Microsoft Starts Clock Ticking on SQL Server 2008

Computerworld - Less than two years after Microsoft Corp. very belatedly shipped SQL Server 2005, it seems oddly early to hear the software vendor talk about launching the next version of the database.

But it looks as if Microsoft will keep its promise to get back onto a two-to-three-year release cycle, after taking five years to develop SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft demonstrated many of the new features that will be in SQL Server 2008 at a conference held in Denver last week by the Professional Association for SQL Server user group. And Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of Microsofts data and storage platform division, said earlier this month that the upgrade will be released to manufacturing in the second quarter of 2008  about two and a half years after SQL Server 2005 became available.

We understand that five years between major releases is too long, he said.

Kummert doesnt have much choice about delivering SQL Server 2008 when he says he will. Microsoft plans to hold a marketing blowout in February for the new database, as well as for Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

But Kummert claimed that Microsoft is injecting a significant amount of new functionality into the database  enough to make it a worthy upgrade, even for users who have recently migrated to SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft has already issued four Community Technical Preview (CTP) releases of SQL Server 2008, including one late last month that can be run in conjunction with its server virtualization software.

ServiceU Corp., which provides event and box- office management services, is using one of the CTP releases in some business intelligence applications. David Smith, CIO of the Cordova, Tenn.-based company, said he also plans to deploy SQL Server 2008 on mission-critical systems before its official release.

Its exactly what I need, Smith said. For example, he pointed to new features such as tools for setting automated data management policies and logging all actions inside the database. He also said hes impressed by the upgrades ability to compress data in three ways: by row, by page or by backing up the entire database.

Smith noted that as far as he knows, Microsoft has fallen behind on development of only a single feature for SQL Server 2008. Otherwise, theyve met their timeline, he said.

First Premier Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D., is testing a new, more transparent data encryption capability on a 2TB data warehouse based on SQL Server 2008, according to Ron Van Zanten, the credit card issuers directing officer for business intelligence.