Seven months after the official launch of SQL Server 2008, and almost two months after the release to manufacturing milestone of the product, Microsoft is applauding its data platform for the high performance delivered in comparison to the price tag. In this regard, the Redmond company cited statistics offered by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). According to the TPC-E performance benchmark results, SQL Server 2008 is at the top of the price/performance and the plain vanilla performance rankings for data platforms.

“SQL Server is the only data management and business intelligence platform to be proven capable of delivering scalable results on TPC-E, the industry’s newest and most challenging online transaction processing benchmark. These benchmark results show the type of performance benefits Microsoft customers can expect when they team the enhancements of SQL Server 2008 with the hardware advancements from industry partners,” stated Fausto Ibarra, director of product management for SQL Server at Microsoft.

Microsoft indicated, in accordance with TPC-E statistics, that the IBM System x3950 M2 server in combination with SQL Server 2008 delivers a level of performance that tops all rival offerings. At the same time, the combination of SQL Server 2008 and Intel Corporation’s new Dunnington x64 processor offers the best performance to price results out of all the solutions tested. The Redmond company revealed that SQL Server 2008 had cumulated in excess of 500,000 downloads, with the software giant emphasizing the attraction generated by the data platform's new management and Business Intelligence features.

“With more than 18 TPC-E benchmarks to date, including seven new benchmark results since the release to manufacture of SQL Server 2008 in August, Microsoft is at the forefront of establishing the new standards for online transaction processing (OLTP) performance. TPC-E is the most modern and rigorous benchmark for measuring real-world transaction processing,” Microsoft added.