This is a condensed summary of the job market as I've been observing it so far this year and maybe in retrospect last year too. It may or may not be appropriate to this forum, if you are reading it then so far maybe it has relevance.
But it appears to me as if virtually all new, large-scale work is being moved off of SQL Server and onto cloud and "big data" platforms possibly (but not frequently) including Azure.
What is being left on SQL Server are legacy systems and smaller applications where generalist developers can totally fend for themselves, with the help of a competent DBA platform staff, and just let the power of the hardware overcome any technical issues. Most of these apps seem to be whatever fits on a standard version and runs under a VM. In effect, SQL Server is becoming the new Access!
One additional small attempt at forum relevance: insofar as this market shift might be true, I would attribute it to two engine-related things. First, the very unfortunate decision by Microsoft that for SQL 2012 licensing for big multicore servers became far more expensive. It seems many shops stayed on SQL 2008 for a long time (still!) because of this and have barely looked at SQL 2014. Second is that frankly SQL Server is not scaling very well beyond the terabyte range without a lot of high-levels of expertise involved - and especially when cheap management tries to run that multi-terabyte database on 32gb production servers!* SQL Server's reputation for being easy to use, plug-and-play, may be threatening the success of these larger-scale apps and is leading to new choices in platform.
Anyone else have any observations along these lines, pro or con?
Thanks,
Josh
*and if you think that's a myth, it is exactly what happened at my last gig, leading to $20,000,000 in development being thrown away - and no, they simply could not be talked into understanding or mitigating the issue.