Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on its Way
It should have been released around February earlier this year, but Microsoft has finally announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of its SQL Server 2008.
The code is now finalised and on its way to production, and Microsoft have maintained that the SQL Server 2008 will still arrive within three years of the release of the previous version, SQL Server 2005. Originally, the company wanted the new server to b out within two to three years.
For Microsoft, getting the new server out before the end of summer was a priority, says Noel Yuhanna, a Forrester Research analyst.
“Customers are wanting new features and functionality to support their growing business requirements. They can’t - or else they might move to, say, Oracle or IBM. Microsoft, with SQL Server 2008, is back on track with a 36-month release cycle, which is essential not only to retain customers, but to attract new customers and compete against other players,” he said
Yuhanna added that Microsoft has become the top threat to Oracle who are considered the ?leader in databases?.
SQL Server 2005 was under construction for five years. The software had been tied up to several other products. With the 2008 version, the company has de-coupled the dependencies with other product releases and even some key features, so as to ease the impact of release dates.
?Top features can now be added in sub-releases, without affecting the overall major release,? Yuhanna concluded.
Chris Alliegro, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, said that getting the release out the door was important for Microsoft?s credibility.
“After the massive delays SQL Server 2005 had, Microsoft, and especially Ted Kummert (corporate vice president of Microsoft’s data and storage platform division), were pretty vocal that it wouldn’t happen again. Kummert had said that future releases would ship on a 24-to-36-month cycle, and end of summer is basically the outside limit of that window - I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to be made a liar in the first major release on his watch,” Alliegro said
“An interesting question that we’ll learn the answer to over the next few months is whether Microsoft compromised quality to get the product out the door,” he said. “The SQL Server team has traditionally been willing to take as long as they needed to make sure releases were solid. At this point, I don’t think there is any particular reason to think Microsoft cut corners, but they definitely changed the development and test process, and that always carries risks.”
Deciding to wait should turn out to be a positive for Microsoft because SQL Server 2008 is “a good, solid release,” Alliegro noted. The release contains “interesting features for developers and administrators, and some things that could help SQL Server continue its march up-market.”
SQL Server 2008 is “in line with what customers are wanting - support for stronger security, higher performance, integration, availability and manageability,” said Yuhanna.
“The new policy-based management is critical, especially when dealing with thousands of SQL Server instances. It provides better control and improves the DBA’s productivity. Also, as enterprises scale their database, the need to optimise performance is critical. SQL Server 2008 delivers intelligent troubleshooting capabilities,” he continued.
Price-wise, SQL Server 2008 represents a good value, according to Alliegro.
“SQL Server is pretty much the hands-down winner in any dollars-per-unit performance or features-per-dollar kind of benchmark. It’s a slam dunk for companies, and its market share there supports that. It’s a good product for organisations of almost any size looking for a full-featured database engine or a platform at most scales. Again, the place where it’s still playing catch-up a bit is as a database management system or data warehouse system for the highest of the high-end applications,” he explained.
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