Altan Arslan, software projects manager at Turk Economy Bank in Instanbul, Turkey, won the grand prize in SQL Server Magazine's second annual Innovator Awards contest for his company's realtime stock-exchange application.
Arslan received his award this week in Palm Springs, California, at the SQL Server Magazine Connections conference, where three runners up and 10 honorable mention winners were also announced. Douglas McDowell, principal consultant at Intellinet in Atlanta, won first runner up for a network management system that incorporates SQL Server Analysis Services, Data Transformation Services (DTS), Notification Services, and the new Reporting Services. Second runner up, Xingguang Ou, DBA at CallPlus Service, Ltd., in Auckland, New Zealand, won for a SQL Server replication solution that involves MySQL. And Paul Munkenbeck, senior database consultant with Maritz Europa, Ltd., in Marlow, UK, was named third runner up for using SQL Server 2000's XML functionality to create an application that captures and color-codes server service availability information and presents it in an HTML document.
The grand-prize-winning stock-exchange application supports 1200 concurrent internal users and 60,000 external customers, with users requiring immediate notification of data modifications to stock information. SQL Server Magazine will showcase this and other winning solutions from the 2003 Innovator Awards program in upcoming issues of the magazine.
The Innovator Awards, designed to recognize creative SQL Server solutions to technical and business problems, drew 42 entries. "Looking at all the creative solutions that participants shared in this year's Innovator Awards program was inspiring," noted Kathy Blomstrom, editor of SQL Server Magazine. "The entries really demonstrated that customers are bringing SQL Server's full capabilities to bear in going beyond simply a workable solution to find the best way to meet their organizations' needs."
Judges named the following (in alphabetical order) as honorable mentions in this year's awards program: Steven Berringer, Parker Hannifin, Orange, California; Tim Caylor, Thomas Nelson Publications, Nashville; Andrea Corey, Eloqua Corporation, Toronto; Tom Ellison, Ellison Enterprises, Grand Island, Nebraska; Resilene Mansur, CSN, Rio de Janeiro; Merle Martell, Cargill, Minnetonka, Minnesota; Jose Muller, AscendOne Corporation, Columbia, Maryland; Arindam Sen, American Power Conversion, West Kingston, Rhode Island; Ashley Smith, Tenon Group, Shepton Mallet, UK; and Rolf Tesmer, Australia Post, Melbourne.