PASS, the community association originally founded by Microsoft under the name Professional Association for SQL Server, has announced that it will be 15. January 2021 ceases its business. This applies to PASS Global, but not to its German offshoot PASS Deutschland eV According to the board, the background is the desolate financial situation after what was known as the “annus horribilis” year. Those responsible at PASS Global name the economic effects of the COVID 19 – crisis.

as the cause of the imbalance. The liabilities for the next five years for hotel and seminar rooms (in the event of an uncertain event situation) were offset by 2020 loss of income at the community summits . The debts that had accrued at the end of the year and in the future could apparently no longer be absorbed. At the beginning of December, the resolution was resolved in an orderly bankruptcy procedure – with a heavy heart, as the blog announcement says.

PASS Global until 15. January 2021 online The SQL PASS Summit and the SQL Saturdays are mainly affected by the bankruptcy. Until mid-January, paying members (PASS Pro) can access the learning and knowledge resources of PASS Global such as recordings of past summits. The non-profit organization expressly calls for content to be accessed while this is possible. The article does not reveal whether there are download options for backing up the material. The operation is according to PASS until 15. January 2021 guaranteed – then the club servers go offline. At the moment all documents and live recordings on the topics of data architecture, data management, data analysis, all whitepapers and all blog entries are online.

PASS is a not-for-profit association and has existed as a network for the Knowledge exchange for IT people who work with Microsoft’s SQL server. The network is divided into regional user groups that were previously self-organized; numerous regional offshoots continue to be. Shortly after the insolvency of the US-American PASS Global became known, the Microsoft SQL server team took a position on the company’s cloud blog. Microsoft emphasizes the importance of the community for SQL Server and expresses its thanks to PASS Global for “the support given to the SQL family”.

What happens next for the global SQL Server Community? In order to absorb those affected, the SQL Server team is planning to set up a new landing page for local user groups. From there, resources for training on SQL Server and Azure Data should also be accessible. The previous structure of local groups and group leaders would obviously be retained; the individual group leaders should continue to have sovereignty over memberships and the content made available. Microsoft invites the SQL server professionals affected by the bankruptcy to join the Meetup Pro network. Microsoft Teams will in future be available to user groups for virtual meetings. Details will follow, group leaders concerned can contact the Microsoft Azure Data Tech Groups directly.

Further information can be found in the message in the PASS blog. The statement from Microsoft’s SQL server team can be read in their cloud blog.

(sih)