Microsoft has made available for download a free tool designed to streamline the migration of MySQL databases to SQL Server. At the start of this week, the company began offering customers a preview version of Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant. According to the software giant, the Community Technology Preview of SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL v1.0 integrates seamlessly with not only SQL Server 2005, but also SQL Server 2008 and even SQL Azure. The company underlines that the migration assistant is capable of automating aspects of the migration process to SQL Server 2005 & 2008 and to SQL Azure Database from MySQL.

“SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL is the newest migration toolkit, others include Oracle, Sybase, Access, and an analyzer for PowerBuilder. The toolkits were designed to tackle the complex manual process customers deal with when migrating databases. In using the SQL Server Migration Assistants, customers and partners reduce the manual effort; as a result the time, cost and risks associated with migrating are significantly reduced. Our recent SSMA survey showed that 94% of SSMA downloaders would recommend the tool to others,” revealed Erika Sommer, a member of Microsoft's SQL Server marketing team.

The Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant is current up for grabs as a free download from Microsoft, and because the release is a CTP build, the fact that the company is not charging customers anything for the tool is understandable. However, the promise from the software giant is that the SQL Server Migration Assistant will continue to be free even after general availability in mid-2010.

“Since the SQL Server Migration Assistants for Oracle became available in June of 2005, Microsoft has seen more than a 250,000 downloads across all of the SSMAs. Motorola, Simon & Schuster, Sony Ericsson and Artesia are just a few of the customers that have downloaded and used the SQL Server Migration Assistant toolkit to move to Microsoft SQL Server,” Sommer added.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant 2008 for MySQL v1.0 CTP1 is available for download here. 

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant 2005 for MySQL v1.0 CTP1  is available for download here.