Have you ever swum in a creek or water hole that's dark and murky? Have you ever let yourself sink down into the water and watched as the sun's rays disappear through the green algae and dirt? Have you ever held your breath while the fear rises in you, the darkness surrounds you and the chill of the unknown depths creeps up your legs? I have, and to this day I still wonder how deep the water hole really was and if there was some prehistoric predator at the bottom licking its lips. Till last week designing and managing databases evoked in me similar feelings. The wonderful rush of adrenalin flowing from living on the edge mixed with the fear that something could have gone wrong.

Last week (1^st and 2^nd of Sept) I attended the SQL Enterprise Architects Forum (SEAF) at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. I found it very enlightening. Finally I was getting reliable information from the experts of the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (CAT) - part of Microsoft's SQL development team based in Redmond, California. It felt good. It was like scuba diving in the water hole with oxygen, powerful torches and diving buddies. Clustering, Log Shipping, Replication and Mirroring lost their mystery when explained in context. There were no scary monsters. I'm no guru and I was able to follow most of what was said. I felt a little like Sir Edmund Hillary who described his feelings as ones of "quiet satisfaction, almost a little bit of surprise" when he climbed Mt Everest. In my case the satisfaction and surprise came from the realisation that many of my thoughts were validated.