go get it!

• Native Cloud Databases – Why Should You Care?
• NuoDB’s Jim Starkey is Creating a Brave New World by Rethinking Databases for the Cloud
• DBaaS vs. DaaS vs. Cloud Storage – What’s the difference?
  
• Postgres Plus® Cloud Server – for a different kind of cloud.

I totally missed it when NimbusDB renamed themselves to NuoDB…

• What Factors Justify the Use of Apache Hadoop?

Hadoop Appliances?

• Hardware for Hadoop
• Why you would want an appliance — and when you wouldn’t
• Some notes on Hadoop (mainly) and appliances
• EMC Puts Database & Hadoop in Same Big Data Analytics Box

Yahoo!’s Hortonworks Hadoop distribution

• Hadoop evolution
• Hortonworks Taking Hadoop to Next Level

the shift to a database as a service (DaaS) severely reduces the DBAs visibility into the business, thus limiting the ability to hand tune the database to the requirements of the application and the database. The solution is a cloud database that eliminates the hand-tuning of the database, thereby enabling the DBA to be equally effective even with limited visibility into the business and application needs

I agree with the problem positioning, but feel strongly that NewSQL is not a requirement to address the problem here, you can equally work a little services layer and put all the control into the hands of the user, essentially replacing (a lot of) the DBA tasks with automation and APIs.

What NewSQL gives you though, and we see that with Xeround and supposedly also ScaleDB, is the elasticity and transparent sharding that’s difficult to achieve with the more traditional Oracle, Sybase or SQL Server databases that are still often required in the enterprise space.

the discussion of how data and information relate actually continues to knowledge and wisdom as well. We’ve summarized the distinction between these concepts below based on Hey’s paper and Dr. Russell Ackoff work with one of the most common representations of the relationships: the pyramid diagram.

via The Big Data Maslow’s Pyramid.